When considering the ruggedness and overall fitness for challenging service of any high-tech equipment, I apply the Post-Apocalypse-Readiness Test. Will it stand up to lonely years of critical service in a fortified post-apocalyptic-wasteland bunker? When it comes to that well-documented environment, with all its heat, quakes, dust and hordes of slow-shuffling zombies trying to get in, here’s my take on how Advantech’s ARK-Series Embedded Box PCs stack up. Consider the ARK-1120, for example:
- Low Power Consumption. Its power-sipping sub-10 watt draw will be decidedly friendly to the tired old battery stacks in your fortified bunker compound.
- Multiple Mounting Options. With wall- or VESA-mounting options, you can install it pretty near anywhere.
- Multiple Configuration Options. Despite its diminutive footprint, the ARK-1120 has two COM and four USB ports, line-in and line-out ports, VGA and LAN ports, plus still has room for four antenna entries. It’s even one-half mini-PCIe expansible.
- Protection Classification IP-40. Its long mean-time-between-failure rating is perfect for your long-time-between-apocalypses applications, plus its tight, fan-less design is inherently resistant to all that post-apocalyptic-wasteland dust.
- Low noise. That fan-less design is also inherently quiet. You know how noisy fortified bunkers can get with a bunch of fan-cooled components running at the same time.
- Smart Remote Management. With “centralized device monitoring,” “integrated remote configuration” and “one-click system recovery” built in, you can install ARK-Series PCs in the outer bunkers of your bunker compound and manage them via your inter-bunker-compound network, without having to leave the zombie-proof comfort of your main bunker.
- Space Efficiency. You’re not getting any younger in that post-apocalypse world, and this may be the last trip to that long-abandoned industrial campus where you discovered a crate of ARK-Series Embedded Box PCs. You can carry up to 20 of them for every one of the old desktop PCs you were hoping to find. When it comes to high-tech equipment, smaller is better.
- Cost Effective. Sure, money’s no object now that … well … no one uses money in the post-apocalyptic world, but back in their day, these would have been among the most cost-effective solutions available to you, despite their state-of-the-art technology and capabilities. Still, imagine the barter value of those ARK-Series beauties if you’ve any left over.
This peculiar evaluation was inspired by three links that might still be available on the world-wide post-apocalypse web – here and here and here. Sure, the test is silly at first blush, but can you think of a more challenging – or entertaining – measure of ruggedness, durability and overall capability for energy-efficient service? Bottom line: If Advantech’s ARK-Series Embedded Box PCs can meet the rigors of the Post-Apocalypse-Readiness Test – and they do! – they’ll surely exceed the real-world applications you envision.