DFI ASL173 Intel Amston Lake Mini-ITX Embedded Motherboards with 9 to 36 V DC Input and -40 to 85 °C Options

Control cabinets usually run on a 24 V DC rail, vehicles and remote sites on 12 or 24 V batteries, and none of those supplies holds a steady 12 V. A board that needs its own regulated converter adds a part, a failure point and heat. The DFI ASL173 series takes 9 to 36 V DC directly, so these Mini-ITX embedded motherboards can sit on the rail or battery that is already there. The processors are Intel’s Amston Lake Atom x7000RE parts, with an Intel Processor N150 (Twin Lake) build for projects at room temperature.

Every ASL173 board takes one DDR5 4800 MHz SO-DIMM of up to 16 GB and uses Intel UHD Graphics with hardware decode for HEVC, VP9, AV1 and AVC. DP++ outputs drive 4K at 60 Hz and the series supports three independent displays. An M.2 A-key accepts DFI’s optional M2A display module for an eDP, LVDS, VGA, HDMI or DP panel connection.

Five builds cover the range. ASL173-CT-x7835RE carries the eight-core Atom x7835RE at 12 W with VGA, DP and USB-C outputs for vehicle video and multi-task gateways. ASL173-CT-x7433RE is the quad-core 9 W build with two DP outputs for cabinet HMIs. ASL173-CT-x7213RE runs two cores at a 2.0 GHz base clock and 9 W with DP and HDMI, and ASL173-CT-x7211RE is the 6 W dual-core build with two DP outputs and USB-C for battery-powered sites. All four operate from -40 to 85 °C. ASL173-CB-N150 pairs the quad-core N150 with DP, HDMI and four rear USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports for -5 to 65 °C installations.

Across the series, two 2.5GbE ports on Intel I226IT controllers keep a machine or camera network apart from the uplink. Six COM ports on internal headers (two RS-232/422/485 and four RS-232) sit beside 8-bit DIO, four internal USB 2.0 headers and three or four rear USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. An M.2 B-key (2242/3042/3052) with Nano SIM takes a cellular module, an M.2 E-key (2230) takes Wi-Fi, and a PCIe x4 slot with x2 Gen3 signaling and two SATA ports complete the expansion.

Power arrives as 9 to 36 V DC on a 4-pin connector or barrel connector. The boards carry CE, FCC, UKCA and RoHS compliance, a discrete TPM, a watchdog programmable from 1 to 255 seconds and support for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB, Windows 11 and Linux. Where a fixed 12 V supply is available, the ASL171 series offers the same processors on a 12 V input.