company.
According to Glacier VP of sales John Geary, the Magnum "has been engineered and built to provide superior performance in the most extreme conditions imaginable." As a result, the device is "ideal" for public safety applications such as "sharing dispatch information, running a warrant check, reviewing a preplan, obtaining real time weather updates, or simply doing reports."
The device comes with 1 GB of DRAM, and it includes USB 2.0 expansion for flexible addition of peripherals. Additionally, "multiple expansion slots" of an unspecified nature can be fitted with interfaces for 802.11a/b/g WLAN, WAN, and GPS, among other options, the company said.
To eliminate the need for external power converters or filters when the device is mounted in police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles, the Magnum has an internal 6 to 60 VDC isolated power supply. It also includes a built-in 1-hour "smart UPS," and has buttons for manually turning its LCD display on and off.
The company says the device is "built to Mil-Spec standards" and has an IP 64 environmental rating. To determine the system's reliability, the unit underwent HALT (high accelerated life test) screening aimed at identifying design defects and weaknesses in electronic and mechanical assemblies (the process involves triaxial vibration along with rapid high and low temperature changes). The result of this process was a predicted MTBF of nearly 40,000 hours, the company said.
From the software perspective, the Magnum can be supplied with Windows XP Embedded, Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista, and Linux, as its operating system. Additionally, it is supported with custom utilities for diagnostics, configuration, and screen brightness control. The diagnostic utility provides public IT personnel with "flight-recorder-like" data, according to the company.
Just last month Glacier introduced another rugged computer, the
Everest. Like the Magnum, it also has an an IP64 dust-moisture protection rating, and is currently available with Windows XP Embedded.
The Magnum is available now. Pricing was not disclosed.
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