IP65-sealed touch panel PC for marine and extreme environments
(by Kirk Linsky)

Avalue Technology is a Taiwanese industrial computer manufacturer of embedded computers, single board computers, Systems-on-Module, industrial motherboards, panel computers, etc. Headquartered in Taipei, Avalue has global branch offices, including two in the United States (New Jersey and California). In April 2010, Avalue released the LPC-1203 Touch Panel PC aimed at marine and harsh environment applications.

The Avalue LPC-1203 is a an elegant, compact rugged all-in-one touch panel computer measuring 11.1 x 8.8 x 1.8 inches. It has an outdoor-viewable XGA 12.1-inch XGA (1024 x 768 pixel) display with a 5-wire resistive touchscreen. The machine is powered by a 1.6GHz low voltage Intel Atom N270 processor, comes with up to 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM (1GB onboard plus a SODIMM memory slot), and can be run either off a 2.5-inch hard drive or via CF Card Flash. Most systems will likely be configured with an embedded version of Windows.

Thanks to the low heat generation of the Atom processor and the LPC-1203's heat dissipation trench design there is no fan and the system operates silently. Avalue considers the LPC-1203 to be water and dust-proof, with the front panel featuring full IP65 sealing thanks to a water-proof membrane design.

While the standard version uses the Atom N270 processor, Avalue can deliver various levels of performance thanks to the panel's system-on-module concept and also different I/O. Judging by Avalue's website, this particular design is available with 8, 10.4, 12.1 and 15-inch displays, and low-power VIA or Intel processors.

All connectivity is located at the back of the machine, facing down. The standard configuration comes with two USB 2.0 ports total, an RS232 serial port, two gigabit LAN RJ45 jacks, an analog external VGA video port (up to 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution), audio in and out, and the CF Card slot. The machine also has an internal PCI-e slot that can accommodate factory-installed options.

The LPC-1203 can be ordered with integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, and there are a variety of mounting options.