Fully rugged mobile workstation for vehicle use
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

The Motorola MW810 R2.0 is an updated version of Motorola Solution's modular mobile workstation for mission-critical vehicle use. The new rev. is substantially upgraded with the kind of state-of-the-art (as of May 2013) computing power not often found in vehicle computers.

All MW810 components (system unit, display, keyboard) are ruggedized and configured so that they can be mounted in various ways. The very compact system unit can be equipped with one of two 3rd generation Intel Core processors or a more basic Intel Celeron model, and uses a heated and shock-protected 500GB hard disk. Instead of the hard disk, the system can be run off a 256GB solid state disk. Either can be complemented with a 64GB mSATA internal SSD (which can also used as primary mass storage).

The very compact system unit can accommodate multiple expansion boards that can add substantial communications, video and other expansion options. Those include DVI and HDMI video output, up to four USB ports and up to four RS232 ports, or composite video output.

The MW810 offers additional expansion and interfaces in the primary display unit. The LCD is a transflective 12.1-inch unit available either in standard brightness (400 NITs) or (very) high brightness (1,500 NITs). Both have XGA resolution and can use either standard analog or digital input. There is a tempered glass touchscreen as well as three more USB ports and optional Bluetooth. Also available is a smaller 8.4-inch SVGA display

The internal PCI Express Mini Card slots allow for wireless LAN and one of three available wireless wide area netwwork radio options. The WAN radio options include a MC7750 LTE Band 13/3G module from Sierra Wireless that supports either LTE Band 13, or CDMA IS-856 (1xEV-DO Revision A) and CDMA IS-2000 networks; and Band 14 (Public Safety) LTE. The MW810 R2.0 can also be equipped with a SiRFstarIV GOS module, or customers can opt for a dead-reckoning sensor-based GPS receiver with a U-Blox LEA 6R GPS positioning engine.

The whole system supports either 12 or 24 Volt vehicle power Ono internal battery) and is built to withstand substantial abuse. Sealing is up to IP54 specs, operating temperature ranges from -22 to 162 degrees Fahrenheit, and the system is tested for humidity, shock, dust, salt fog, flammability, radiation, vibration and more in accordance with the pertaining MIL-STD and other testing procedures.

Overall, the MW810 R2.0 provides largely obscolescence-proof computing power in an extremely flexible and expandable package that's ideal for a wide variety of vehicle mount applications.