Amplicon announced two fanless embedded systems that offer an operating range from 23 to 122 deg. F and include dual expansion slots. The Impact-E 72 has two PCI slots, while the Impact-E 73 has PCI and PCI Express, and both are available with Celeron, Core i5, or Core i7 CPUs, according to the company.

Brighton, England-based Amplicon says its new Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 offer up to three times the performance of previous models in the same range. They operate fanlessly, are "virtually maintenance-free," and are resistant to shock and vibration, especially when equipped with solid state disk (SSD) storage, the company adds.

The Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 employ Intel's QM57 Express chipset (block diagram) and several of Intel's 2010-model Core processors. The upside of this is that the PCs are free of the "Cougar Point" chipset bugs that cropped up alongside the later "Sandy Bridge" CPUs; the downside is that the devices are limited to 4GB of DDR3 memory apiece.

Amplicon's Impact-E 7x
(Click either to enlarge)

According to Amplicon, the Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 are available with processors that include the 1.86GHz Celeron P4500, the 2.4GHz i5-520M, and the 2.66GHz Core i7-620M. Respective processor TDPs are all 35 Watts, according to Intel, but Amplicon says its complete PCs use 46 Watts with the Celeron on board and 56 Watts with either of the Cores.

The Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 both include either a 160GB, 5400rpm SATA hard disk drive or SSD options, says Amplicon. The only difference between the two models is that while both offer dual expansion slots with a maximum 6.65-inch length, these are both PCI slots on the '72; the '73 has one PCI slot and one PCI Express x1 slot, according to the company.

Amplicon says the front panels of the Impact-E devices include two USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA ports. The rears, meanwhile, offer four USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 port, two gigabit Ethernet ports, plus audio (mic in, line out), the company says.

Rear panels on the Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 further offer VGA (maximum resolution up to 2048 x 1536 pixels) and DVI-I ports (resolution up to 1900 x 1200). A DB44 connector serves up four RS2332 ports (one offering selectable RS232/422/485), and a DB15-M connector delivers GPIO (four in, four out).

Amplicon cites a wide variety of EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) compliances for the Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73. The company adds that it owns a fully equipped EMC facility and can provide many additional tests to meet specialized requirements.

According to Amplicon, the Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 support Linux kernel 2.4.6, as well as Windows XP, Windows XP Embedded, 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, and Windows Embedded Standard. Those who want to check support for a specific Linux version or another operating system are invited to contact the company.

Specifications listed by Amplicon for the Impact-E 72 and Impact-E 73 include:

• Processor — Celeron P4500 @1.86GHz, Core i5-520M @2.4GHz, Core i7-620M @2.66GHz
• Chipset — Intel QM57 Express
• Memory — up to 4GB of DDR3 memory
• Storage — SATA; either 160GB hard disk drive (5400rpm; physical size n/s) or SSD
• Expansion:
  • Impact-E72 — 2 x PCI
  • Impact-E73 — 1 x PCI and 1 x PCI Express x1
• Networking — 2 x gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
  • VGA
  • DVI-I
  • 6 x USB 2.0 (2 front, 4 rear)
  • PS/2
  • 4 x RS232 (1 can also be RS422/485)
  • GPIO (4 in, 4 out)
• Power — input for 9~30VDC
• Operating range — 23 to 122 deg. F with SSD; 41 to 122 deg F with HDD
• Dimensions — 10.55 x 7.67 x 3.93 inches (268 x 195 x 100)
• Weight (gross) — 15 pounds (6.8kg)

Further information

Amplicon did not list pricing or spell out availability for the Impact-E72 and Impact-E73, but the devices appear to be available now. More information may be found on the Impact-E72 product page and Impact-E73 product page.

Jonathan Angel can be followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.

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