Optimize Manufacturing Operations with Industrial PCs
Industrial manufacturers are faced with the challenges of staying competitive while finding ways to reduce costs, improve productivity, and achieve real-time visibility—all on aging, inflexible legacy systems.
Transitioning to modern industrial PCs (IPCs), rugged solutions designed for industrial worksites and remote, harsh environments that offer new levels of connectivity, intelligence, and performance can help you to capitalize on Industry 4.0 data-driven capabilities to accomplish these goals and accelerate time to value on new solutions.
We’re here to help you with your factory’s digital transformation with a range of IPC form factors and integrated technologies. Our partner ecosystem of innovators and full portfolio of flexible, interoperable hardware and software solutions can help make this move faster, easier, and simpler.
What a New IPC Means for Your Factory
Modern IPCs feature high levels of performance, customization, reliability, and scalability that allow you to embrace and capitalize on what Industry 4.0 has to offer. Discover all you can gain by upgrading.
Consolidate Workloads to Help Reduce TCO
Reduce the number of devices you have to manage and maintain with IPCs that can manage multiple workloads on a single platform.
Improve Security and Manageability
Get better protection against cyberattacks and efficient remote management of patching processes.
Avoid Technology Obsolescence
Avoid constant upgrades with industrial PCs that have a longer product life cycle and can be used for up to 10 years in some instances.
Refresh Legacy IPCs Without Rip and Replace
Connect and innovate with IoT and AI while preserving your legacy environment and minimizing downtime during your migration.
Learn How New Industrial PCs Are Revolutionizing Manufacturing
New IPCs are offering today’s manufacturers new levels of connectivity, intelligence, and performance. See which innovative applications you can deploy once modern IPCs are integrated at your factory.
Automated Inspection and Defect Detection
Time-consuming, manual defect inspection can result in a significant number of defective products being manufactured and shipped. By integrating machine vision technologies deep-learning software, and IoT technologies on an IPC, businesses can accelerate and improve the accuracy of defect detection in products.
Customer story: Contact lens makers realize 50x faster inspections1 with 3x improved accuracy2
Predictive Maintenance
Predictive maintenance is the strategy of diagnosing potential equipment malfunctions in real time to prevent failures, maximize uptime, and improve efficiency. Hardware and software solutions, such as industrial IPCs based on processors for the IoT Edge and the Capgemini Predictive Asset Maintenance solution, are key enablers of predictive maintenance programs.
Industrial Autonomous Robotics
Automation and machine vision enabled by IoT make discrete and process manufacturing more efficient and adaptable. Industrial robots not only increase product quality but can be adjusted to respond to changes in demand.
IT/OT Convergence for Workload Consolidation
Various manufacturing workloads often run on devices distributed throughout the factory. However, they can be virtualized and consolidated onto a single modern IPC. This convergence enables advantages such as streamlined data and asset management, increased productivity, and near-real-time analytics.
Secure Application Execution
With new standards for safety and security of industrial control systems being released and the increase of cyberattacks on IPCs and other platforms at the edge, it’s even more important to have a secure application environment for workload protection. With Intel® security capabilities and frameworks, such as Trusted Platform Module (TPM), developers can protect select code and data from disclosure and/or modification, better protect IP with isolated execution of workloads, and ensure compliance with global standards and regulations.
Remote Management of Edge Systems and Devices
With IPCs deployed on manufacturing floors, in harsh environments, or at factory locations, operations managers and systems administrators need the ability to take control of devices remotely for maintenance, onboarding, and general support efforts. When IPCs are built on the Intel vPro® platform, IT gains complete management, both in and out of band, at the edge.
Discover the Intel® Technologies Powering Modern Industrial PCs
No matter your factory environment or legacy system requirements, our technologies can help accelerate your migration cycle so you can quickly realize the benefits of modern IPCs that are built on Intel® architecture.
IoT and Embedded Processors
Connect and innovate with IoT and AI while preserving your legacy environment and minimizing downtime during your migration.
Intel® Edge Insights for Industrial
Upgrade to AI-powered, Industry 4.0 operations with our free, open platform for machine vision and time series data.
Intel® Edge Controls for Industrial
Transform industrial control systems into software-defined solutions. This software reference platform has compatible hardware that integrates real-time compute, connectivity, and IT-like management.
Intel® Industrial IoT (IIoT) Technologies
Get the IoT building blocks needed to connect, secure, and manage your latest industrial manufacturing applications.
Hardware-Based Security
Help protect and defend your factory and data against modern threats with advanced security capabilities built into your IPCs at the hardware level.
Remote IPC Management
Take complete control of your IPCs with Intel® Activate Management Technology (Intel® AMT), which allows for remote firmware and software updates, device access even when the OS is down or IPCs are outside the firewall, and regular maintenance without costly rollouts.
Real-Time Systems
Enable process automation, predictive asset maintenance, or other real-time critical use cases with Intel® Real-Time Systems and enabling technologies like Intel® Time Coordinated Computing.
Make Your Move to Modern IPCs
When choosing a new IPC, you must first consider if you are looking for a solution for an existing site—a brownfield site, or a new factory build—a greenfield site. Brownfield developments will likely involve legacy IPC migration, whereas greenfield developments will require selecting the right IPC based on your project needs. With training, guidance, and a portfolio of ecosystem products, Intel is here to help make your IPC migration or purchase easier. Connect with us before you make your next IPC move.
Upgrade Software and Hardware for a Complete Refresh
If your legacy devices, drivers, and applications can work seamlessly in a new OS environment, the complete refresh path may be right for you. This migration will require an upgrade to the latest generation of hardware as well as an update to your software applications and drivers.
Upgrade Only Hardware for a Legacy Compatibility Refresh
If it’s determined your legacy devices, drivers, and applications will not work seamlessly in a new OS environment, the legacy compatibility refresh path may be right for you. This migration will allow you to maintain your existing software, I/O, and applications while deploying latest-generation hardware.
Find the Right IPC for Your New Build
Navigating the complexities of a greenfield project can be overwhelming. Your tech choices today must allow for future flexibility while avoiding obsolescence. Intel is here to help you find the IPC your organization needs to capitalize on the benefits of Industry 4.0.
Find the IPC That Fits Your Needs
Our industrial customers have unique needs and work in a variety of environments. That’s why we work with our partners to offer IPCs in a range of form factors and mounting options that can be used for many applications. Take advantage of ready-to-deploy products from our partners.
Panel IPCs
Panel-mounted PCs, including touchscreens, can be installed into a cutout or other enclosure so that they appear flush with the surface.
Rack-Mounted IPCs
These PCs can be mounted close together in rack-mount chassis to provide reliable computing power in space-constrained environments.
Box/Embedded IPCs
These PCs are highly compact, low powered, and come in fan or fanless configurations so they can easily fit into compact, dusty, or dirty spaces.
DIN Rail IPCs
These space-saving, compact PCs are specifically designed to be mounted on DIN rails, which makes installation in industrial environments significantly faster and easier.
Meet Modern Manufacturing Needs with Intel Partner IPC Solutions
Explore Industrial PC Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
An industrial PC, IPC, or industrial computer is a rugged solution designed to meet demanding environmental requirements, such as protection from liquids and dust, extreme temperatures, and high shock and vibration. Compared with client systems, IPCs offer greater customization, reliability, and scalability, plus a longer product life cycle.
New IPCs offer connectivity, intelligence, and optimized performance that older legacy systems cannot deliver. They can also interact with other platforms, like high-resolution vision systems. Low-power and fanless designs make it possible to embed IPCs in smaller, more-compact form factors, ideal for space-constrained environments. In a rapidly evolving business environment, this can be the competitive advantage over other industrial enterprises.
Only industrial computers, also referred to as industrial PCs, can be used in industrial settings because they include certain characteristics and features that help keep them protected and functioning in harsh or remote environments. Some of the most common characteristics and features include a ruggedized design, the ability to operate under a wider temperature range, expansion options, being dust/water/immersion proof, enhanced EMI filtering, and industrial-grade technology components with longer technology life cycles that can range from seven to 10 years.
An industrial control system (ICS) can be described and defined in many ways. Each definition will vary slightly based on the sector within which it is being used. However, there are global professional associations and government agencies that set industry standards and definitions to create a common language to be used by all professionals. One example is the International Society of Automation (ISA), which provides a definition of an ICS in the ISA/IEC 62443 glossary as: “A collection of personnel, hardware, software, and policies involved in the operation of the industrial process and that can affect or influence its safe, secure, and reliable operation."4 Another example is one provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which defines an ICS as, “An information system used to control industrial processes such as manufacturing, product handling, production, and distribution. Industrial control systems include supervisory control and data acquisition systems used to control geographically dispersed assets, as well as distributed control systems and smaller control systems using programmable logic controllers to control localized processes."5
Product and Performance Information
Compared to manual inspection. Results based on internal ADLINK and LEDA testing.
Compared to previous automated optical inspection (AOI) solution using an off-the-shelf industrial PC running open source software, based on internal ADLINK and LEDA testing.
Requires activation and a system with a corporate network connection, an Intel® AMT-enabled chipset, network hardware, and software. For notebooks, Intel® AMT may be unavailable or limited over a host OS-based VPN, when connecting wirelessly, on battery power, sleeping, hibernating, or powered off. Results dependent upon hardware, setup, and configuration. For more information, visit www.intel.com/vpro.
Tim Harwood, “ICS4ICS ‒ Incident Command System for Industrial Control Systems: Introduction to Industrial Control Systems,” International Society of Automation (ISA), December 20, 2021, youtube.com/watch?v=h4NU_PlQuUQ.
“Managing Information Security Risk: Organization, Mission, and Information System View,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, March 2011, nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-39.pdf.