DFI AL171-CT-E3930 Dual-Core Intel Atom x5-E3930 Mini-ITX Mainboard with Dual GbE and -40 to 85 °C

Remote data loggers and protocol gateways often run from a 12 V supply backed by a battery, in a cabinet that gets cold at night and hot in the sun. The AL171-CT-E3930 is the low-power extended temperature build in the DFI AL171 series of Mini-ITX mainboards, rated from -40 to 85 °C and fed directly from 12 V DC.

Its Intel Atom x5-E3930 (Apollo Lake) has two cores at 1.3 GHz, bursting to 1.8 GHz, within a 6.5 W TDP, the lowest of the Atom builds in the series. Two cores are enough to poll field devices, buffer readings and forward them upstream. Two DDR3L 1866 MHz SO-DIMM slots take up to 8 GB, and Intel HD Graphics can drive three independent displays from VGA, DP++, LVDS and eDP connectors for a service screen or a local panel.

Six COM ports on internal headers (two RS-232/422/485, four RS-232) and 8-bit DIO connect meters, sensors and relays. Two GbE ports on Intel I211IT and I210IT controllers, matched to the extended temperature rating, separate the field network from the uplink. An M.2 B-key (2242/2280) with PCIe, SATA and USB signals takes a cellular module or an SSD, and full-size Mini PCIe takes Wi-Fi. Four rear USB 3.0 ports, five internal USB 2.0 connections, two SATA 3.0 ports and a PCIe x1 Gen2 slot complete the I/O.

The AL171-CT-E3930 runs from 12 V DC on a barrel connector or 4-pin header and operates fanless from -40 to 85 °C, with CE, FCC, RoHS and UL compliance and a watchdog programmable from 1 to 255 seconds. Where the gateway needs four cores, AL171-CT-E3950 keeps the same rating with the 12 W Atom x7-E3950. For an indoor project, AL171-CB-N4200 offers four cores at 6 W from 0 to 60 °C.