Rugged tablet prevents soldiers' mission knowledge draught

Product

April 18, 2012

John McHale

Editorial Director

Military Embedded Systems

To keep soldiers on the ground in-the-know when it comes to mission strategy, wouldn't it be nice if they could view mission-critical data out in the field?

To keep soldiers on the ground in-the-know when it comes to mission strategy, wouldn’t it be nice if they could view mission-critical data out in the field? A rugged tablet is certainly viable, and Panasonic Solutions Company’s Toughbook H2 could be just the ticket. The fully rugged Windows-based tablet PC runs on the Intel Core i5-2557M vPro processor, speeding along at 1.7 GHz or up to 2.7 GHz on Turbo Boost. Standard on the device are a 320 GB, 7,200 rpm shock-mounted hard disk drive and 4 GB RAM, which can be increased to 8 GB. A solid-state drive offering 128 GB storage is optionally available.

With a battery life of 6.5 hours and a starting weight of 3.5 lbs, the Toughbook H2 features two identical hot-swappable batteries touted to charge rapidly. And the soldier in the field can surely benefit from the 10.1" dual-touch display, which is sunlight readable and renders touch-screen and digitizer functionality. Operating at temperatures of -20 °F to +140 °F (-28.9 °C to +60 °C), the tablet also withstands a 6-foot drop in accordance with MIL-STD-810G and has a sealed, all-weather design in a polycarbonate-encased magnesium alloy chassis. Connectivity is via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi 802.11, with optional 4G mobile broadband and optional Gobi 2000 3G mobile broadband. Meanwhile, interfaces include USB, Ethernet, and serial, while optional security features comprise insertable or contactless SmartCard readers, in addition to a fingerprint reader.