FAQ

Within the embedded systems sector, the term ‘industrial grade’ is used to describe products used for industrial applications.

But is that what ‘industrial’ truly means?

Well, to some extent it does. When we talk about industrial computers, the embedded systems we describe are instantly more recognisable as industrial. They are constructed using durable metal chassis’ which clearly look more rugged than their pedestrian cousins we have sitting on our desks and are often described as having fanless operation and SSD storage, to reduce the amount of moving parts (thus increasing reliability).

Industrial SSDs are the best choice for your embedded computer as an upgrade or add-on because of their remarkable performance. They are many times faster than traditional HDDs and produce much less noise. For particular applications, for example, where in-vehicle computers are required, SSDs are an especially good choice due to their high shock resistance and low energy consumption.

Explosions can cause significant damage, along with severe injury or worse loss of life. To prevent explosions from happening in harsh environments whereby flammable gases or combustible dust is present directives and guidelines are put in place to protect the public, workforce, and environment.

Industrial computers and displays are rated/certified in terms of their level of protection against damage from water, dust and other foreign objects, in terms of IP  and NEMA ratings.

IP and NEMA ratings specify the standard of protection against the ingress of liquid and solid objects, primarily dust.

Industrial monitors and panel PCs used in the food & beverage, pharmaceutical and chemical industries have stringent requirements to avoid product contamination, for them to be highly resistant to water, cleaning or sterilization wipe-downs and other industrial chemicals exposed in the factory.

Manufacturing the industrial monitor or panel pc with the right grade stainless-steel chassis or front panel means that it will meet the functional anti-corrosive requirements.

It is becoming increasingly common that small ruggedized PCs are nowadays tackling compute-intensive tasks that call for powerful graphics hardware that enable leading-edge performance in a fanless, solid-state system, which is hard to do, as it must equivalate power consumption, cooling capacity, cost and system reliability.

These systems typically integrate either a VPU (Vision Processing Unit) or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and have the option to maintain a fanless design.

NVMe SSDs are the latest adaptation to industrial computing. NVMe stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express and is the new communication interface and driver that defines a command set and feature set for PCIe-based SSDs with the goal of increased performance and interoperability on a broad range of industrial systems.

E Ink Technology ultimately focuses on allowing customers high-performance solutions whilst meeting their ultra-low power consumption needs. Highly suitable for industries such as the healthcare, retail, and outdoor signage sectors.

Read our technical article for more info.

The Jetson AGX Orin modules deliver an AI performance that can reach 275 TOPS with up to 64 GB of memory, compared to 30 TOPS with up to 32 GB of memory for Jetson Xavier.

The power consumption of the Jetson Orin modules has also been optimised like never before, offering a maximum consumption of 60 W compared to a maximum of 40 W with Jetson Xavier.

Edge computing is the practice of processing data physically closer to its source.

In a nut shell… moving compute power physically closer to where the data is generated – to the “edge” of a device or network.

Many innovative technologies are made possible thanks to edge computing, such as Smart cities, remote surgeries, fully autonomous vehicles and voice-controlled home speakers.

Data can be processed faster with increases in available bandwidth and ensures data sovereignty, when incorporating ‘Edge’ Computing.