One of the key verticals in the integration of 5G we are told is in the industrial space – having machines on a shop floor communicate wireless to a central control hub with ultra-low latency or with ultra-high bandwidth. Automation and control are two elements that these designs can bring, which essentially falls under the ‘Internet of Things’ heading.

To that end, GIGABYTE’s Industrial PC division (GIGAIPC) has developed its first 5G certified PC for industrial use cases. As an added bonus, it is a fanless design, equipped with a Core i3-7100U and with space for up to 32 GB of DDR4. The QBiX Pro (QBiX-Pro-KBLB7100HD-A1) has passed verification field tests with Chunghwa Telecom’s 5G network earlier this year, and comes with a number of key industrial features, such as COM header support, dual Ethernet, video outputs, and plenty of USB. GIGAIPC is aiming its new QBiX Pro at automation, transportation, smart retail, medical, edge computing, and essentially anything IoT that requires high-reliability and 5G connectivity in the field.

5G is provided by an on-board PCIe solution, which GIGAIPC hasn’t cited however we have reached out to get this information. It is very likely to be a combination Qualcomm RF and front-end solution for sub 6 GHz, given the Chunghwa verification, which is attached through an onboard M.2 slot. If previous M.2 solutions are anything to go by, these 5G M.2 modules are wider than the standard M.2 widths we see for storage drives.

Update: It is Qualcomm, however we were not told which one.

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  • FreckledTrout - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    The VGA port is still alive! Its funny how VGA just never seems to die.
  • Threska - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    High-reliability with a low pin count.
  • 0ldman79 - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    Still run VGA myself, see no need to change.

    Better picture quality over several TVs now, more options to correct size, offset and overscan.

    There is the resolution limit but until that is the issue at hand VGA even has a crisper picture.
  • DigitalFreak - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    Crisper picture than what? VGA is analog.
  • shabby - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    Then cga of course.
  • Railgun - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    There is no vga here.
  • matfra - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    Agree, only see 2 RS-232
  • igor velky - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    I Love VGA
    BUT
    not for displaying stuff,
    for this kind of shenanigans:
    https://bk.gnarf.org/creativity/vgasig/
    xD
  • ingwe - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    Huh. That is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing that.
  • Samus - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link

    I'm still stuck on a GTX980 for my bench PC (which I occasionally use for gaming) because my 4-port KVM is HD15 analog. Most of the machines I still deal with (office PC's 2014-2019) still use VGA and while many have DisplayPort, I can't depend on that and don't want to deal with a million adapters and cables. HD15 is always on industrial\corporate PC's for this reason. For us 'IT guys.'

    And while you can convert DP to VGA with an active cable, it is a DAC and I have yet to find one that is perfect. Surprisingly, the HP branded DP>VGA adapters seem to work best, with Apple's mini-DP (Thunderbolt) >VGA adapter a close runner up. All the brand name adapters from Cables2Go to Starlink to TrippLite to etc etc etc all have glitching, random drops\disconnects, refresh problems, or poor picture. It's really amazing how the spectrum of quality is.

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