14 DAY TRIAL // Normally, when it comes to industrial computers, embedded systems and other such installations, small motherboards are used, because as complex as automated equipment is, they don't need supercomputers to run. There still are plenty of sophisticated machines though, so Axiomtek has launched a motherboard for them.
Or, rather, Axiomtek has released a motherboard meant to be used in computers that will direct the tasks of communication, industrial, gaming and automation applications.
Called IMB211, it uses the Intel Q87 chipset and has an LGA 1150 socket because of that. It also boasts four 240-pin DIMM DDR3-1333/1600 slots, enabling random access memory of up to 32 GB.
Speaking of things that come in fours, there are four 32-bit PCI slots available as well, plus one PCI Express x14 slot, one PCI Express x4 and one PCI Express x1.
Moving on, there are five SATA-600 ports on the board, with support for RAID 0/1/10/5 configurations, which allows two or more HDDs to show up as a single drive in an operating system.
RAID enhances performance by sacrificing some of the total capacity to use as a sort of cache, greatly speeding up reads and writes.
Depending on the type, it will also increase data security and redundancy, though at the cost of some of the potential speed gains.
Moving on, the Axiomtek IMB211 brings six COM ports to the table, four USB 3.0 connectors, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and ten USB 2.0 ports.
All in all, the newcomer has more than the usual share of capabilities that 4th Generation Intel CoreTM i7/ i5/ i3 platforms boast. Then again, it’s not surprising, given the role that it will play. This isn't a consumer board after all, so it needs some “antiquated” assets like COM ports and legacy PCI.
Axiomtek believes that the specs of its latest creation make it a shoe-in for affordable entertainment, computing and industrial systems. That the IMB211 is compliant with RoHS specifications is just a bonus.
Finally, the Intel Active Management Technology 9.0 (AMT 9.0) is included, allowing network admins to remotely secure the system and manage it.
Unfortunately, the price is unknown, and will probably stay that way until later this month (April 2014), when it is expected to start shipping. And likely afterwards as well, since this product will not be released via retail, so the only ones that do learn its price will probably be among the corporate / government customers that place inquiries and orders with the company.