Lanner Electronics has launched the ICS-P770, a rugged computing platform certified to IEC 61850-3, IEEE 1613, and EN50121-4 standards, designed for substation automation, virtualization, and network security.

The ICS-P770 is a 3U rackmount industrial computer designed for digital substation automation and ICS/SCADA security. Equipped with the Intel Xeon 6 Processor, it provides reliable computing performance, security features, and high-speed connectivity for power grid applications.

The ICS-P770 is built to support the requirements of modern digital substations, with up to 512GB of DDR5 RDIMM memory and high-speed networking options, including four 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, two GbE SFP ports, and two 25GbE/10GbE SFP/RJ45 interfaces. It includes multiple PCIe expansion slots, such as four PCIe Gen5 slots, and supports HSR/PRP PCIe cards for network redundancy. The system also features four hot-swappable U.2 NVMe storage bays with RAID support for data logging and backup in critical energy applications.

The ICS-P770 is built for substation environments, featuring an IP30-rated chassis with fan-based cooling and an operating temperature range of -25°C to 55°C. It includes TPM 2.0 and Intel QuickAssist Technology for encryption, authentication, and secure remote access, supporting virtualization and SCADA security.

Advantech has put Intel’s Atom x7211RE at the center of an industrial PC measuring only 100 x 70 x 40mm.

Called UNO-2271G V3, its dual-core processor is supported by 8Gbyte of LPDDR5 ram, plus options of 64Gbyte eMMC non-volatile storage and an M.2 B+M key 2242 (SATA/PCIe) slot.

Windows 11 LTSC or Ubuntu 22.04 are the favoured operating systems.

Standard interfaces include 2x Ethernet (10/100/1000/2500BASE-T, RJ45), HDMI 1.4 (1,920 x 1,080 60Hz), USB 3.2 Gen2 and a USB Type C (1.5A, supports DP & USB, DP ALT).

TPM2.0 (Library Reversion 1.38) hardware security is standard.

A series of plug-on under-slung 100 x 70 x 30mm expansion pods are available to add further interfaces:

UNO-2271G-RS2EB (left) adds 2x COM ports (RS-232/422/485), an M.2 (B key) slot for SATA/USB 3.0 signals for LTE, a nano SIM slot, and an M.2 (E key) slot for PCIe/USB 2.0 signals for Wi-Fi.

UNO-2271G-RP1EB adds 2x COM ports (RS-232/422/485), Power-over-Ethernet (802.3at, 25.5W max), an M.2 (B key) slot for SATA/USB 3.0 signals for LTE and a nano SIM slot.

UNO-2271G-EKDE is a host for one of the company’s seven ‘iDoor’ modules that offer combinations of interfaces including isolated RS-422/485, various M.2 slots, DB9 or DB37 connectors, 24-channel isolated digital IO and Gigabit Ethernet.

Standard physical mounting hardware are a pair of screw-on tabs that take the 100mm dimension out to 124mm and add four mounting holes (both photos). Beyond this are optional VESA and DIN rail mounts.

Power requirements are 10 – 30Vdc, typically needing 12W (40W max). Heatsinking is built in and operation is over -20 to +60°C.

“The device enables diverse industrial applications from equipment connectivity to process visualisation and environment management, addressing the demands of Industry 4.0 for real-time analytics,” according to Advantech.

Following the announcement of the VITA 93 (QMC) architecture for embedded system design, The embedded I/O company announced a QMC starter kit available later this year.

The kit includes a single size QMC module with a multiprotocol RS232/RS422/RS485 transceiver. The air-cooled modules operates at -40°C to +85°C.

There is also a dual QMC carrier, a low profile PCIe card with two QMC slots and a VHD68 front I/O connector. This has the same operating temperature range.

A cable kit consists of a 68-pin terminal block and a 1.8 m cable with VHD68 SCSI-V male and HD68 SCSI-3 male connectors.

There is also a device driver for Linux for applications to access to the UART QMC module. The kit will also include a user manual and example code.

The VITA 93 standard can be used for either conduction- or air-cooled applications. Jan Zimmerman, general manager, Tews Technologies, explained to Electronics Weekly, that an air-cooled QMC can be converted to a conduction-cooled version by adding a skyline heatsink.

Traditionally mezzanine cards (e.g., XMC and PMC) have a fixed mounting height but VITA 93 defines four stacking heights of 9mm, 11mm, 14mm and 16mm. The carrier card defines the height to ensure all QMC cards fit regardless of the height chosen. This allows more freedom of design for the use of the PCB area under the QMC. “The design is up to the carrier designer, allowing for more internal creativity,” said Zimmerman.

Raspberry Pi has announced a second-generation of its computer-in-keyboard, and a branded monitor.

Aimed at home computing and based on RP5 technology, the Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard computer has a quad-core 64bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor (with 8Gbyte of ram), wireless networking, dual display outputs, and 4K video playback.

It comes with a 32GB Raspberry Pi SD Card pre-loaded with Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, and is available alone ($90) or in a kit ($120) with a branded mouse, 27W USB-C PSU, 2m micro HDMI to HDMI cable and and beginner’s guide.

At launch, there will be UK and US key cap layout version, to be followed by German, Spanish, French, Italian, Nordic and Japanese variants.

Connections on its rear edge include ports for 1x USB-C (power input), 2x micro HDMI (up to 4Kp60), 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 and 1x Gigabit Ethernet. There is also a slot for the microSD card and a standard 40pin GPIO header.

Wireless networking is 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.

Ed: The Raspberry Pi 400 had excellent internal heatsinking and has proved a reliable desktop partner.

A new venture for Raspberry Pi is a branded monitor.

Priced at $100, it is a 15.6inch 1080p (‘full HD’) monitor with a 16.2m colour 250cd/m2 IPS display – IPS displays generally have a wide viewing angle.

In includes two front-facing speakers (2x 1.2W. 44.1kHz, 48kHz and 96kHz sample rates), a 3.5mm jack audio output, a full-size HDMI input, a volume control button and a brightness button.

Full brightness and volume are available when a separate 5V 1.5A USB-C power supply is connected, or it can be run at 60% brightness and 50% volume when powered from a Raspberry Pi USB port.

An angle-adjustable stand is built-in, as are VESA and screw mounting options, and it comes with a 1m USB-C power cable.

Variscite is developing a 55 x 30mm system-on-module around NXP’s i.MX 91 processor IC, which has a 1.4GHz Cortex-A55 core.

Named DART-MX91, the board will be equipped LPDDR4 memory between 512 Mbyte and 2Gbyte depending on options selected, and eMMC storage between 8 and 64Gbyte.

Interfaces include: dual CAN-FD, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual USB, Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi6 802.11 ax/ac/a/b/g/n. 802.15.4 is an option, and if no Wi-Fi at all is fitted an extra IO port can be enabled.

Operation is over  0 to +70°C, -25 to 85°C or -40 to 85°C depending on selected options.

Accessories include a suitable heatsink, an antenna for the wireless interfaces, a carrier board and a power supply.

The carrier board – VAR-DT8MCustomBoard as it is known – turns the module into a stand-alone computer, adding connectors and PHYs (interface hardware) for Gigabit Ethernet, cameras, LVDS and PCIe, as well as a real-time clock.

SolidRun has unveiled a computer built around an i.MX 8M Plus processor from NXP which has quad 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 cores.

‘IIoT-200-8M Gateway’ is intended for industrial IoT and human-machine interface applications, and consists of a system-on-module with the processor, plugged into a carrier and interface board, all in an aluminium enclosure.

Supported interfaces include multiple 3x USB 3.0 type-A, 2x RS232, 2x RS485, 2x CAN-FD and 2x 1Gbit/s Ethernet – with Power over Ethernet (PoE) amongst the power options.

MIPI-DSI and LVDS are provided for displays, and wireless links are covered by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, extended by M.2 slots for dual SIMs, and an AI accelerator or NVMe storage.

WAGO is adding four new communication products to its network lineup. With a 60- and 90-watt version available, the company’s PoE injectors supply power and communications over a single RJ45 cable.

According to WAGO, these devices are based on the IEEE 802.3bt standard for 4PPoE that uses all eight wires in an Ethernet cable.

WAGO’s media converter provides extended Ethernet communication as it changes data transmission from copper to fibre optic. Customers have the option to choose from either a non-PoE converter or a PoE version that comes equipped with 30 watts of PoE. These can be paired with WAGO’s SFP fibre optic modules for support of both fast and gigabit speeds.

Sheffield-based Pimoroni has introduced a wireless development board with Raspberry Pi’s RP2350 microcontroller.

2.4GHz comms is through a Raspberry Pi RM2 module – a module that Raspberry Pi has yet to reveal. Update (Oct 24): Pimoroni now sells the RM2 alone on a breakout board (link below).

Also on-board is 16Mbyte of QSPI flash, 8Mbyte of ram, USB-C and a Qwiic/STEMMA QT I2C interface connector for sensors, a SWD debug connector, reset button boot/user button.

About the development board, called ‘Pico Plus 2 W’, Pimoroni said: “we’ve tried to cram in as much extra functionality as we possibly can whilst keeping to the original Pico footprint to maintain compatibility with existing Pico add-ons.”

Power is required at 3 – 5.5V, and the included 3V3 regulator can output 600mA.

The board measures 53 x 21 x 9mm.

RP2350 has dual Cortex-M33 cores, but can also be booted with RISC-V cores in their place, and hardware security.

“Our MicroPython tests are running up to 2x faster compared to RP2040, and floating point number crunching in C/C++ is up to 20x faster,” said Pimoroni. “The extra on-chip RAM will make a big difference when performing memory intensive operations, such as working with higher resolution displays, and even more can be added thanks to external PSRAM support.”

Pico Plus 2’ is a version of this board without the radio, and Tiny 2350 (right), also from Pimoroni, is a 23 x 18 x 6mm module with fewer IO connections designed to be built into products.

All of the boards abover are double-sided, and therefore cannot be surface-mounted using the castellated side pads without a PCB cut-out.

Softing released its tManager industrial PC (IPC), adding to the tManager portfolio offering.

According to a company press statement, this new release provides a solution to users that don’t have a spare PLC slot and to Siemens PLC users who either don’t have Rockwell PLCs or have a mixture of Rockwell and Siemens PLCs.

Softing explains that all tManagers across the portfolio directly connect PLCs to upstream SQL databases and cloud-based services to leverage IT dashboards, analytics and business metrics. All tManagers also connect to downstream Logix, Siemens and Modbus PLCs.

Since the tManager IPC is now a built-for-purpose industrial PC and can be DIN rail mounted outside the PLC chassis, it reportedly allows users to take advantage of all the traditional tManager applications like track and trace, high-speed sorting and recipe management without consuming a spare PLC slot. This new format is useful in Rockwell applications and also enables customers with Siemens or Modbus TCP PLCs to use tManager IPC and simplify their connection to SQL databases.

tManager ControlLogix, tManager CompactLogix and tManager IPC all include core benefits like store and forward upon network failure, failover server support, email notifications, and status tags for monitoring transactions and system operation. tManager reportedly does not require any modifications to PLC logic to read tags for performance monitoring.

tManager IPC requires no coding or OPC protocol translation. As an expansion of the tManager product offering, this built-for-purpose IPC solution enables IT/OT integration including MQTT connection to cloud applications.

Aaeon has announced 85.6 x 90mm industrial single-board computers with Intel Processor N-series (Alder Lake-N) CPUs.

Called ‘UP Squared 7100’, there is a choice of Processor N97 or N100.

Atom x7000E or Core i3 N-series can also be fitted to special order, and the board will also be compatible with Atom x7000RE (Amston Lake) CPUs starting from Q1 2025, said Aaeon.

Up to 16Gbyte of LPDDR5 and 128Gbyte of eMMC is available on the N97 version (maximum on part UPS-ASLN97-A10-16128), and expansion options include M.2 E and M-Keyed slots.

Display is through HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.2 and eDiaplayPort 1.3 interfaces “enabling it to support three simultaneous 4K displays at 60Hz”, said Aaeon. “This capability is complemented by a high dynamic graphics frequency, courtesy of the integrated Intel UHD Graphics for 12th Gen Processors, resulting in more seamless and expedited rendering processes.”

The 40pin GPIO connector from earlier members of the family is retained, and there are two RS-232/422/485 COM ports, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports on a header and dual Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 ports.

On-board features include a real-time clock, and TPM 2.0 for security.

Operation is across 0 – 60°C with sufficient air flow across the included heatsink, and from 12V (15 – 37W) from an ATX (default) or AT power supply.

Windows 10 and Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04 and Yocto 5.1 operating systems are supported.