Aaeon announces rugged tablet computers

The range also withstands accidental drops, is vibration resistant and is equipped with both touch panel and a digitiser.

The first RTC product is called the RTC-840, which features an 8.4in TFT LCD display.

The RTC-840 supports the Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 1.2GHz processor with 200-pin DDR II 533/667 SODIMM socket (up to 2GB system memory).

It is powered by the ULV processor, which is claimed to deliver high performance and low power consumption.

The Intel 945GME LCD/CRT controller provides the unit with optional touch screen and advanced optibond technology (AOT).

The nine-cell smart lithium-ion high-capacity battery offers 6.5 hours battery life and the backlight MTBF is 20,000 hours.

'The RTC-840 encased in touch magnesium alloy, offers secure and reliable mobile computing while mounted on a vehicle or simply hand-held,' said Howard Hu, product manager of the research and development centre at Aaeon.

'It provides up to the minute information and in-field data acquisition.

'The RTC-840 can be used as a hand-held PC and as a static computer.

which can be mounted on moving vehicles such as trucks, ships and aeroplanes.

'It features built-in handwriting recognition, a numeric keypad and programmable function keys,' he added.

The RTC-840 offers a communication function that supports one Gigabit Ethernet, one 56kbps V.92/K56 flex modem, WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/g and optional Bluetooth Class 2.

The RTC-840 adopts flexible I/O interfaces and expansion slots designed to provide users with cost-saving solutions to expand existing systems.

It features one COM port, two USB 2.0 ports, one mini-USB, one docking port, two audio-in/out jacks for microphone/earphone, one PCMCIA slot, one Compactflash slot, and two internal mini card slots.

The RTC-840 weighs 4.7lb (2.15kg).

It can be useful for hospital practitioners, express delivery staff and people who need to hold the tablet computer for daily operations.