XGA Windows XP-based vehicle mount computer
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

The Tx700 vehicle mount computer was originally made by Swedish Akerströms Trux, a company that was acquired by EMS Technologies, Inc. in February of 2008 and made part of EMX subsidiary LXE. In October 2007, LXE announced that manufacturing was now in Norcross, GA.

The Tx700 is a rugged forklift and other vehicle-mount computer with a tough, shock-resistant magnesium housing. The computer measures 12.1 x 9.8 inches and is 3.5 inches thick. It weighs just over eight pounds and can be installed in vehicles with a shock-absorbing mounting bracket system. The Tx700 has a 12.1-inch XVGA display with either 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and a 320 nit backlight or 800 x 600 resolution and a 400 nits backlight (standard notebooks usually have around 200 nits). A hardened touch panel is optionally available as is a LCD defroster.

The Tx700 is powered either by a 600MHz or 1.0GHz Mobile Celeron or a 1.4GHz Mobile Pentium processor. It is a full Windows machine that can either be run with Windows XP Professional MUI or XP Embedded. 512MB to 1GB of RAM are complemented by either two or four GB of Flash, depending on the OS used. There is also a 40GB hard disk. No cooling fan is required. The Tx800 runs on 12V DC vehicle power, but also has an internal Li-Polymer battery.

There is a PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, two serial ports, an USB 2.0 ports, a multipurpose connector, video out, RJ45 10/100 Ethernet, as well as audio in/out and an external antenna socket. There are also two PC Card Type II slots. For connectivity, the Tx700 offers internal 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Bluetooth as well as GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA cell options.

An interesting safety option is the Blackout Screen Box that switches off the display back-light when the vehicle is set in motion and is completely user adjustable.

A special version of the Tx700, the Tx700 CE, that ran Windows CE on a 400MHz Intel Celeron processor was offered but appears no longer available as of late 2008.