The whole device measures 15.1 x 9.3 inches and is just 1.6 inches thick. Weight is a bit over nine pounds. The mechanical design has the cut-outs, indents and screwholes required for mounting on numerous Octanorm exhibition systems products as well as on standard 100 x 100 mm VESA mounts. Advantech also offers its own series of stands for the UTC-515 (see here).

Despite its slender design, things aren't too cramped inside. Like the larger UTC-520, the UTC-515 is heavily modularized, with a small and very compact system board at the center and a variety of subsidiary boards handling additional functionality—very much an embedded systems approach. Below you can see what the UTC-515 looks like inside once its steel backplate is removed.

Not visible in the picture is the unit's CF Card slot that can be used to accommodate a solid state disk instead of, or in addition to the hard disk. Also not visible is the mini-PCIe slot that's meant to be used for an optional WiFi module. Both are on the bottom side of the small system board where you also find the sole 200-pin SO-DIMM DDR3 800MHz memory slot. The 2.5-inch hard disk sits in a rubber-mounted caddy. Our review unit came with a 160GB Seagate Momentus spinning at 5,400 rpm. A 250GB disk is also available. Note the two small rearward facing speakers and the heat spreaders on the system and subsidiary boards that dissipate heat to the housing via conductive materials.

All connectors and controls are concentrated in a single recessed downward-facing I/O block. You get two USB ports, a DB9 serial port, a VGA video port, two RJ45 LAN jacks, the power switch, and the power plug. The way the UTC-515's electronics are arranged and organized represents embedded systems design at its finest: take whatever components you need for a given task, then modularize things for configurability, scalability, reliability, and ease of service.

What has changed since our first evaluation of the UTC-520 is that the UTC-515 is now using a slightly quicker 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 processor. The chips are essentially the same, but the newer D525 can use faster and more energy-efficient DDR3 memory. Our review UTC-515, though, still had the older D510 chip and DDR2 memory.

We still ran our standard separate sets of performance benchmarks (Passmark and CrystalMark), and compared the results with those of a variety of other Advantech boards and systems we had benchmarked earlier. The numbers are as follows:

PASSMARK	UTC-515	UTC-520	PIT-1501W	PPC-157T	ARK-3399	ARK-DS303	SOM-6760
Intel	Atom	Atom	Atom	Core 2 Duo	Core Duo	Atom	Atom
Intel	D510	D510	Z530	T7400	L2400	N270	Z530
Product type	Touch terminal	Touch terminal	Touch terminal	Panel PC	Industrial PC	Digital Signage	COM-Micro
Clock speed	1.66GHz	1.66GHz	1.6GHz	2.16GHz	1.4GHz0	1.6GHz	1.6GHz
Thermal Design Power	13.0 watts	13.0 watts	2.3 watts	34.0 watts	15.0 watts	2.5 watts	2.3 watts
CPU Mark	512.4	512.9	244.4	1292.1	847.5	252.6	315.6
2D Graphics Mark	153.8	173.8	108.3	285.8	145.0	158.7	207.2
Memory Mark	235.6	245.2	215.3	552.3	264.9	227.7	191.6
Disk Mark	261.1	431.3	162.1	459.6	10.1	459.4	70.7
3D Graphics Mark	12.1	12.4	18.3	37.8	29.5	77.3	19.6
Overall PassMark	256.0	294.7	154.5	584.7	302.4	232.6	137.3
CRYSTALMARK	UTC-515	UTC-520	PIT-1501W	PPC-157T	ARK-3399	ARK-DS303	SOM-6761
ALU	10772	11309	5323	19311	12971	5409	5376
FPU	9663	9347	4678	22560	15353	4671	4667
MEM	7709	7778	3853	10867	6407	4223	3667
HDD	7357	7087	5058	8231	3631	8221	2702
GDI	2592	2270	2321	4679	2403	2158	2427
D2D	3685	3693	859	3015	2444	2230	1009
OGL	723	711	317	2272	825	684	505
Overall CrystalMark	42501	42195	22409	70935	44034	27596	20353

The results are quite good. The Atom D510 produces far better numbers than systems based on the popular Atom N270/280 that was used in tens of millions of first generation netbooks, or the Atom Z530 which is still quite popular in embedded and industrial systems. The D510-powered UTC-515 even came close to the performance figures of one of Advantech's Core Duo industrial PCs. It's no match for a standard voltage Core 2 Duo such as the T7400, but that's to be expected given that chip's higher clock speed and TDP.

The LCD is recessed behind a protective front cover that extends flush across the entire surface. There is a black bezel around the LCD similar to that of an iMac. The surface is glossy, which can result in annoying reflections. It is some, but not very, prone to finger prints. Overall, though, this is an excellent display. Below are some of the applications Advantech envisions for UTCs:

And below are screen shots of some of the demo applications on the UTC-515. It's easy to see how such a device could be used in a restaurant, at a convention, in stores, hospitals, or numerous other places.

The Advantech UTC-515

Considering that in just the last few years, almost all airports and many other public places have replaced their ancient manual or mechanical information boards with digital signage and info terminals, and businesses the world over are seeking new and innovative ways to automate and improve service, the market for this technology seems very promising indeed. It is not clear what will and what will not be automated, but with the UTC-515, Advantech certainly has a competent and remarkably versatile hardware solution.

Advantech UTC-515 Specs: