Intel "Bay Trail" based industrial vehicle-mount PC offers touch as well as function key operation
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, August 2015)

Taiwanese Winmate Communications is expanding its lineup of vehicle-mount computers with the FM series of modular, Intel Bay Trail-based panels. Initially available in 10.4-inch (described on this page) and 8-inch versions, the FM line employs a modular design consisting of the display/touch front, the system center, and the docking back. The picture below shows the display and system of the FM10 from the front and sides.

The FM10 is designed for applications that primarily use touch input on a large display, but also benefit from a number of readily readily accessible programmable function keys. From the looks of the preliminary design specs available to RuggedPCReview, the FM08 and FM10 actually share the system and docking modules, is that the choice comes down to keypads and smaller 8-inch screen or larger 10.4-inch screen with just function keys.

The image below shows the backside of the FM10 as well as a side view. Clearly visible is the separation of the minimal I/O block in the slender system unit itself (just a USB port and SD and SIM card slots), and then the full-size ports in the docking module. Shown in the illustration are three legacy serial ports, a VGA port, and an RJ45 LAN jack. Also note the three different VESA mount patterns.

For processing, the Winmate FM line is based on one of Intel's expansive line of "Bay Trail" CPUs, the quad-core Atom E3845. This is the top-of-the-line of the E3800 product family that Intel described as "the first system-on-chip (SoC) designed for intelligent systems, delivering outstanding compute, graphical, and media performance while operating in an extended range of thermal conditions."

Note that while "Bay Trail" processors constitute Intel's lower cost, less complex CPU lineup and are based on an overhauled Intel Atom architecture, they are far more powerful than earlier Atom chips. In RuggedPCReview's benchmark testing, for example, the E3845 used in this Winmate FM10 vehicle-mount panel outperforms first generation Core CPUs. They also offer decent graphics performance as they include GPUs that use the same Intel execution units (EUs) as Ivy Bridge's HD 4000. This gives them support for most of the same APIs and features -- DirectX 11, OpenGL 3.X, and OpenCL 1.2 are all present on the API side, as is dual-display support. For detailed specs of the Intel Atom E3845, see here.

On the memory side, the FM10 comes with up to 8GB of low voltage DDR3L RAM. Standard mass storage is provided by M.2 MLC (multi-level cell) solid state disks ranging from 64GB up to 256GB.

On the operating platform side, the FM08 can be configured with Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro, Windows 7 FES (For Embedded Systems), and Windows Embedded Standard 7.

As a dedicated vehicle PC, the FM10 can accommodate a wide 10 to 60 Volt input range, ignition control, and also a 28.1 watt-hour internal battery that provides backup power.

GFG resistive touch

One problem with generic resistive touch is that the surface film is scratch- and damage-prone, and can introduce distracting optical properties, like the "pooling" that happens when the soft touch surface is depressed. So Winmate decided to use GFG — Glass-Film-Glass — resistive technology that employs a highly scratch-resistant very thin glass on top of the resistive layer. Additional advantages of GFG include greater corrosion-resistance, ease of cleaning, and immunity of pooling.

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