Taiwanese computer maker DFI has announced a series of embedded products for smart city transportation using AIoT edge computing.

Smart transportation has shined in AIoT applications recently. Being part of the smart city, all demands for infrastructure, autonomous driving, parking management, fleet management, rail monitoring and technological law enforcement are within the purview of smart transportation.

Covering wide and complex applications, the peripheral terminal devices in smart transportation are even more diverse. Furthermore, the design of software and hardware not only needs to achieve versatility, but also allow system suppliers to integrate and deploy immediately, while reducing development and debugging time.

Based on user feedback, DFI is responding to market demands through its miniature, compact product line. It implements wide-temperature and wide-voltage designs for acclimating with various environments.

DFI has launched the CS181 industrial Mini-ITX board tailored to infuse AI into intensive edge computing such as licence plate recognition and traffic monitoring. In addition to supporting the MXM module to generate the performance required for deep learning and inference, its Mini-PCIe setup can expand for 5G or wifi modules, allowing response to the dynamics at the edge in real time. 

In terms of product design focus, all DFI’s smart transportation products are built on the development principle of supporting 5G and AI processing capabilities to prepare for the mobile network layout and the large edge computing load.

One of the success cases is smart fleet management: some integrators have introduced DFI’s industrial computers in the Taipei city smart bus tracking system, which is installed on the bus to link continuously with dynamic information at bus stops.

Its ability to withstand the stress test at the public transportation level is proven, and its stability is evident. Further, DFI has released the VP070-M8M transportation touch panel PC, which is used in commercial fleets to record driving trajectories, and Can Bus has been integrated to obtain vehicle hardware operation status. As an Android tablet based on the Arm platform, it can reduce deployment costs on the software side.

For rail and road applications, DFI has also released the RC300-CS and VC300-CS in-vehicle systems, which are both durable computers equipped with MXM modules that can handle autonomous driving and AI vision requirements. The RC300-CS has passed EN50155 and other railway certifications, and it is equipped with multiple M12 PoE output functionality.

Both computers support external mounted hard disks, designed for easier maintenance. They communicate with the vehicle’s peripheral devices through multiple serial interfaces, while meeting shock resistance and impact resistance standards.

In addition to assisting technology providers, DFI also has customised services for its products and components, including displays, cases and motherboards. It provides feedback on market trends and anticipates various factors that smart transportation applications must overcome.