Airtop 2
Compact Fanless PC
FOR HARSH ENVIRONMENTS
With Xeon and Quadro
Airtop2 is a high-performance ruggedized fanless PC for edge computing and industrial applications that require deployment in harsh conditions. Based on Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1275 v6 with an optional NVIDIA Quadro P4000 – both passively cooled using proprietary Natural Airflow technology and with a volume of just 7.5 liter – Airtop2 redefines the performance level of compact fanless PCs.
Other remarkable features of Airtop2 are up to 64 GB DDR4, high-performance storage sub-system with 2x NVMe + 4x 2.5” SATA SSDs / HDDs, tool-free service and a broad selection of FACE Module extensions.
Airtop2 is available at an industrial temperature range of -40°C to 70°C.

Top Features

Natural Airflow technology
Passive cooling is silent, reliable and requires no maintenance. Airtop2 achieves fourfold improvement in passive-cooling efficiency by Compulab’s Natural Airflow cooling technology – a novel heat-exchange system that stimulates airflow without moving parts, and by cooling each of the 3 major heat sources (CPU, GPU and storage devices) using a dedicated thermal zone independent of the other two.
Natural Airflow (NAF) technology is based on a multi-stage heat-exchanger. The first stage is a mirror-polished copper-plate attached to the hot spot. The 2nd stage is a set of high-performance flat heat-pipes arranged in a crisscross array that spread the heat evenly onto the surface of the air-tubes panel. The last stage is upward airflow generated inside the air-tubes by the stack effect due to the temperature gradient between the air-tubes and the air within.
Natural Airflow cooling is effective at an extremely broad temperature range. This allows Airtop2 to operate under load at ambient temperatures exceeding 70°C. NAF cooling is not subject to clogging, is not sensitive to dust and moisture and requires no maintenance thanks to not having any moving parts, filters or tight airways found in computers with traditional forced-air cooling.
Industrial design
Despite being small and fanless Airtop2 excels in ease-of-use. RAM and storage-devices are easy to reach with a tool-free clamshell opening mechanism. The front panel incorporates the I3M (Integrated Interactive Information Monitor) which shows on an embedded OLED display data like temperatures and power which the I3M acquires from the motherboard and operating system in real time.
Airtop2 7.5 liter housing is all-aluminium. The die-cast and machined parts fit seamlessly to make a ruggedized enclosure with functional elegance.


Built-in diagnostics
Airtop2 incorporates built-in diagnostics LEDs on the front panel that provide immediate visual indication of the initialization process – RAM detection, BIOS POST and detected displays. This feature saves precious technician time during troubleshooting. Further system information is available on the I3M display.
Storage
For storage Airtop2 has dual M.2 2280 NVMe with measured data rate of 3500 MB/s and additional 4x 2.5 SATA HDD/SSD. All storage devices can be configured to work in RAID. To prevent throttling, heat from all storage devices is dissipated by conduction into a dedicated heatsink. All storage devices are easily accessible.
Applications that require higher storage performance can utilize the NVM3 card that occupies the PCIe X16 slot and accepts 3x NVMe 2280 / 22110 / 30110 (NGSFF). Using NVM3 Airtop2 achieves a remarkable data rate of 9500 MB/s.


Graphics and display
Airtop2 is the only small-form-factor PC in the market that includes a passively-cooled 120W graphics card. Airtop2 can drive the displays of discrete and integrated graphics simultaneously for a total of 7 4K displays.
Having a ruggedized, small, silent and maintenance-free system with workstation-class graphics is beneficial in control rooms, outdoor digital signage and many other use-cases. With the increasing use of GPUs for computation Airtop2 opens new possibilities for running computation-intensive applications in harsh environments.
The graphics card in Airtop2 can be upgraded. Brand Wagon supplies a ready-to-use NAF-cooled graphics card that is easy to install.
Modularity
Airtop2 supports extension cards in multiple form factors including PCIe X16, 2x M.2 cards and miniPCIe. In addition Airtop2 supports Brand Wagon FACE Modules (Function And Connectivity Extension Modules) that currently include 4x Gbit Etherent, 4x PoE, 2x Optical LAN, 6x serial ports and more.


Motherboard and core-components
Airtop2 core-components are selected to provide balanced high performance for the most demanding edge-computing workloads. Core-components comprise of a Xeon-E3 CPU coupled with a Quadro GPU (both cooled passively) supplemented by up to 64 GB DDR4.
The motherboard is designed from the ground up to combine effective NAF cooling, optimal serviceability and enhanced reliability. The motherboard includes many novelties like redundant power supplies, sockets facing the clamshell door for simple tool-free upgrades and rigid-flex PCIe adapter to install full-height cards parallel to the motherboard.