An industrial computer is a general name of tools that use BUS structure to detect and control the production process, electromechanical equipment, and process equipment.
The industrial computer provides reliable, embedded, and intelligent industrial computing solutions for many industries. Industrial control computer has important computer attributes and features, such as computer's CPU, hard disk, memory, peripherals and interfaces, operating system, control network and protocol, computing capability, and friendly man-machine interface.
In the production process, the industrial computer is not only the basis of monitoring and control of production machinery and equipment, production process, and data parameters but also the key equipment to further integrate software and hardware and convert data flow with different interfaces and protocols. With the progress of industrial computer technology and the development of industry, the role and task of industrial computers in the intelligent era are becoming more and more important.
Jawest industrial computer based on X86 platform
In recent years, with the continuous promotion of computer, communication, and network technology, the industrial Internet has gradually sprung up, and the industrial computer industry has developed rapidly. The industrial site only achieves the horizontal contact, collection, and summary of on-site data, which can no longer meet the actual needs of industry transformation. It should also realize conduct two-way communication with the decision-making end, convert the data into guiding information at the decision-making end, and send it to the industrial site for implementation. The intelligent production mode has become the main direction of industry transformation.
At present, the intelligent, digital and information upgrading of industrial computers is in progress, and the more obvious is the transformation of service mode. In the traditional manufacturing mode, the services provided by industrial computers only include a single hardware product. Enterprises can basically meet the needs as long as the performance and quality of products are guaranteed. In the era of intelligence, industrial computer customers are no longer satisfied with a single product but prefer the overall solution with the industrial computers as the core.
In addition, the information security of industrial computer applications has attracted more and more attention. With the wide application of the industrial Internet, intelligent manufacturing has given birth to new manufacturing modes and new business forms. The industrial computer's system is gradually opening up, and the diversity and complexity of the industrial computers' network environment bring many security problems. Therefore, in order to ensure the normal operation of industrial computer systems and protect the production safety and data information, industrial computer manufacturers also began to pay more attention to the information security protection of industrial computers.
industrial computers' development trend in future
With the progress of technology and the maturity of the market and users, the industrial computer market presents a new development trend under the new situation.
1. Customization has become a trend
In addition to technological breakthroughs, in recent years, more and more industrial computer manufacturers have begun to pay more attention to the needs of customers, provide customers with customized services and products, constantly launch industry-specific industrial computing solutions that meet the needs of customers, and pay more attention to application needs.
2. Industrial computer is widely used in more and more applications
From the perspective of the industrial computers' application industry, while the previous advantageous industries such as metallurgy, electric power, petrochemical, and other traditional industries are gradually declining, some emerging application markets are emerging, such as finance, medical & healthcare, intelligent transportation, self-service terminals, etc. At the same time, in addition to a large number of incremental markets generated in emerging applications such as the Internet of things, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent life, intelligent agriculture, Internet of vehicles, big data, and cloud computing, another growth point of the industrial computer market is that under the background of digitization and intelligent manufacturing, the existing stock market needs to be upgraded, which are the growth points of the industrial computer market in the future.
3. Embedded industrial computer is becoming more and more popular
An embedded industrial computer is a kind of rugged industrial computer. It can run reliably in the industrial environment as an industrial controller.
Jawest industrial computer based on ARM platform
Compared with traditional IPC, embedded IPC is based on computer technology and is application-oriented. It is suitable for industrial systems with strict requirements on function, reliability, cost, volume, and power consumption. It is generally composed of a low-power processor, peripheral hardware equipment, operating system, and user's application program, which is used to realize the functions of system control, monitoring, management, etc.
Their main advantages are as follows.
1. High adaptability
It almost completely matches the function of the equipment and has certain expansibility, but it does not take expansion as the main purpose, so the product has good adaptability and high-cost performance.
2. Compact design
Most industrial computers are built with a compact design, fully considering the external interface and reasonable utilization of installation space.
3. High reliability
In addition to the electrical function meeting the reliability design, the reliability design contents such as heat dissipation design, electromagnetic compatibility design, dust-proof and waterproof design, and anti-vibration design shall be carefully considered.
4. Ultra low power fanless design
Due to the miniaturization of the whole industrial computer, the heat dissipation capacity is limited, and the requirement of MTBF (mean time between failures) of embedded system is also high, especially in unattended applications, the design of ultra-low power consumption without a fan becomes necessary.
Summary
The fourth industrial revolution led by intelligent manufacturing is an intelligent system integrating a large number of computer, communication, and control technologies. Under the background of highly integrated industry development of various new technologies, the industrial computer is at a new technological turning point. In the future, the industrial computer will break through the existing technical architecture, and its system architecture will be more open, more integrated, modular, and intelligent, which will provide important support for the construction of intelligent systems under the whole "industry 4.0".
