INTELLIQUILTER TURNS TO CETRIX to SUPPLY LINUX TABLETS FOR INOVATING QUILTING SYSTEMS

Overview

BUSINESS ISSUE

For IntelliQuilter, a US based company that makes quilting machines, the tablet computer is the main controller in their iQ system. IntelliQuilter has chosen Linux over other operating systems for its stability and easy accessibility of the computers’ hardware resources without the operating system interfering with the applications. Installing Linux in tablets with the x86 architecture is a serious task since some x86 implementations don’t allow for a complete Linux functionality. This is especially true for the latest Intel Atom-driven tablet models. The situation for IntelliQuilter was made even more difficult by how quickly these models, coming mostly from Chinese manufacturers, became obsolete. Very often, by the time they finally succeeded in installing Linux and their application in a new model, they learned that it was not made anymore and that some newer model had taken its place.

THE CETRIX SOLUTION 

After detailed research in the market for tablets with non-Atom Intel processors from vendors that offered long-term availability, IntelliQuilter was pleased when the search produced the CETRIX CZ974, a 9.7” tablet with a Celeron processor. The fact that the tablets were offered with an Ubuntu distribution already installed, and that continued production was promised for several years, made CETRIX the idea vendor for their application. The tablets were also offered at a very competitive price. IntelliQuilter switched to CETRIX immediately. The tablet had another important advantage. The existence of two full-size USB ports that was critical to their application. For each new tablet model they had to design a different docking station to allow mounting the tablet on the quilting machines. In case of the CETRIX tablet, IntelliQuilter could eliminate the USB hub that was made necessary for the missing second USB port on those tablets. The location of the ports on the short edge of the tablet also made designing the docking station easier. 

RESULTS  The first 9.7” Celeron tablets were put through comprehensive testing in the IntelliQuilter factory and at beta testers. During these tests the Celeron tablet showed superior performance to the slower Atom tablets. IntelliQuilter also found other parameters, such as immunity to shock and vibration, relatively low operating temperature, screen sharpness, viewing angle and brightness to be ideally suited for their application. IntelliQuilter was especially pleased that there was no separate BIOS/RTC battery, which on other models required sending back the tablets to them for coin battery replacements that caused additional customer support work for them and downtime for their customers.    PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS – CZ974 Display: 9.7" IPS display, 2048*1536 pixels chipset: Intel Celeron 1037U, 1.80GHz (Optional i3/i5/i7) RAM: 2GB DDR3 (Optional 4GB) Storage: 32GB SSD (Optional 64/128GB) network: WCDMA (HSPA) / CDMA200 EVDO (Optional) Bluetooth 2.0, wifi 802.11 b/g/n battery: 4900 mAh i/o: 2* micro usb / hdmi / safety lock /30 pin docking connector / dc-in port  for charging  os: Free Dos / Linux / Microsoft XP / Windows7 / Windows8 (Optional)