Mini-ITX Systems

Search Industrial Computer Specs by Features

hackthegibson — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:06:22 +0000

Sometimes searching for just the right product for your project or system can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Most searches on the big three search engines for computer parts and systems will return tons of results. And 98% of those results will be for commercial hardware. Not very helpful.

GlobalSpec to the rescue!

GlobalSpec, found at www.globalspec.com is product spec search engine and company directory that caters to the industrial, automation, and production fields. It allows you to search by company, product features, categories.

We found Advantech on there, Global American, and a bunch of familiar faces. And that’s just in the industrial computing section.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more details.

Global American’s Low Profile Wall Mount/Desk Mount Mini-ITX System with Intel Core 2 Duo T9400

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:16:29 +0000

The 1717661 Mini-ITX System is based on the Mobile Intel GM45 Chipset and comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9400 (6M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 1066MHz), 2GB PC-8500 1066MHz DDR3, 120GB 5400 RPM, 3.0Gb/s 2.5 inch SATA Hard Drive and a 120 watt, 19 volt AC-DC Adapter. The system offers outstanding performance and faster data transfers required in computing environments such as interactive gaming, security surveillance, POS, kiosk, industrial automation and medical imaging.

With its long term availability (5+ years from the date of inception), it is the perfect solution for all of your industrial computing requirements.

1717661 Mini ITX System I/O panel

mini itx, carputer, car pc, mini pc, industrial pc

Commell P4BWA - ATX Motherboard That Supports Core 2 Quad

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:15:27 +0000

Here is the ordering option found on the Global American site (listed as 2807770 - P4BWA)

W: 12” x D: 9.6” (W: 307 mm x D: 244 mm) ATX Motherboard with LGA 775 (Socket T) for Intel Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Duo / Pentium D / Pentium 4, fsb 533/800/1066 MHz, four 240-pin DIMM Sockets supporting up to 8.0 GB DUAL Channel DDR2 533/667/800 MHZ SDRAM, one PCI-E slot x16, one PCI-E slot x4, four PCI slots, one Mini-PCI, two ISA slots, six SATA-300 support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, Intel Q965 and ICH8DO chipsets, Intel Q965 integrated GMA 3000 Technology, two Intel 82573L 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN, five RS-232 Serial Ports (four internal, one external), one RS-232/422/485 Serial Port (internal), ten USB - Version 2.0 (four internal, six external), one IrDA port - supports SIR, one 8-bit GPIO, HD Audio.

atx, core 2 quad, core 2 duo, industrial, motherboard, pc, automation

Global American’s Barebone Mini System has a lot to offer

TechTracker — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:23:01 +0000

1707650 Mini System has lots of features

The 1707650 Wall Mount/Desk Mount Mini System with a 3.5 inch Embedded Controller incorporates a Socket P for the Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Merom / Penryn processors with FSB 533/667/800 MHz along with the Intel Mobile GME965 Express chipset. It provides excellent flexibility for developers of embedded applications by offering outstanding graphics and I/O bandwidth, asset management capabilities, storage speed and reliability. With excellent performance-per-watt, it is optimized for a broad range of embedded applications such as interactive clients, gaming, medical, POS, Digital Signage, Surveillance and industrial automation equipment. With its long term availability (5+ years from the date of inception), it is the perfect solution for all of your low-power, high performance industrial computing requirements. Here is one of the custom I/O backplates:

Backplate side of the Palm Sized PC

Global American building industrial systems with Intel Atom

TechTracker — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:33:35 +0000

According to Global American, Inc (www.globalamericaninc.com), “Not all Intel Atoms are created equal”.

Read full article here: Not All Intel Atoms Are Created Equal

The article (kind of buried on the site), explains the difference between the wave of commercial products based on the Atoms and the longer-life solutions offered for industrial computing. Looks like they are developing systems and boards with the 945GSE Chipset.

Asus Eee PC’s 901, 1000h, 1000 Compared Side by Side

hackthegibson — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:19:48 +0000

By David M. Lewis

The original EEE PC was announced in 2007 and was known as the 701, it was almost certainly one of the most talked about computers shortly after its launch.

The specs of the EEE PC 701 were not that impressive, it featured pretty basic technology. The reason it was popular? Well that’s because it is so tiny, and very reasonably priced. The fact that the early versions only ran Linux didn’t seem to put people off either. Asus did however ship the EEE PC with windows drivers so that it was possible to install windows on it yourself if you wanted.

The 901 is an 8.9″ version of the EEE PC which is powered using Intel’s new Atom processor and was launched to update the product line. Although the Atom doesn’t add much speed to the computer it does make it much more efficient in terms of battery life.

The 1000 model is one of the most anticipated computer releases of the year! It has received some very good reviews. Asus will also release a 1000H model which is identical in spec apart from it using a conventional 80GB hard drive rather than the 40GB SSD. This will be the first ever EEE PC to contain a hard drive.

Comparing the specs:

Asus EEE PC 701 (original)- 7″ 800×480, Linux Only (Windows drivers included), 900MHz Celeron (underclocked to 630Mhz), 802.11n wireless networking, 512MB - 1GB DDR2, 2 - 8GB SSD, 895 - 990g.

Asus EEE PC 901 (8.9″) - 8.9″ 1024×600 Windows XP Home or Linux, Intel Atom Processor, 802.11n wireless networking, 1 GB DDR 2, 20GB SSD, 1.1kg.

Asus EEE PC 1000 (10″) - 10″/10.2″ 1024×600, Windows XP Home or Linux Intel Atom Processor, 802.11n wireless networking, 2 GB DDR 2, 40GB SSD, 1.33kg.

Asus EEE PC 1000H (10″ with HDD) - 10″/10.2″, 1024×600 Windows XP Home or Linux Intel Atom Processor, 802.11n wireless networking, 2 GB DDR 2, 80GB SSD, 1.45kg.

As you should be able to see, the new models are a great improvement on the older spec, however people that want a small computer still have to put up with the pretty dire specs of the 701. As a second computer the original EEE PC is ideal. Newer models are being shipped with better specs and even Windows XP installed as standard, this makes them a much more enticing and useful computer.

Many other computer manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon to provide small computers like the EEE PC; other examples include the HP MiniNote 2133 and Lenovo’s X300. Many of these models are also available in different configurations, including conventional and SSD hard drives.

What does the future have in store for the EEE PC? Only time will tell, if you listen to the rumors then there are even plans to launch a desktop EEE PC onto the market at some time in the future. The future looks very bright for all sub notebook computers, especially for the EEE PC, which is perhaps the most famous of them all!

David M. Lewis is a Technical Support Consultant with over 10 years of experience. For information about Web Hosting Packages & Domain Registration please visit: Web Hosting Solutions

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_M._Lewis

Netbooks and Linux

hackthegibson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:39:00 +0000

As we all know, Netbooks are the latest craze. WIth the introduction of the Ultra Low Power Intel Atom, these mini PC’s with an average screen size of 8.9″ are taking the tech world by storm. With this technology flooding the market, it has stirred up a mainstream interest into an overlooked operating system. Linux or the Linux Kernel has been around for years, created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds as a take off of the MINIX operating system.

Linux has seen a life of ups and downs from being initially overshadowed by the more user-friendly Microsoft Windows to being adopted as the ideal environment in server setups. But now with the introduction of these mini computers, Linux distros have seen a rejuvenation in the commercial field it has never before witnessed. Linux is an open source OS, meaning that it’s a global collaboration effort. There are many forms of this kernel, with names such as Fedora, CentOS, Archlinux and Mandriva to name a few.

But none are more popular than Ubuntu (another distro of Linux) with interesting version names like Dapper Drake, Feisty Fawn, Hardy Heron and the newest one Intrepid Ibex. That along with a very simplistic GUI makes this OS a nice fit for an emerging technology. Not only does it run perfectly on these lower spec’d machines, but it knocks the price down as well, making these units even more appealing. So in my opinion, being a enthusiast and avid user of the Linux Kernel, we are just seeing the beginning of the Linux revolution. As Netbooks and the even newer NetTops,(desktop version of the Intel Atom solution) gain momentum, I believe a new curiousity and enthusiasm will grow for the Linux OS.

What is a Panel PC?

hangintrout — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:21:42 +0000

A Panel PC is a computer which has the display and chassis incorporated into one device. The traditional panel pc was made up of a chassis, power supply, backplane, SBC (single board computer), expansion cards (when applicable through backplane), cooling system, and a display panel. These panel pc’s offer many expansion opportunities to customize the panel pc to the customers needs. Recently panel pc’s have been getting smaller and smaller with the use of mini-ITX motherboards. These mini-itx mother boards provide a smaller form factor to suit limited space requirements as well as consuming less power than the older panel pc’s. Most panel pc’s you will find these days will use a touchscreen display panel as the HMI (human machine interface) rather than the mouse and keyboard. This touch screen technology has many advantages such as reliability, clarity, accuracy, responsiveness, and ease of installation and use. Panel pc’s are used in a variety of sectors such as medical, industrial, commercial, and military.

Intel Atom and Vista?

hackthegibson — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:22:57 +0000

More and more I am hearing about the Intel Atom (Silvethorn) branching out into the desktop realm. With MSI coming out with the NetTops, and other companies sure to follow, can the Atom stand up to Vista. Most notably i have read articles involving Shuttle, a company that specializes in smaller “Gaming” computers (and from a technician perspective a pain to work on). Now I’m sure you have heard your share of Vista stories, but just keep in mind that XP took 5 years to become good. With that said it still doesn’t change the fact that Vista is power hungry, people with the right hardware reap the benefits of Vista while others who lack the hardware fall short. Now bring the Intel Atom into the equation, running at 1.6ghz with 512KB L2 Cache you would think its a perfect match for Vista, since Microsoft states Vista HB will run on a 1Ghz cpu with a minimal 512MB Ram. But when you get through all the false advertising and look at it through a technical perspective you would see its just not a match

Using Shuttles X27 as an example, (pictured below) the marriage between the Atom and this companies profile is a win situation, for years Shuttle has been taking processors which are normally found on standard desktops and putting them into this small cube. But the bottom line people is that the Atom is not even close to a Vista rated CPU, even running with 2GB Ram, it falls short in all benchmarks. Now the Atom Dual Core may be an other story once its released, and you can be sure that Microsoft will continue to push the major companies to exlusively support Vista on all machines (including ones that should not even run it). So time will tell but rest assured in due time Intel Atoms will take the world by storm as technology grows smaller both in the Industrial and Commercial field.

Shuttle Atom Design

Carputers “Expanding Technologies”

hackthegibson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:15:10 +0000

A Carputer, is a general term referring to a computing platform installed in a vehicle. Before 2006, no OEM or major aftermarket supplier offered or supported carputer installations, limiting the installed base to the hobbyist, enthusiast and custom car shops. The term generally refers to personal computers retrofittedfor a certain production model of a car.

Home made Carputer machines are most often built from average desktop components, most noteably utilizing the more Indutrial base form factors such as mini-itx and nano-itx. To show how technology has grown, the firs aftermarket Carputer systems involved two main components: a monitor in the dashboard and a PC in the trunk. Very “clunky” by todays standards nut now there are all-in-one systems that can directly replace the factory radio in a car, without any separate components.

Topology (How it hooks up to your Vehicle)

The “CarPC” or “Carputer” consists of the motherboard, processor, memory and data storage solution. This can either be a hard drive or a SSD. If a hardrive is used, care must be taken to provide protection from any vibration. For this reason notebook hardrives should be used because of their “air bag” systems.