Phoenix Contact’s Valueline industrial PC product range now includes the VL BPC MINI, a miniature embedded box PC. The first model available is a wide-temperature version that operates between -40 and 65 degrees C. The Mini BPC family employs a fanless design in a compact, DIN rail-mountable package. The line is based on specially selected Intel Atom CPUs that consume less energy and produce less heat. The wide temperature model uses the Intel Atom Z510PT processor (1.1 GHz). It has high shock and vibration ratings, making it suitable for rugged applications. With a thermal design power (TDP) of 4.4 W, it is especially energy efficient, the company says. Interfaces include six USB 2.0 ports, one VGA port and one RS-232/422/485 port. Two Gigabit Ethernet ports are available, as well as a CompactFlash slot and digital I/O. In addition, it can accommodate SD cards up to two GB in size for additional data storage. The VL BPC MINI is designed for embedded operating systems, such as Windows Embedded Standard, Windows CE or Linux, installed on an industrial CompactFlash card. Like the original Valueline IPCs, the user can configure the VL BPC MINI to meet the specific needs of the application.
