The fitlet is tiny, fanless and full of features
Press ReleaseYokneam, Israel 14-Jan-2015 – CompuLab is introducing fitlet – a miniature 0.22l fanless quad-core PC that is not only packing more features than any other PC in its class, but is also designed from the ground up for unprecedented openness: Memory, storage, networking, extension cards and operating system can all be easily installed and upgraded by the user.
The Linux version of fitlet was developed with the Linux Mint team and will be available under the “MintBox Mini” brand.
fitlet is powered by latest AMD low-power APU and is built into a sleek, passively-cooled ruggedized housing. Three fitlet models are offered in various configurations ranging from a plug-and-play Windows PC to a barebone system priced at $129. All models come with a 5 year warranty.
Fitlet continues a tradition of innovation
fitlet was designed to replace the groundbreaking (and still popular) CompuLab fit-PC2. Every aspect is improved in fitlet –
– Performance and memory capacity of fitlet quadrupled compared to fit-PC2
– Graphics, networking, connectivity and storage are improved beyond comparison
– fitlet housing is 30% smaller and can be opened to access all internal devices
– Entry price was slashed by over 50%
– Warranty is extended to 5 years
– Hacker friendly – with a serial port, GPIOs and internal mini PCIe. Easy access to all internal devices
– Modularity that was previously restricted to the larger fit-PC3/IPC products is now available in fitlet
“Not all fanless PCs are alike” said Irad Stavi, Chief Product Officer at CompuLab. “fitlet is the fruit of 8 years’ experience in fanless PC design, so it solves many usability problems that newcomers to the art of fanless PC design are yet to learn about. Openness and modularity pose major design challenges in a miniature PC. fitlet was designed from the ground up to address these challenges.”
fitlet is built around the quad-core AMD A4 Micro-6400T with Radeon™ R3 Graphics which packs high-performance, powerful graphics and rich up-to-date connectivity into a minimal power envelope.
“We expected fitlet to perform well,” said Dimitry Katkov, VP R&D at CompuLab, “but once we started benchmarking it we found fitlet performance exceeding not only our expectations, but surpassing the performance of popular computers in our product line that are 5 times fitlet size!”
MintBox Mini is elegant and affordable
CompuLab and Linux Mint will introduce in Q2’15 MintBox Mini – the smallest and most affordable MintBox to date built upon the fitlet platform.
“We’re very excited to work with CompuLab on the new MintBox Mini.” Said Clement Lefebvre, Project Leader at Linux Mint. “This new unit is smaller in size (about a 5th of the MintBox’s volume) and it can fit in your pocket. At half the price, it’s more affordable than the MintBox 2 and it features great connectivity, SSD storage and very decent performance (twice as fast as the original MintBox Pro model).”
“CompuLab and the Linux Mint team share a passion for openness and elegance.” said Mr. Stavi. “Linux Mint out-of-the-box makes it more approachable, and we are glad that we can extend Linux Mint reach further by offering it on MintBox Mini which is smaller and more affordable than ever before.”
Fitlet is a PC with many FACETs
Function And Connectivity T-card (FACET card) turns fitlet-X from an everyday miniature PC into a powerful application specific instrument. The FACET interface includes 3 PCIe lanes, USB and LPC bus on a standard mini-PCIe connector. The housing is designed for simple incorporation of I/O connectors on the FACET card while keeping the professional look of the final product.
“FACET cards give incredible freedom to OEMs and advanced users to tailor fitlet to their needs.” said Dr. Arthur Rabner, fitlet System Architect. “Since FACET is mini-PCIe compatible, a user can immediately install any off-the-shelf card, but the true power is with purpose built FACET cards incorporating multiple interfaces and I/O connectors”.
fitlet-X LAN with FACET-LAN is an advanced networking appliance with four GbE ports.
FACET is completely open for 3rd parties to design their own extensions to fitlet, with published electrical and mechanical design guide and a complete reference design.
Fitlet models
Fitlet-i – the swiss army knife of miniature PCs
Fitlet-i is a miniature, fanless and ruggedized PC, featuring all the expected functionality and then some.
Fitlet-i standard features are unusually rich for a computer its size, including up to 8 GB RAM, mSATA, dual head HDMI, dual GbE LAN, WLAN 802.11ac, micro-SD socket and 6 USB port (2 USB3). Beyond that, fitlet-i features a powered eSATA, RS232, SMBUS, UART, 8 GPIOs and provision for mobile data communication. All features are completely user accessible. A great deal of thought was given to real-world usability scenarios resulting in a long list of integrator-friendly features: power plug locking, USB plugs locking, replaceable battery, programmable power-on, remote power button, power button locking and robust mounting.
Fitlet-X – 4 GbE LAN ports to begin with
If industrial PC applications have one thing in common it’s that they are all different. fitlet-X was designed to address this challenge by incorporating the FACET card (Function And Connectivity Extension T-Card). The first introduced solution is fitlet-X LAN, designed for advanced routing and network security applications. fitlet-X LAN provides four GbE ports without changing the form factor or reducing the standard connectivity found in fitlet. OEMs can quickly tailor fitlet-X to their specific requirements by designing a custom FACET card. CompuLab will introduce additional off-the-shelf FACET cards in the future.
Fitlet-B – Quality and reliability on a budget
Fitlet-B is the entry level model that makes no compromise on build quality and reliability. Powered by a dual-core AMD E1 Micro-6200T with Radeon™ R2 Graphics, fitlet-B makes an extremely attractive building-block for applications in robotics, thin clients, telemetry and basic digital signage. Compared to the popular CompuLab fit-PC2, fitlet-B is smaller, 2.5 times more powerful, has up to 4 times RAM capacity, dual head HDMI and comes with 5 year warranty. At $129 fitlet-B is less than half the price of fit-PC2.
Fitlet-i specifications
CPU: AMD A4 Micro-6400T 64 bit / quad-core / up to 1.6 GHz / 4.5W TDP
Graphics: AMD Radeon™ R3 Graphics,
Display: Dual HDMI 1.4a 1920×1200@60Hz with audio
RAM: Up to 8 GB DDR3-1333 (1x SODIMM)
Storage:
– mSATA up to 1 TB – SATA 3.0 6 Gbps
– Power eSATA (5V) – SATA 3.0 6 Gbps
– Micro-SD – SDXC support, rate 25 MB/s
Networking:
– Dual GbE (Intel I211)
– WLAN 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz dual band Intel 7260HMW) + BT4.0
– Support for mobile data communication with on-board micro-SIM socket
USB: 2x USB 3.0 + 4x USB 2.0
Audio: S/PDIF 7.1+2 channels in/out + stereo line-out/line-in/mic + HDMI audio
Connectivity: RS232, UART (3.3V), SMBUS, 8x GPIOs
Supported operating systems: Windows 7/8 64 bit, Linux Mint
Dimensions: 10.8 cm x 8.3 cm x 2.4 cm (0.22l), 250g
Expansion: miniPCIe (normally used for WLAN)
Note 1: fitlet-B has a different CPU (AMD E1 Micro 6200T)
Note 2: fitlet-B and fitlet-X have different features. Please consult specifications.
Fitlet availability
CompuLab will start accepting orders for fitlet in February 2015 at a price starting from $129 for fitlet-B Barebone. fitlet can be ordered in North America and Europe through Amazon and worldwide directly from CompuLab or from CompuLab resellers.
Source: www.fit-pc.com
