Hardware · Industrial PC
Industrial PC and edge computer: what it is and how to choose one
What defines the unit is what plugs into each port.
What it is
Industrial PC, PLC and gateway: what each one does
All three share the same panel. What changes is the job each one is given.
Office PC
What it does
What it is used for
PLC
What it does
What it is used for
IIoT gateway
What it does
What it is used for
Industrial PC / edge computer
What it does
What it is used for
| Device | What it does | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Office PC | Similar inside, but no margin for dust, heat or years switched on | Lab tests |
| PLC | Controls the machine in real time; keeps little history and runs no AI models | Line control |
| IIoT gateway | Translates protocols and forwards data; little memory and compute | Bringing a few signals onto the network |
| Industrial PC / edge computer | Reads, stores, computes and runs models inside the plant | Cameras, several machines and offline work |
Types
Four industrial PC form factors and where each one goes
Compact fanless box
- Where it goes
- Electrical enclosure, next to the machine
- Good for
- Reading PLCs and sensors, one camera with a light model
- Watch out for
- No room for a desktop GPU: the chassis cannot shed more than a few tens of watts
How to choose
Eight criteria for choosing an industrial PC
The datasheet answers half. The other half is measured in your enclosure, in midsummer.
Temperature
What to look at
In practice
Mounting and form factor
What to look at
In practice
Power
What to look at
In practice
Ports and I/O
What to look at
In practice
GPU for vision
What to look at
In practice
Protocols
What to look at
In practice
Offline operation
What to look at
In practice
Remote management
What to look at
In practice
| Criterion | What to look at | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | The unit operating range and the real temperature inside the enclosure in summer, not in the room | We measured 95 °C on the CPU after 3.5 minutes in a closed enclosure with no extraction |
| Mounting and form factor | Rack, DIN rail, wall or panel door; free space for the air to get out | Decided from a photo of the spot, before choosing the model |
| Power | 24 V DC or AC input, backup against outages and an orderly shutdown | An outage must not corrupt the disk or lose what was measured |
| Ports and I/O | How many network cards, RS-485 or RS-232 serial ports and digital inputs it has | Camera network kept apart from the plant network |
| GPU for vision | How many cameras it processes at once and how much memory the loaded models need | GPU memory is the limit, not speed |
| Protocols | Which software talks to the devices: Modbus RTU and TCP, OPC UA, EtherNet/IP, MQTT | Read-only, without touching the PLC logic |
| Offline operation | It must store locally and send what is pending when the network is back | Measuring does not stop with the connection |
| Remote management | Who updates, checks and restarts it without travelling to the plant | A unit nobody can check ends up switched off |
If the unit will process video, the GPU and heat decide almost everything. The full measurements, on an open bench and in a closed enclosure, are in the guide to industrial PCs for machine vision.
With iGromi
The Edge: an industrial PC that reads the plant without touching it
- Reads the PLC read-only: it does not write or change parameters
- Uses the CCTV cameras that are already there
- Keeps measuring offline and sends what is pending later
- Raw data stays in the plant; the results go out
At Grupo Proa there is one Edge per farm that counts with the existing cameras: 99 % measured against manual counting. Read the case →
In the app
The Edge status, in view of whoever looks after it
The app shows which models are active, which cameras are online and how many readings are queued while there is no internet. If the unit stops reporting, it alerts.
The app is free during early access. Reading PLCs, sensors and cameras requires the Edge in the plant.
Your data
Where the data is kept
iGromi cloud, separated per company
The shift app: chat, photo and voice records, and AI that answers with its source.
A private, isolated cloud for your company
Adds SAP, ERP and spreadsheets. The AI model runs inside that cloud.
Inside your plant, on Edge or on-premise
Adds PLCs, sensors and cameras. The Edge reads the PLC read-only and keeps measuring offline.
FAQ
Industrial PC FAQ
What is an industrial PC?
What is an edge computer?
How does it differ from a PLC?
Do I need a GPU?
Is a fanless industrial PC good enough?
What happens if the internet goes down?
Does iGromi sell industrial PCs?
Keep reading
Related guides
Every shift without a record is data you lose. Start free.
- 1Request early access, free
- 2Pick your trade: maintenance, production or safety
- 3Your team starts with the chat and its trade helper
No credit card. Your data stays yours.