ASLAN W722C Review
1 / 12Pages

Technical White Paper The Review of ASLAN-W722C, a Capacitive Multi-Touch Wide-Screen 21.5-inch Industrial Panel PC

Capacitive multi-touch wide-screen 21.5-inch industrial Panel PC for intelligent factory and other fixed-mount applications Panel PCs are the unsung heroes of rugged computing. They aren't status symbols sitting on desks and in board rooms, they aren't sleek high-tech devices like the latest smartphones and tablets, and they aren't used in high-profile applications like rugged notebooks and convertibles. Instead, they're mounted in cabinets and walls and nondescript enclosures in factories and such, where they are counted on to reliably run and do their job. Without breaking down or holding...

ASLAN and Industry 4.0 In its introductory and marketing materials for the ASLAN series, ARBOR pointed out that today's industrial organizations are facing the challenge of managing rapidly increasing data loads, integrating machine-to-machine devices, and seamlessly sharing data in real-time to align to emerging Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 applications. By now most know that "Internet of Things" refers to an emerging future where Internet connectivity increasingly includes all sorts of sensor-equipped devices instead of just computers, but what is Industry 4.0, and what does the...

As far as the display and general size goes, the ASLAN W722C is the largest of three ASLAN models, the other two having 15.6 and 18.5-inch screens. The W722C screen measures 21.5 inches diagonally, the same as the smaller of the two available Apple iMacs, with which the ASLAN shares full 1080p 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. That makes for a fashionably wide 16:9 aspect ratio, the one used in virtually all current HDTVs. In an era where late model smartphones also offer full 1080p resolution and often more, that's no longer exceptional, but...

simultaneously allow remote terminal connections, M2M communication, as well as supporting company intranet and cloud connectivity. Using modern capacitive multi-touch helps on the human side of things, and still providing a quartet of legacy COM ports makes sense as well, as not all tech advances at the same pace. Under the hood Creating a panel computer brings up entirely different design contemplations from deciding on how to best build a laptop, handheld or tablet. Panel PCs generally have large displays, so there's enough of a footprint...

The steel chassis is industrial strength, and not the super-thin and often rather flimsy metal found in consumer devices. The actual electronics of the ASLAN take far less room than is available in a large panel. The system board itself is a rectangular 195 x 160 mm affair that's not actually the motherboard. That's because in true embedded systems style, there's a roughly 85 x 74 mm "Process Control Card" that has the system processor on one side and a single SO-DIMM slot on the other (populated by a 4GBDDR3L 1333 RAM module by Transcend)....

How much performance does a panel need? Now what about performance? What sort of a processor should a Panel PC like the ASLAN Series have? That's a tough call to make. While most consumer PCs need as much punch as possible just to keep up with their full-size, full-service operating systems, massive applications, even larger games, and the ever-increasing multi-media and streaming video loads, most industrial panels run comparatively simple dedicated custom applications that rarely, if ever, change, and whose resource requirements are well known. Which means it doesn't make sense to give a...

ARBOR ASLAN-W722C Benchmarks and Comparisons (PassMark 6.1) PERFORMANCE COMPARISON ARBOR Logic Supply Year tested Processor Type: Intel Processor Model Processor Code Turbo Speed Thermal Design Power (TDP) Memory Mark Disk Mark Overall PassMark Overall CrystalMark As you peruse the table above, there are some interesting general conclusions that one should keep in mind when making purchase decisions. • First, products using the same processor are generally operating at the same level of performance, although settings, drivers, and configurations make for some differentiations. That can be...

Second, in the past, industrial computers often continued using outdated CPUs for many years, just because they were tried and proven. That's no longer a good idea as the pace of performance and efficiency gains is now so rapid that even two or three years can be an eternity in CPU progress. For an example, compare the ASLAN panel with Advantech's UTC-515 we tested three years ago. Third, even with the massive improvements in lower-cost chips such as the Bay Trail lineup, there remains a big performance gap between Bay Trail and Intel's Core processors. Even a 3rd gen (Intel is now...

rain, sand or dust. So the ASLAN, like most industrial panels, has a front panel that is sealed to IP65 specs (i.e., totally protected against dust, and also able to handle low pressure jets of water), but the backside does not carry an IP rating. Industrial panel mounts are generally used in stationary locations, and thus are not subjected to the same levels of shock and vibration as vehicle mounts. However, they must still be able to withstand vibration. ARBOR does provide shock and vibration test results. Do note that those generally...

On the processing side, ASLAN is based on an Intel "Bay Trail" Celeron J1900 quad-core chip that offers considerable performance while still easily working in a fanless design. While no other processor is currently offered, the embedded system approach with a separate CPU card makes additional processor and performance options possible. Even the large 21.5-inch version we reviewed is less than two inches thick, allowing mounting even in space-constrained settings. Storage options are very flexible via two externally accessible 2.5-inch drive...