Zeta 3950: Rugged SBC launches with quad-core CPU and dual Gigabit Ethernet

Winsystems is a popular maker of industrial and edge computers, offering a plethora of SBCs as well. The ZETA 3950 is one such product, which happens to be a rugged single-board computer (SBC) that can handle temperatures as low as -40° F or -40° C, and as high as 185° F or 85° C.

At just 2.1 x 3.3 x 1.84 inches or 5.5 x 8.4 x 4.7 cm, the SBC is plenty compact as well, which is pretty typical for its kind. The board is powered by an x86 chip, the Intel Atom x7-E3950. As for the "rugged" tag, Winsystems claims a high MTBF for the board, but did not share from any precise measurements. The soldered LPDRR4 memory also helps in this regard.

The quad-core E3950 is almost a decade old, and packs a 12-watt TDP for extremely modest performance. For context, a Ryzen 3 3200U is more than twice as fast as the E3950 in synthetic benchmarks. 

The chip also packs an integrated Intel HD 505 iGPU, which is also an extremely humble part and should only be good enough for the most non-intensive of workloads. For an SBC intended for hobbyist and industrial use, however, the Atom SoC should suffice pretty well.

The I/O on offer has been detailed below:

• 16-pin GPIO
• Five USB 2.0 Type-A
• Single USB 3.0 Type-A
• Four RS-232/422/485 COM ports
• MIPI CSI camera interface, single-channel LVDS, VGA
• mini PCIe, microSD for expansion
• Dual 1G Ethernet

The SBC comes equipped with 8 GB of soldered LPDDR4-2400 memory, and requires a separate header board for most of its I/O capabilities. 128 GB of eMMC storage is present, and more storage can be added, courtesy of the mini PCIe slot. OS support is decent, with Ubuntu, Windows 10 IoT supported out of the box along with other x86 platforms.

For pricing and availability details, customers are requested to get in touch with Winsystems directly for quotations. Like other industrial products, pricing will likely depend on order volume. For casual hobbyists, however, something like the ARM-based Raspberry Pi 5 (currently $134.48 on Amazon) might be a better option.