Factory automation is rapidly evolving from isolated control islands into fully connected, data‑driven production environments. Manufacturers are investing in smart manufacturing technologies—including edge computing, machine vision, AI‑assisted quality inspection, digital twins, and modernized HMI systems—to improve throughput, quality consistency, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). These developments reflect the broader IT/OT convergence, where production lines increasingly rely on PC‑class edge computing to process sensor data, vision workloads, and real‑time analytics without cloud latency. Edge computing and IIoT integration are consistently highlighted as major drivers of automation growth, enabling faster decisions and more autonomous operations
At the same time, factories are prioritizing stable, long‑life operating system strategies to reduce maintenance overhead. In Microsoft environments, this often includes adopting the Windows Long‑Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) — a Microsoft‑specific servicing model designed for fixed‑function and mission‑critical industrial systems that require predictable behavior and minimal feature changes over long deploy‑cycles. This aligns well with industrial deployment needs, where OS stability and long‑term support are essential for maintaining reliable 24/7 operations.
Designing industrial mainboards for today’s factory automation environments requires a careful balance of performance, expansion capability, reliability, and long‑term compatibility. Modern edge nodes often handle multiple workloads simultaneously—machine vision preprocessing, AI inference, real‑time visualization, and continuous data logging—so multi‑core CPU performance and high memory bandwidth are essential to maintain responsiveness under concurrent loads.
Equally important is expansion flexibility. Manufacturing systems routinely integrate motion control cards, frame grabbers, data‑acquisition (DAQ) modules, industrial fieldbus interfaces, and legacy peripherals. As a result, edge platforms must offer both modern PCIe slots for high‑bandwidth devices and legacy PCI for compatibility in brownfield operations where older equipment remains critical to the production line.
Display and visualization requirements also shape system architecture. Many production workflows rely on multi‑display outputs for HMI/SCADA panels, inspection stations, and line performance dashboards. Meanwhile, storage and I/O density directly influence deployment simplicity: factories often require SATA for local data retention and abundant USB ports for cameras, service tools, dongles, and other peripherals.
Finally, security and maintainability have become non‑negotiable. Hardware‑based protections such as TPM help align with industrial cybersecurity policies, while broad OS ecosystem support—especially when using Microsoft Windows LTSC, designed specifically for stable, fixed‑function industrial systems—reduces integration effort and mitigates lifecycle risk in 24/7 production environments.
Portwell’s RUBY‑D813‑H610E‑D5 delivers a practical, expansion‑oriented ATX platform purpose‑built for industrial deployments that require PC‑class performance and flexible, long‑lifecycle I/O. Supporting 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7/i9 processors (LGA1700), the platform provides ample multi‑core compute capacity for mixed factory‑floor workloads—from HMI/SCADA visualization to machine vision inspection, edge analytics, and real‑time data aggregation.
A central advantage of the RUBY‑D813‑H610E‑D5 is its support for DDR5 memory up to 5600 MT/s, enabling higher bandwidth for memory‑intensive automation workloads. This improves responsiveness in multi‑tasking edge nodes—for example, buffering multi‑camera vision streams while simultaneously running visualization, inference, and data logging on the same system.
For expansion, the RUBY‑D813‑H610E‑D5 combines next‑generation and legacy support to accommodate a wide spectrum of industrial hardware. Its PCIe 5.0 x16 slot provides the throughput needed for high‑performance GPUs, AI accelerators, and high‑speed vision cards. Complementing this are 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x4 signal), 1x PCIe 3.0 x1, and 4x legacy PCI slots, an especially valuable mix for brownfield environments where motion‑control cards, DAQ modules, and fieldbus interfaces remain in active service.
System I/O is equally versatile. The board includes USB 3.2 Gen2, USB 3.2 Gen1, USB 2.0, M.2 (Key M) for NVMe or SATA storage devices, and SATA III for economical bulk storage—supporting both fast‑response OS drives and large local data retention. A TPM header helps meet modern industrial cybersecurity requirements, while multi‑display support (DP + HDMI® + VGA) ensures compatibility with both new and legacy HMI panels deployed across production lines.
Together, these design choices make the RUBY‑D813‑H610E‑D5 a robust foundation for motion‑control systems, machine‑vision inspection stations, edge gateways, and integrated “control + visualization” industrial PCs—ideal for factories modernizing toward high‑bandwidth, real‑time edge computing.
As factory automation continues shifting toward connected, data‑rich, and analytics‑driven operations, edge computing platforms must deliver higher performance, richer expansion options, and long‑lifecycle stability. Portwell’s long‑lifecycle design approach—covering stable component sourcing, validated OS support, and predictable product availability—helps integrators and OEMs reduce risk across multi‑year industrial deployments. The Portwell RUBY‑D813‑H610E‑D5 addresses these requirements with its support for 14th/13th/12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors (LGA1700), DDR5 5600 MT/s memory capability, and a well‑balanced expansion architecture that blends PCIe 5.0 throughput with legacy PCI for maximum compatibility in mixed‑generation production environments.
The platform’s robust storage and I/O options, triple‑display outputs, and TPM‑ready security further strengthen its suitability for industrial deployments that demand reliability, responsiveness, and strict cybersecurity alignment. For system integrators and OEMs building factory automation solutions—especially those needing to combine modern acceleration hardware with existing field‑proven control or acquisition cards—the RUBY‑D813‑H610E‑D5 offers a cost‑effective and scalable foundation for deploying responsive, maintainable, and future‑ready industrial edge systems.
