the
difference
between
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN:
Sourcing a Static
Versus a Versatile
Industrial PC
Today’s factories are more advanced and more capable than ever
before, growing sometimes exponentially as technology makes
leaps and bounds. What’s been missing for many years are flexible
industrial PCs that can adapt to it.
REGARDLESS OF THE INDUSTRY
you are working in, a broad number
of control systems are available to
you. Selecting the right one can be
a tedious although necessary task
where specifications can get jumbled
pretty quickly. The key to making
the right selection has rested on the
engineering teams’ shoulders to fully
understand the application and then
research to provide the capabilities
that match.
Traditional off-the-shelf industrial
PC systems have purposefully tried
to provide a variety of I/O per system
that matched the widest variety of
industrial needs, so that engineers
could rely on a single system
approach. This approach led to the
creation of diversification, where
specific systems found their way into
a certain industry based on the needs
of the applications found there. By
focusing on vertical niches in such a
way, PC systems manufacturers could
build a static system of generalized
1

I/O for use in the industry chosen.
Over time, systems manufacturers
continually upgraded and
restructured newer model products
to satisfy the changing needs of
applications. Engineers, under
these circumstances, knew what
companies to return to based on their
past experiences. Because every
application doesn’t advance at the
same rate, engineers would have
to guess at their future needs and
purchase PC systems that they felt
they could grow into, often with less
than perfect results. For example, if a
temperature sensor input is needed
on an assembly process to monitor a
subsystem’s temperature, more COM
ports are needed that may exceed
what the system on the factory
floor has available. Likewise, if an
added need for visual inspection is
required, most industrial PC systems
don’t come off the shelf with PoE
ports. It would then be necessary
for the engineering team to source
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and replace all related PC systems
on the floor with alternate PCs that
feature PoE ports. So having to buy
traditional, off-the-shelf industrial PC
systems isn’t the answer it used to be.
Such an approach doesn’t allow your
engineers to implement the system
that is the perfect fit for all plant floor
applications.
The alternative to static I/O
purchases is a modular system that
provides flexibility and adaptability that
meets the present and future needs
of each application. In this instance,
engineers would be able to choose
their I/O for a present application
while resting assured that their future
needs could be met as they needed
them, and not before. This would
also prevent purchases of expensive
systems with I/O that might never be
used.
Therefore, engineers would not have
to buy a bunch of static embedded
box systems but could have a
set of embedded computers and
related modules that allowed them
to build directly to their applications’
requirements. In this way, there
would be no need to guess what
advancements they might need six
months or a year down the road,
nor would they have to continue
sourcing new equipment whenever
a change was needed, or re-porting
their software to accommodate the
new system specification. A modular
system would allow design engineers
to add layers of options to their
project, even doubling the systems’
I/O if required. Industrial Embedded
 the
difference
between

Figure 1: The ARK-3530 allows companies
to implement the system that is the perfect
fit for all their plant floor applications.
Computers with modular expansion
were designed specifically to provide
the flexibility needed to implement
and manage factory floor controls
for everything from robotic control,
factory signage and automated optical
inspection, to IoT data transfer. Slowly,
industrial PC hardware vendors are
heeding the call.
Systems such as the ARK-
3530 (Figure 1), designed and
manufactured by Advantech, comes
equipped with versatile I/Os plug-
ins including USB and COM ports,
flexible expansion via Mini-PCIe, M.2
and iDoor modules, as well as other
proprietary expansion modules, which
are a part of systems newly on the
market. The parts of the system that
can be expanded include: PCIx8/PCI
/PCIe x 16 slots, COM ports, CAN-
bus ports, GbE ports, USB ports,
mSATA storage and SATA storage.
The purpose in designing such as
system is to help industrial automation
engineers to more quickly accomplish
changes in factory floor functioning
at the speed of ecommerce and
with minimal downtime, to eliminate
the continual expense of upgrading
their systems with completely
new systems. In comparison, the
2
ARK series are fanless embedded modules. To this end, the modular
computers that provide an industrial ARK customization service also helps
Intel® PC platform with basic native customers build their applications on
I/O combined with the ability to best-fit box computers with a series
add diverse I/O for whatever the of ready-to-order I/O modules. The
application requires. embedded modular system is based
These modular systems are the on the trusted Intel platforms, where
answer to customers who need engineers and system integrators
a box computer for equipment can ensure that future projects will be
integration that have found that compatible.
standard product offerings too often
requiring a full replacement a couple
years, or only months down the road, REQUEST FOR MORE
greatly diminishing ROI. And that if INFORMATION
they choose to customize one of the
For more information on Advantech’s
standard offerings, they soon run into
Embedded Computers, check out:
time-consuming sample processes
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and budget issues, not to mention
Embedded-Computers
hardware and software integration,
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re-verification, and re-certification.
In opposition to these challenges,
Advantech chose to create a modular
system that would easily and
inexpensively bypass these growing
problems. Peripheral choices include
components and accessories such as
industrial memory, industrial storage,
wireless modules, and display
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