DFI AL253 Intel Apollo Lake 4" EPIC Single Board Computers with Quad GbE and 9 to 36 V DC Input

Some installations need more network ports than a small board usually offers: a gateway that bridges a plant network to several machine cells, a transport cabinet that separates camera, control and uplink traffic, or a firewall appliance at a remote site. The DFI AL253 series puts four GbE ports on a 165 x 115 mm EPIC-size board with Intel Apollo Lake processors and a 9 to 36 V DC input, so it runs from 12 or 24 V supplies without a separate converter.

Every AL253 board has DDR3L soldered to the board, 2 or 4 GB depending on the build, plus one DDR3L 1866 MHz SO-DIMM slot for up to 8 GB in total, so the board runs without a module fitted. 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 for dual displays. A firmware TPM 2.0 and a watchdog timer programmable from 1 to 255 seconds are standard.

The range splits by processor and temperature. AL253-BN-40E50 and AL253-TN-40E50 carry the quad-core Atom x7-E3950 at 1.6 to 2.0 GHz and 12 W with 4 GB down, the first for 0 to 60 °C and the second for -40 to 85 °C. AL253-BN-40E40 and AL253-TN-40E40 use the quad-core Atom x5-E3940 at 9.5 W, also with 4 GB down. AL253-BN-20E30 and AL253-TN-20E30 use the dual-core Atom x5-E3930 with 2 GB down for low-power controllers. AL253-BN-20N00 pairs the quad-core Pentium N4200, bursting to 2.5 GHz at 6 W, with 2 GB down for standard-temperature projects.

The four GbE ports use Intel I211AT or I210IT controllers on RJ45. Four RS-232/422/485 COM ports and an 8-bit DIO handle serial devices and machine signals, and USB is two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports plus two USB 2.0 on headers. Expansion is an M.2 E-key (2230) with PCIe and USB 2.0 for Wi-Fi and a full-size Mini PCIe socket with SIM for cellular, alongside one SATA port for an SSD.

Power is 9 to 36 V DC on a barrel connector. BN builds operate from 0 to 60 °C and TN builds from -40 to 85 °C, with a fanless heatsink on every board. The AL253 series carries CE, FCC, UKCA and RoHS compliance and supports Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and Linux.