One of our client requires an Industrial Grade, Intel machine with dual or quad processor options. The system would contain Intel PIV or Core 2 duo processors.
After some web search I discovered lots of companies offering Industrial PCs but are single processor systems. Also I need an expert opinion regarding the product and company dealing in Indusrial PCs (e.g in Laptops I trust on IBM, and Toshiba for their products and support).
Please tell how to proceed as it is really important for me.
For your laptop requirement if price is not an issue check out "Itronix" laptops. We used them @ Bellsouth for the techs in the field. They offer almost every feature you could want and are very durable. They where designed for the military initially back over 10 years ago but have continually evolved.
Here is a link to a vendor selling many different types of "ruggedized" laptops including the Panasonic Toughbook, Getac Product Line, etc...
Going for the military specifications might be an overkill (and expensive). Ask your client what he reqards as industrial grade and then investigate what is available that fits to specific requirements.
(BTW The military is switching to commercial/industrial standards because the Mil-spec system is to expensive to maintain end the products quite often to expensive.) Bu
Bu: you are right that going toward mil specs are too expensive. I also tried to search the server based computers, please correct me if I am wrong, the server machines are more stable than desktop computers making them closer to industrial grade; except the ruggedness and EMI shielding.
jbr: Thank you for your links, we already have contacted crystalpc but again they are out of our range :-)
One last thing, is there any chinese vendor/company who can provide such systems. I think they'll be quite inexpensive.
How you even tried a google search? industrial computers came up with many hits including Allen-Bradley. I worked for AB for a while and their equipment is very good. But the links include near the top a company with a name that matches your requirements: Industrial PC, Inc.
there were multiple strings "industrial computer" "industrial pc" "rugged computers" "rugged industrial computers" "rugged automation" .........and many others..... happy ? :-)
I did see the company but there are two points 1: most of the systems are celeron based. 2: as my first post, we are looking for a multiple cpu based system.
EMI shielding for mil-spec and server caomputers is about the same. What you get with mil-spec is resistance to vibration/shock, dust, water, and temperature extremes.
If you want *reliable* rather than *rugged* there are servers that are more reliable than mil-spec in an office environment. The top of the line Dell servers have RAID memory (keeps running with an entire memory bank or controller dead), multiple CPUs with BIOS support for running with a dead processor, RAID disks, and redundant power supplies (which you should plug into redundant UPSs). Going to the next level, multipe servers with instant failover are pretty standard configurations.
If you really need high availability rather than high reliability (high reliability means it doesn't fail, high availability means you can get back up and running within a few minutes), three or even five identical copies of the cheapest computer available will have a far greater chance of one of them working than the most expensive server.
If you want to save money, buy three identical used servers from a reputable eBay supplier. I am typing this on a Compaq Proliant 5500R with four processors (500MHz Pentium Pro), 3GB of ECC RAM and a six-drive
4.3GB hot-plug Fast-Wide SCSI-2) RAID Array. Total cost: $100 (I waited until one came up with local pickup -- it would be more with shipping). I bought a few spare drives at $5 each. A while back one of the drives failed, so I pulled it out and put in a replacement without shutting down the computer. It initialized the new drive and rebuilt the RAID array without the operating system ever knowing there was a problem. It runs Slackware Linux and Windows 2000 server just fine -- nice and fast.
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