Fanless industrial panel computers
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Arista, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Fremont, Calif., is a designer and manufacturer of mission critical industrial computing products with a focus on industrial rackmount solutions. Their lineup includes a wide range of fanless computers, industrial rackmount and wallmount computers, industrial displays, high reliability micro computers, shoebox computers, industrial tower computers, ruggedized tablets, and embedded board computers.

Originally released in Q3 2008, the ARP-2200 series was designed for diverse applications that require a rugged all-in-one design for applications including automation, manufacturing, medical, semiconductor, food processing, machine control and more.

The ARP-2200AP series, introduced in June of 2010, is an update and diversification to the line that now includes versions both with energy-efficient VIA C7 processors and more performance-oriented Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs.

Like many panel PCs, these new Arista products are available with various display sizes. Depending on the application, customers can select from 15-inch (1024 x 768 pixel, 250 nits), 17-inch (1280 x 1024 pixel, 300 nits), 19-inch (1280 x 1024 pixel, 300 nits) screens, or a giant 42-inch (16:9 aspect ratio, 1920 x 1080 pixel, 500 nits) display. The three smaller sizes come with 5-wire resistive touch screens, the large 42-inch model with an optional infrared-based touch display.

All models are available with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (model not specified), up to 4GB of RAM, and either a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive or a 4-8GB solid state drive. All but the 42-inch version are also available with the 1.5GHz VIA C7 processor instead, with different graphics and slightly different specs. Intel-based systems are usually configured with Windows XP Pro, whereas the VIA versions may run XP Pro or Windows Embedded.

For connectivity, the ARP-220 series comes with six USB 2.0 ports, four RS232 serial ports and a cnfigurable serial RS232/422/485 port. There are dual RJ45 LAN ports, both VGA and LVDS support (and DVI for Intel versions), as well as a PCI expansion slot and a programmable watchdog timer.

Front bezels are either black powder coated or stainless steel, both with IP50 ingress protection. The panels are designed to operate within a 32 to 122 degree Fahrenheit operating temperature range.

Also, see Arista's press release on the ARP-2200AP Series.