The easy answer to this question is obviously “Yes”, but the real answer is “It Depends”, as a number of factors will determine if an industrial computer system is appropriate for a specific application need. A short list of these critical system integration factors include:
- System location requirements
- Projected service life of the system
- Number of option cards needed in the computer
- System expansion requirements
- System power and fail-over requirements
- System O/S and application software solution requirements
The first five items on this short, and by no means all-inclusive list of industrial computer integration factors, relate to the computer hardware itself. The last item has an indirect hardware relationship, but for the most part, it is the system’s software component that often times will command the lion’s share of time in integrating a system.
If we can unburden the OEM or End User from the task of engineering the hardware and O/S elements into an industrial computer system, that should simplify the integration task and give the customer’s engineering resources more time for implementing the all important application software solution.
For example, industrial automation motion control and distributed process control software solutions can be very complex. Virtualization in a motion control application will involve several specialized application software components in addition to the multiple operating systems and Virtual Machine Manager or VMM software.
The following articles talk about these virtualization applications and the need to have stable industrial computer hardware platforms for successful installations:
An integrator that understands the subtle nuances of embedded computing hardware can use this knowledge to provide hardware platforms that ensure successful industrial computer installations. The simplicity of the industrial computer’s hardware integration really depends on the integrator’s knowledge of:
- Available processors and which CPUs are long-life embedded processors
- Option card interconnect interfaces such as PCI Express 2.0 and how these interfaces interact with various card types
- The board topology of different single board computers and embedded motherboards, including BIOS configuration issues
- Power supply technology and capabilities such as power availability, start-up surges and redundancy
- Hardware enclosure form factors, air-flow designs, shock & vibration concerns, availability and longevity
Trenton TCS4500 Rackmount Computer
Our response to system integration simplification includes a line of Standard Systems as well as our Customer-Driven Solutions product line. The TCS4500 rackmount computer is our recently released standard system and comes pre-configured with the dual-processor (Jasper Forest) JXT6966 single board computer and a BPC7041 PCI Express 2.0 backplane.
The TCS3500 3U rackmount server is a standard Trenton system configured with a single processor, long-life embedded motherboard. As to Customer-Driven Solutions, the TRC5002 5U rackmount server enables more hardware choices, such as two systems in one enclosure for cluster computer applications that require a split backplane.
Either way, Trenton simplifies the integration task by taking care of the hardware component, thereby enabling the OEM customer more time to dedicate to the system’s application software solution. Call us at 800.875.6031 or 770.287.3100 to define an integrated computer system that meets your exact requirements.
