The PICO-APL4: Everything You Need for Factory Automation and IoT Gateway Systems

AAEON, a leading developer of advanced embedded controllers, releases the PICO-APL4, a compact and cost-effective SBC. The PICO-APL4 features onboard memory and storage along with dual Gigabit Ethernet support, and it’s ideally suited for factory automation and IoT gateway systems.

AAEON’s latest PICO form factor board is powered by an Intel® Atom™, Pentium® N4200, or Celeron® N3350 processor. By fitting the controller with up to 4GB of onboard DDR3L memory and up to 64GB of onboard eMMC storage, AAEON has not only made the board more resistant to the shocks and vibrations regularly experienced in industrial settings, but it’s also cut application development times as customers don’t need to test the compatibility of external memory and storage.

The flexible PICO-APL4 houses USB ports and connectors, COM ports, a HDMI port and optional eDP. There’s also a 4-bit DIO to manage peripherals and an optional four-lane MIPI-CSI. Expansion is easily achieved with M.2 B and E keys enabling the connection of additional storage and WiFi/Bluetooth modules. Through an optional board-to-board interface, customers can also extend the IO interface and add a larger DIO.

“The PICO-APL4 is designed to give users everything they need for effective factory automation and IoT Gateway applications,” said Jones Huang, AAEON embedded computing division product manager. “Its combination of dual Gigabit Ethernet support with onboard memory and storage put it ahead of almost every competing board, and its flexibility and expansion options ensure that the PICO-APL4 can’t be matched.”