GE Intelligent Platforms announced a panel PC designed to be used in hazardous environments, and capable of operating in temperatures from -4 to 140 deg. F. The Wolverine III has a sunlight-readable 15-inch screen with resistive touch capabilities, 4GB of soldered-on memory, non-incendive USB ports, and isolated serial ports, according to the company.

GE says its Wolverine III panel PC is intended for hazardous (Hazloc) applications "where salt, spray, dust, shock, vibration and extremes of temperature provide the most challenging environments for computers." It includes a NEMA 4 environmentally sealed enclosure with corrosion resistance, plus non-incendive USB 2.0 ports and two optically isolated serial ports, according to the company.

GE Intelligent Platforms' Wolverine III
(Click to enlarge)

As GE points out, the Wolverine III is built around a previously released COM Express module, the bCOM2-L1100 (pictured). Originally announced in March 2010, this module (block diagram, here) was touted for ruggedization features such as a soldered-on CPU (a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo) and memory (4GB of DDR3 RAM), plus availability of an extended-temperature version.

The above enhancements naturally carry over to the Wolverine III, which, according to GE, may be operated from -4 to 140 deg. F in its standard configuration, or from -40 to 122 deg. F with an optional heater. The panel PC is "designed to be upgradable with future generations of processor," and is also easy and quick to repair, GE claims.

The Wolverine III teams the bCOM2-L1100 with a 32GB SSD (solid state disk), according to GE. An internal carrier board provides the panel PC with its four non-incendive USB 2.0 ports, four serial ports (2 x isolated RS232, 2 x RS232/422/485), dual gigabit Ethernet ports, and a VGA output for a secondary display.

The main display is 15-inch, with resistive touch capabilities, a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, and anti-glare treatment that renders it sunlight-readable, GE says. Three bezels are available, the company adds: The Wolverine III pictured earlier in our story has power and brightness buttons, along with F1-F12 buttons, but there's also one with only power/brightness buttons, and a third with no buttons at all.

Specifications listed by GE Intelligent Platforms for the Wolverine III include:

• Processor — Intel Core 2 Duo (2.26GHz, 25-Watt TDP)
• Chipset — Intel GS45 and ICH-9M
• Memory — 4GB of DDR3 RAM (soldered-on)
• Storage — 32GB SSD
• Expansion — n/a
• Display — 15-inch resistive touchscreen; sunlight-readable; 1024 x 768 pixel resolution
• Networking — 2 x gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
  • 4 x USB 2.0 (non-incendive)
  • 2 x RS232 (optically isolated)
  • 2 x RS232/422/485
  • 1 x VGA
• Power — 10~32VDC; AC adapter accepts 100~240VAC
• Environmental:
  • Operating range — -4 to 140 deg. F without heater, -40 to 122 deg. F with
  • Shock — resists 40G pulse
  • Vibration — resists 2G, 100~500Hz, 3 axes
  • Compliance — NEMA 4x; IP65

  Dimensions — 15.9 x 13.75 x 5 inches

• Weight — 22.5 pounds

Further information

GE Intelligent Platforms said the Wolverine III supports Windows XP, Windows 7, and Linux, but did not provide pricing or availability details. No product page was on line at the time of writing, but the company did provide a PDF-formatted data sheet.

Jonathan Angel can be reached at [email protected] and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.

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