DFI AL253-BN-40E40 Quad-Core Intel Atom x5-E3940 4″ x86 SBC with 9 to 36 V DC Input and Quad GbE

A machine controller that also drives an operator screen needs enough cores to keep the control loop and the interface apart, without the heat of a larger processor in a closed cabinet. The AL253-BN-40E40 is the quad-core Atom x5-E3940 build in the DFI AL253 series of 4″ x86 SBCs, sitting between the dual-core and x7-E3950 builds on power and compute.

The Intel Atom x5-E3940 (Apollo Lake) runs four cores at 1.6 GHz, bursting to 1.8 GHz, within a 9.5 W TDP. 4 GB of DDR3L is soldered on the board, with one DDR3L 1866 MHz SO-DIMM slot for up to 8 GB total. Intel HD Graphics drives a DP++ output at up to 4096 x 2160 at 60 Hz and a VGA output at up to 1920 x 1200, so an operator panel and a supervisory screen can run from one board.

Four GbE ports on Intel I211AT or I210IT controllers cover machine, fieldbus and plant networks. Four RS-232/422/485 COM ports and an 8-bit DIO connect drives, barcode readers and stack lights, and USB is two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 on headers. An M.2 E-key (2230) takes Wi-Fi, a full-size Mini PCIe socket with SIM takes a cellular module and one SATA port takes an SSD, with firmware TPM 2.0 and a watchdog timer on board.

The AL253-BN-40E40 runs from 9 to 36 V DC on a barrel connector, cooled by a fanless heatsink, and operates from 0 to 60 °C with CE, FCC, UKCA and RoHS compliance. For a cabinet that sees frost, AL253-TN-40E40 is the same build rated for -40 to 85 °C. Where the application needs the higher-TDP Atom, AL253-BN-40E50 carries the x7-E3950.