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Most of us probably think of the personal computer as a device that is used in an office or at home, primarily for writing, calculating, possibly designing and drawing, and of course the ubiquitous Web surfing.

 There are those, however, who need computers to run machinery or factories and they do not buy the same machines the rest of us do.

 Clement Lee, managing director of Asian Automation Associates, has been supplying industrial-strength computers throughout Asia for many years.

 Asian Automation builds special motherboards where all of the components - the processor, Ram chips, etc - are put on cards which plug into slots on the board.

 These boards are then put into a sturdy chassis for use in situations such as controlling a factory or large machines.

 Not only must the software be as bug-free as possible, but the hardware also must be capable of withstanding conditions that normally would never be faced in the home or office.

 Asian Automation calls them 'single-board computers'. The type of chassis for each has to be determined individually.

 'Customers need to consult us to pick the right chassis,' he said.

 The computer may have to sit outdoors or in a factory with many large machines that send strong vibrations throughout the building. To function basically 100 per cent of the time, it must be strong enough to hold up.

 There is a good deal more to producing an industrial-strength computer than simply throwing all the parts into a tougher box. The power supply is different, the electrical contacts are different and they do not even have fans.

 'Mechanical things fail, so we cannot afford to rely on fans,' Mr Lee said. In order to keep the machines cool - and they are never shut off - the heatsink is considerably bigger and more functional than in a normal PC.

 'Our power supply costs US$200. For a home PC made in Asia, the power supply would be about US$15,' Mr Lee said. 'A computer for a critical environment is never shut down, so we must use a much stronger power supply than normal.'  The mean time between failures for his machines is 100,000 hours (11 years).

 Another big difference with Asian Automation's computers is that Mr Lee uses gold plate for the electrical contacts for such things as the Ram chips, which are normally tin-lead-plated.

 'If your memory chips are tin-lead-plated, they can create a problem if they begin to disintegrate,' he said. The gold-plating they use will last much longer. Indeed, Mr Lee said the gold would last forever.

 'It's gold; it won't oxidise. The tin-lead contacts used in home PCs will last a few years and then begin to oxidise,' he said. And the price of gold had come down so much it was not all that much more expensive to use.

 All of this means you do not buy one of these machines at the same price you would be get one in Shamshuipo. 'A typical price for an industrial computer is about double that of a home PC,' Mr Lee said.

 One company happy with its industrial computers is AES Prodata, the firm behind the MTR's Octopus cards. According to Paul Smith, general manager of AES, the machines it bought have been working without problems.

 'We have an industrialised PC for collecting data and for the Octopus smart-card system,' he said. 'The environment out there [Tuen Mun] includes typhoons, high temperature and high humidity. It's been going fantastically well so far.'  Mr Lee said that because these machines were never turned off, there was little likelihood of rot or mildew entering.

 'The air pressure inside the box when it is on is greater than the outside, so nothing can get in,' he said.

 One reason the home computer is more easily attacked is that people leave them off for long periods.

 The kind of software that normally is run on the industrial machines is called Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.

 There are several companies specialising in this kind of software. All can monitor and control a plant or machinery and provide logging facilities.

 Mr Lee said the most important aspects of his machines were their longevity and stability.

 'Stability is important because technology changes so fast there is no continuity in design,' he said. 'A lot of PC suppliers today change models very quickly.'  Try going to a leading PC vendor and asking for a model they produced two years ago. Most people will have even forgotten the name.

 When supplying a factory, however, you cannot afford to have many different kinds of machine. Most people want one sturdy machine that will do the job.

 It also is important to be able to replace older machines. The key to this is the longevity of the models.

 Mr Lee said most components and parts were made in the US, and assembled in Hong Kong.

 This was amusing - an Asian computer company importing American parts - but he said US parts still were the best when industrial strength was needed.



Asian firm supplies PCs with an attitude