Rugged results for remote needs

In some situations, the answers to a customer’s challenge can live within an existing product. For an automotive company seeking to expand their autonomous line, this was just the case.

The Crystal Group AVC0161 combines impressive compute power, data-handling capabilities, and storage capacity in a compact, rugged solution capable of withstanding harsh environmental conditions.

Initially, our customer came to us to ruggedize their existing automotive computer system. Throughout discussions with both teams, we discovered our AVC0161 system would be a more effective replacement.

Though the AVC0161 met their initial requirements, the customer needed additional features, such as external I/O, a customized cooling loop, additional GPU power and remote NVMe drives. The latter was a significant challenge as external NVMe cabling was not yet in production. The Crystal Group engineering team used this challenge as an opportunity to think creatively and play to our strengths.

To meet the external NVMe drives requirement, we cut a hole in the system and used one-of-a-kind ruggedized internal style cabling. Next, we added an additional 500w of power to our standard 1500w DC automotive power supply, which supports up to four GPUs. This addition provided the GPU power required for the customers’ AI training and inference for autonomous driving.

As an automotive company, the customer could implement a custom cooling loop into their vehicle, with some guidance from our engineers. Technology, parts and simulation were provided by our team to ensure that their custom cooling loop set up worked as they needed it to.

Using our AVC0161 unit standard as a short-term solution, we were able to customize it further in a short period of time to get them the exact configuration they needed.

Learn more about our rugged server solutions and let us know how we can customize a solution for you.