Powerful and highly flexible Box PC

The new rugged industrial Simatic Box PC 827B, part of the Box PC range from Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D), is designed for 24-hour continuous operation at ambient temperatures up to 55 degrees Celsius. It is available with powerful and energy-saving Intel Core2 Duo or Celeron M processors. The Box PC 827B has one PCIe(x4) slot and four PCI slots for expansion cards to handle demanding image processing applications, for example. The new PC is suitable for high-speed measuring and control tasks, or human machine interfacing applications. The Intel GMA 950 Graphics Media Accelerator has been integrated for high-speed display generation.

The new Simatic Box PC 827B is scalable, with a DDR2-677 main memory configuration of up to four GB, and Sata hard disk drives up to 160 GB. It has more than double the computing power of its predecessor model Box PC 840 V2. The new PC is identical in performance and in housing width and depth to its fellow family member, the Box PC 627B. With five instead of two free slots for additional expansion cards, Box PC 827B is significantly more flexible in use. The device has two teaming-enabled Gigabit Ethernet connections and one optional Profibus interface. All interfaces and functional elements are accessible from the front. Mounting brackets and kits are available for flexible installation in diverse positions, such as in the control cabinet or direct in the vicinity of the machine. For safe operation, the Box PC 827B is enclosed in a full metal housing that provides high resistance to shock and vibration and high electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).

An optional mirror disk system is available for high data security. The Raid1 controller for this purpose is already onboard and does not occupy any additional PCI slot. The Box PC 827B has two externally accessible drive slots to accommodate Compact Flash Cards for use in low-maintenance applications and for operation without a hard disk. Two freely programmable 7-segment displays and two LEDs indicate the power-up of the Bios, and enable fast diagnostics of the operating status, even within software applications. A Simatic Flat Panel monitor located up to 30 meters away can be connected via the integral DVI-I interface. In the event of an unexpected power failure, a battery-backed 128KB SRAM stores critical data needed for, for example, production control.

The Simatic Box PC 827B offers a high degree of investment security. The identical device will remain available for up to five years, with spare parts availability for at least five years after product phase-out has been announced.