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Is Your Mother Tough Enough?
Tough environments demand tough components – not least your motherboard. Whether you’re working in the field, in a hostile environment or in using it in an embedded industrial application, you need a motherboard that can withstand all you’re going to throw at it.
When standard motherboards aren’t up to the job
Certainly, it’s true that standard 32- and 64-bit x86 motherboards can withstand industrial working conditions to an extent, but the rapidly developing Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is placing new demands on embedded industrial computer technology and users are looking for motherboards that can cope with increasingly complex scenarios driven by the emergence of edge and fog computing architectures. These new developments enable and indeed require a high level of inter-dependence between multiple devices and such systems are often to be found in the most extreme industrial environments.
Newly automated and high-tech factories need a new level of computing technology. Manufacturing, inspection and maintenance is being automated in the energy industry, in agriculture, healthcare and across utilities and infrastructure which means the demands placed on motherboards are extreme. Reliability and consistency are essential as system outages and crashes can have devastating consequences.
Choosing the right motherboard
In a benign environment, any good quality, leading-brand motherboards will do the job – but once you’re putting your systems under stress, you need to be more careful in your choice of components. The challenges to embedded motherboards in extreme settings means that you might need motherboards that can work continuously in temperatures of up to 60ºC and that can cope with dust and moisture in the air. For these conditions, you need motherboards that qualify as fully robust – only these can withstand the levels of shock and vibration that are commonplace in such extreme settings.
Other requirements you might need to consider include additional serial interfaces, remote maintenance connections, special security features and the ability to integrate with proprietary software.
Purpose designed motherboards
All this points in one direction – you’ll need to use motherboards that are fit for purpose. In other words, that have been designed to withstand the rigours that everyday PC motherboards don’t face. Rugged motherboards are robust and easily adaptable to the specialist needs of industrial automation. They should come with factory pre-integrations for all the major OSs, while many things that count as optional extras for PC motherboards will come as standard – for example, real time clocks, serial interfaces and GPIOs, and security features.
At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Standard motherboards may be cheaper but when you’re working in harsh environments and your motherboard lets you down, you’ll realise that it was a false economy.
About RUGGED LIMITED
UK-based RUGGED is your one-stop, go-to supplier with a wealth of experience in providing cutting-edge and cost-effective computing solutions specifically designed and innovatively engineered to operate reliably in demanding environments and conditions. Add to that an unparalleled range of customer-focused value-added services, you will find all your RUGGED computing needs covered.
Need an innovative custom solution for your unique requirement?
Regardless of how simple or complex the requirements may be, RUGGED has the experience and expertise to provide you with the most optimal solutions to the toughest computing challenges. Whether you need to tweak a standard product or create an entirely new one, our product engineering specialists are standing by to execute your vision into an innovate and successful commercial reality.
For further information please browse our website https://www.rugged.co.uk/, email us at [email protected] or call us on +44(0)1474 240120 today!
