What is the difference between industrial PC and normal PC?

Regular PCs and industrial PCs share pretty similar basic components such as CPUs, RAMs, SSDs, and GPUs. However, industrial PCs are built and designed to withstand extreme environmental conditions, from extreme temperatures to shock and vibration exposures.

First, Different appearance.

Normal computer appearance, because most of them are placed in the office or home, the environment is generally better. The appearance of computers pursues aesthetics and convenience in placement. So, the appearance of an ordinary computer is basically a vertical chassis, which is usually equipped with only one power cooling fan, and the CPU and graphics card will be equipped with an internal cooling fan.

Industrial computer appearance, because it is used for industrial control, it will face various harsh environments. For example, industrial dust, electromagnetic interference, vibration, etc. In order to prevent electromagnetic interference, the chassis of industrial control computers are all made of fully tempered industrial chassis that comply with the "EIA" standard, enhancing their ability to resist electromagnetic interference. To prevent dust, the chassis generally adopts positive pressure convective ventilation, with two fans installed and a dust filter installed at the air outlet. In order to resist vibration, industrial control computers adopt a bus structure and modular design.

Second,Different structures.

The normal computer adopts a method of directly installing CPU, memory, disk, and graphics card on the motherboard. The communication efficiency between various components is higher. At the same time, in order to better meet the needs of entertainment and office, the performance of computer configurations is generally relatively high.

The industrial control computer adopts a bus structure and modular design. It has a passive motherboard with modular components. The CPU motherboard must be inserted into a dedicated slot on the passive motherboard. All other modular expansion boards are inserted into the expansion slots of the passive motherboard. The resistors, capacitors, and inductors on each module are designed with stronger anti-interference capabilities. This method can better shield against external interference and make the operation more stable.

Third,Different software environments.

Normal computers are basically equipped with the latest Windows operating system, of course, Apple computers are generally equipped with Mac OS. The software is basically equipped with office suites, video, social networking, gaming and other software as standard. Operating system optimization is basically aimed at optimizing front-end programs.

Most industrial control computers are also equipped with the Windows operating system, but they are often equipped with older Windows, such as Windows XP, in order to adapt to industrial control software. So, when Windows XP reveals vulnerabilities, these industrial computers are a large group. In terms of software, as it is specifically designed for the industrial control field, it is necessary to install specialized industrial control software. When tuning the operating system, we also face the optimization of industrial control software.

Although computers and industrial control computers are both computers, there are still significant differences due to different application fields. Ordinary computers are prone to problems in the field of industrial control. Industrial computers are also difficult to play when used for personal work and entertainment. So, don't confuse the two.