Silent Industrial PC. What would YOU use this for?

[Woodykak]

My company will be bringing this pc to market soon (Spring 07) Just wanted to get some feedback of what people think. It's designed as an industrial PC. I do not have any information in regards to price yet, but these will be mass produced. I'd really like to hear any ideas for what silent PC enthusiasts would use this for.

Specs.

1 Ghz Celeron M Processor - Embedded
Runs on an 100 watt external power brick.
1 2.25" Hard Disk
Solid Cast Aluminum Case - Fanless design uses the case as a heatsink
Up to 1 Gig of ram

I'm do not believe that this box has a cd or dvd drive, but if you look closely there seems to be a drawer at the bottom of the front of the pc...

should be very quiet, with the only moving parts being the HD.

Small foot print 10.6" X 2.6" X 6.3"
Weighs about 7 lbs.

Sorry about the lame pics, but they are the best that I've got. Click on the pic, and it gets a little better.

[andyb]

The uses would be down to specific apps where performance is not necessary, but all of those apps would require a PC that is realistically useable as a PC.

We need more info is the bottom line. Does this have spare PATA/SATA connectors, USB ports, card reader, drivers for windows/linux etc etc.

And of course price, no one is going to give this a second thought if the price is too high.

I would suggest that you have yourself listed as a "Vendor" so that you dont get into any trouble with the Admins for not disclosing the info.

Why does it need a 100W power brick.??? How much power does it use. there are so many more questions, but you wont gain any serious interest without answering my all important questions.


Andy

[peteamer]

First linked pic doesn't work for me in SuSE Linux.....

[Rusty075]

I'm guessing that it's intended as some flavor of a POS, right?

I could see a potential for it as a set-top media relay type system. Lacks the storage capacity to really use it as an htpc, but it could stream data from a remote server to the tv/audio system. If it had the space inside for more storage it could be an htpc...a 1ghz celeron is plenty powerful enough for SD playback.

But I agree with Andy....us geeks will need more details about its guts before anyone can give a real opinion on it.

[autoboy]

I would use this on a scientific testbed at work. We have to isolate the system from vibration so if it comes with a flash based disk that would be perfect. Is there an option for a pci slot?

[cloneman]

why not use a ULV Pentium M? They have some tha use 3-5W.

I guess availability would be an issue. Then again, where do you get 1Ghz Celeron Ms?

[wwenze]

why not use a ULV Pentium M? They have some tha use 3-5W.

I guess availability would be an issue. Then again, where do you get 1Ghz Celeron Ms?

We don't know if the Celeron-M 1ghz is a ULV yet.

Us geeks will need more details about its guts before anyone can give a real opinion on it.

[Longwalker]

You can see the IO ports on the back of the case in the first image. Looks like 2x DB-9 (serial?), VGA, ethernet, modem, PS2 keyboard or mouse, 3x USB, audio, and four other ports I can't make out. I can't say I'd call this much of an industrial PC given that all these ports are exposed on the back of the case, however.

If this thing had two ethernet ports and supported Linux, I would consider using it as an intelligent WAN gateway. A minimal PC like this would be handy to consolidate internet related services onto one box: NAT, VOIP border router, IPv6 tunnel endpoint, VPN server, private web server, etc.

It'd also make a good networked audio player given an ethernet port and decent audio output capabilities. Use one to play MP3s from the LAN in rooms where a full HTPC isn't justified.

[Woodykak]

Wow, thanks for all the questions guys. It really helps me learn more about the products.

I do not believe that there are any spare PATA/SATA connectors.

Price, I would guess that this will have a MSRP of about $1700. Keep in mind that I work in a world where the IBM POS Station that you see at Kmart has an MSRP of over $10,000.

...Yes, this is a POS system.

I will change my status to Vendor, thanks for the heads up.

Not sure why the 100w PSU requirement. What I do know, is that there are two major factors that drive the retail technology industry. Reliability and Price (Performance takes a back seat). I can only guess that these power bricks are very robust.

The term Ultra Low Voltage is used in some of the literature.

Most of our systems run Linux and Windows CE, but I've not seen this one certified yet. I would bet that they are working on the other OS's.

No PCI Slot, but there is a Compact Flash slot. Most likely internal.

Here are some additional specs that I've found.

2.5" HD (removable)
Compact Flash CF slot
Serial Port 4 x External: COM1, COM2, COM 6 , COM4 (RJ45), COM5 RJ12, Side I/O
1 x Internal: COM3 for Touchscreen
4 x USB 2.0 (2 x internal, 2 x external)
Mouse Port N/A
Keyboard Port 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
VGA Port 1 x VGA (Side I/O)
Audio Port 1 x Line-out, 1 x Mic-in
DC-Out 1 x 5V/ 12V DC-Out (Side I/O)
Power Supply 100W / 12V External Power Adapter
LAN Port 1 x RJ45 10/100 Base-T
LVDS 1 x LVDS connector

Is LVDS = SCSI?

Thanks,

Brett

[Woodykak]

I'm not certain how to do this, so I added it to my Signature. I hope that this is okay. BTW, our co. website is www.obvios.com.

Thanks again

Brett

[floffe]

Yeah, LVDS in this case probably is SCSI (the flatter contact in the lower center). I'd only heard it in relation to monitors before, interesting.

[andyb]

$1700

Sorry to have to say this, but your not going to have much/any interest at that price.

Considering that a top of the range EPIA PC can be bought for less than half of the price and will do everything that this system will you are going to have a hard time selling it. It is smaller than an EPIA PC, but at twice the price its not going to be any best seller.

If its price was similar to an EPIA PC it would gain a lot of interest, then it would have to be performance/usability tested in a review, then it would start selling.

Whats the chances of wiping 60% off of the price, at the cost of $700 Dollars you would have buyers for sure.


Andy

[Longwalker]

I'm more inclined to think that LVDS is a digital LCD interface rather than an SCSI port.

[Brian]

The four-digit price made my jaw drop, as well.

What can this do that a $200 P3 system can't?

I understand that specialized hardware can be expensive. That's probably why the POS computer where I work is a 486. Text-only, but it's plenty fast.

[Mr. B]

Depending on whther or not there is any airflow within the case, it may be quite useful for dusty environments... although I can't immediately think of any substantial applications in that regard.

[Woodykak]

All,

I just want to make sure that everybody understands that the price that I've listed is MSRP, and a conservative guess at that. Street price is completely different. This system can do far less than a $200 P3. No PCI slots, only room for one HD etc. It's only built do what it does, very well and very reliably. I can think of very few environments where 486's are still in use. One of my last projects, while I was working with IBM systems was a 2 meg to 4 meg ram upgrade. That’s megs not gigs. This was just three years ago.

Correct, there is not any airflow inside the case. That's the whole goal. It's also why the primary market is POS. Apparel especially, is a very dusty environment. You wouldn't believe the blanket that I've seen inside some systems that have been in the field for a while. Food service can also be very dirty, but more so for receipt printers and integrated touch systems than the PC. Silence (or near) is a byproduct of our goal in POS. That's why I posed the original question, "what would YOU use this for?

BTW, It seams to be that Home Automation is a good use for this type of unit. I was shocked at the prices of home automation systems. From what I can tell many Home Automation systems are proprietary hardware with proprietary software. I came across a company name Crestron. The control unit (brain and touch screen non PC computer) had a retail price of $10,000. It looks like they are coming out with some more standardized Windows CE devices. I would expect, just like all other electronics, they will evolve to standardized platforms, and prices will drop.

Thanks again for all the feedback. It really helps me to find new markets for our products.

Brett