Thread Content
Market research shows that due to many end-users’ lack of knowledge about the products, many applications currently use commercial motherboards based on the ATX architecture; however, they often have to endure its various drawbacks, such as short lifespan, low reliability, and poor expandability. In industrial applications, the stability of the product is often of primary importance. Next, we will briefly introduce the features of industrial motherboards and commercial motherboards. First, let’s explain what the ATX architecture is The ATX (AT Extend) format was proposed by Intel in July 1995. It belongs to a completely new structural design that enables better support for power management. ATX is a combination of the Baby AT and LPX architectures; it builds on Baby AT by rotating 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and provides COM ports, LPT ports, PS/2 mouse interfaces, and PS/2 keyboard interfaces directly. Additionally, by increasing the horizontal width of the motherboard, the CPU socket can be placed next to the memory slots; this way, when longer cards are installed, they do not take up space reserved for the CPU, and it also becomes easier to replace memory modules. The advantages of the ATX format are: first, it significantly improves the installation, removal, and use of hardware ； Second, it enables easier use of existing various multimedia cards as well as future new devices ； Third, it has significantly reduced the overall cost of the system ； Fourth, the system’s ventilation design has been improved ； Fifth, it reduces electromagnetic interference, making the interior space more compact. In fact, there are significant differences between industrial motherboards and commercial motherboards in terms of support for expansion slots, the components used, their lifespan, reliability, and so on. Next, we will go into detail about the differences between them. 1. Support for expansion slots: Commercial-grade motherboards usually provide only 4 to a maximum of 5 PCI slots. Due to the PCI standards, only 4 of these slots can be used at any given time. Moreover, with PCI 4, the performance of the drivers is significantly reduced; therefore, most commercial motherboards offer only 3 PCI slots. Industrial-grade motherboards, thanks to the industrial-grade materials used in their design, can easily support up to 5 PCI slots without any reduction in the performance of the PCI drivers. It can also support high-bandwidth PCI-X devices. It features an ISA slot, which enables good support for industrial ISA low-speed data acquisition cards and data cards. Integrated into the GPIO bus, it enables GPI and GPO functions. 2. Components used: Commercial-grade motherboards, driven by the need for timely product delivery and their market positioning, generally only require components that meet the basic system operation requirements as well as a service life of 2 to 3 years. Industrial-grade motherboards use components that have undergone extensive testing under strict conditions, in order to ensure high reliability of the products even in harsh environments. For example, solid-state capacitors and sealed inductors, which are found in servers and high-end commercial motherboards, are widely used in Advantech’s industrial-grade motherboards. 3. Lifespan: Due to the rapid pace of innovation in the commercial motherboard market, typical commercial motherboards have a lifespan of only six months to one year. 4. Product reliability: Given the market positioning of ordinary commercial-grade motherboards, such products generally only undergo the CCC certification required for electronic devices, the Great Wall certification, as well as civil-grade electromagnetic compatibility certifications. Industrial-grade motherboards are designed for the industrial market; therefore, to ensure reliability, each of them undergoes various testing and certification processes required for industrial use, such as CE EMC, FCC, QA reliability, CCC, as well as tests for vibration and drop resistance, before being released on the market. 5. Manageability: Ordinary commercial motherboards only offer the simplest remote management (achieved by connecting to the network and using third-party software such as REAL VNC, PC ANYWHERE, etc.). Industrial-grade motherboards, in addition to offering similar remote connection management capabilities, can also enable remote, unattended automatic power on and off functions. Through the built-in IPMB, the SMNP-1000 module enables the management, recording, and transmission of real-time system operation information. 6. Customization: Ordinary commercial motherboards cannot be modified to meet market demands once they are produced; there is no possibility of customization at all. However, in the industrial sector, many industrial-grade motherboards can flexibly meet some specific subsequent requirements of customers. Customization for users can be achieved. It fits the customer’s usage requirements and environment even better, more perfectly. 7. Storage interfaces: Ordinary commercial motherboards only provide the common storage interfaces of IDE and SATA. Industrial-grade motherboards can meet various storage interface requirements such as IDE, SATA, SCSI, and CF Card. 8. Protection functions: This feature is not available on ordinary commercial motherboards. Industrial-grade motherboards, through special design, can implement a WATCH DOG function as well as protection against surge impacts. The guaranteed system requires high stability in harsh environments. 9. Operating temperature: Ordinary commercial motherboards can generally only be used in an external environment ranging from 5 degrees to 38 degrees; they are quite delicate. Industrial-grade motherboards can operate stably within a temperature range of 0 degrees to 60 degrees. It is clear from all of the above that although industrial-grade motherboards also use the common ATX architecture, their design, materials, production, and manufacturing are all tailored for industrial use, ensuring the proper operation and high reliability of industrial systems. It is believed that as the industrial sector becomes increasingly intertwined with people’s daily lives, industrial PCs will increasingly replace commercial PCs in various applications