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February, 2016 Production
Embedded Boards Offer New Solutions
By Mario Klug, Senior Marketing Manager Embedded Boards & Systems, Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH
E
mbedded boards ideally would lower costs while providing more func- tionality. Motherboards for the consumer market seem to fill this gap, unlike embedded boards, but they lack the longer lifecycles, the support
and other features that industrial applications cannot do without. By provid- ing semi-industrial boards, more and more providers are now producing boards in the middle, between the industrial and end customer market. Pro- viding a longer lifecycle than purely consumer boards, these boards have a number of additional industrial features, while being priced in the middle — making them unsuitable for industrial applications with stringent and cus- tomer-specific requirements. But for many applications, including some industrial applications, they
are perfectly adequate — as ticket and sales dispenser machines, POI/POS systems, video surveillance systems and many medical applications with rel- atively low demands in terms of robustness and temperature range. As semi- industrial boards are usually offered by industrial or embedded providers, customers can benefit from technical support, extensive PCN and EOL (end- of-life) processes, and consistent RMA (return material authorization) han- dling, services that are not offered by end consumer market providers.
Efficient Production The names of the product lines vary from manufacturer to manufactur-
We can provide what you need.
er, ranging from “professional consumer” to “light industrial” to “semi-indus- trial”. This approach has been used for a number of years by Fujitsu. Its range of motherboards is broken down into three principal categories: “Classic Desk- top”, “Extended Lifecycle” and “Industrial”. The Classic Desktop models are designed for standard office applications with a maxi- mum lifecycle of 24 months. In- dustrial boards offer everything that sophisticated industrial ap- plications need: 24/7 operation, a wider temperature range, high robustness, industrial interfaces, powerful software tools, extensive documen- tation and a long-term lifecycle of up to five years with specific lifecycle man- agement, stringent version controls and special tools for R&D, production, testing, service and diagnostics. To ensure high reliability, each individual board undergoes a logical function test, an electrical in-circuit measurement test (ICT), and an automatic optical inspection (AOI). The extremely low RMA rate of just 0.2 percent with around 20,000 boards sold attests to their quali- ty.
Fujitsu’s range of
motherboards is broken down into three principal categories: “Classic Desktop”, “Extended Lifecycle” and “Industrial”.
The fact that Fujitsu uses slightly modified versions of these boards in
its own systems, thereby making larger quantities available, enables economy of scale resulting in lower cost to the market. The highly optimized production facility in Augsburg also contributes to this. If costs are still above the set limit, and if the requirements of the application are not particularly strict, the Extended Lifecycle boards may be a useful alternative. With lifecycles of up to three years and a temperature range of up to 50°C, these boards are excellent for use as semi-industrial models. The flagship product among the Fujitsu Extended Lifecycle segment is
PC Board Lab Assurance in Indianapolis
The Right Time The Right Place
Verified to Your Specifications
international, llc
Sales@divsys.com PH: 317-405-9427
www.divsys.com
ISO 9001:2008 • WOSB • Woman Owned Certification • ITAR
the D3128-B. This ATX board with an Intel® C602 chipset supports the Intel®Xeon® Sandy and Ivy Bridge E5-26xx and E5-16xx processor ranges. It can also be managed using iAMT 7.1. Fujitsu offers the D322x-B range in a µATX form factor with a LGA1150 socket. It supports the fourth generation of the Intel®Core™ processor range. The D3220-B with Intel B85 chipset and D3221-B with Intel Q85 chipset are part of the Classic Desktop range, while the D3222-B with an Intel Q87 chipset is included in the Extended Lifecycle range, with a lifecycle of up to three years. All of the boards have identical lay- outs and the same drivers, providing integrators with more flexibility during the design-in process. Because of its optimized power management, the D322x-B range consumes little power. All models use a high-grade Intel Giga- bit Ethernet Network Connection. Remote maintenance is possible using in- band management, where the board is remotely accessed while the operating system is running, as well as out-of-band management, where the board is ac- cessed remotely at BIOS level when the operating system is not running or unable to run. The latter option is particularly critical for unmanned embed- ded applications. With these features, the extremely low-cost µTX boards from the Desk-
top range or the boards from Fujitsu’s Extended Lifecycle range represent an attractive solution for many applications — including as an alternative to the discontinued standard motherboards from Intel. Customers also benefit from a special service: Fujitsu includes changes to BIOS versions in its Product Change Notifications in all segments. Rutronik customers are automatically notified of such changes by email, enabling them to decide for themselves if they wish to use the latest BIOS version and provide customers with access to
an update. Contact: Rutronik, Inc., 3 Summit Park Drive, Suite 535, Cleveland,
OH 44131 % 216-328-8900 E-mail:
jeff.shafer@
rutronik.com Web:
www.rutronik.com r
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