Computers are very powerful devices that if properly integrated with other electronic components, will make a very power electronic device or industrial machine. Not all kinds of computers can be combined with other electronic components to form another product. Desktop computers, for example, are simply too large to be fitted inside another electronic device. For such applications, you need a single board computer (SBC).

However, ordinary single board computers, are not enough for certain applications. Mission critical telecommunication applications, for example, need more than just a simple SBC. For such applications, a rugged SBC with some kind of supercomputing power is needed. Such single board computers are called high performance single board computers.

High performance single board computers are SBCs ,specifically designed of use in applications that require high reliability, functionality, serviceability and manageability. These computers have a superior computing ability and the capacity to support rigorous I/O operations. High performance SBCs often find use in aerospace, military, automotive, telemetry, scientific, medical, industrial control and transportation applications.

The “high performance” term in high performance SBCs has nothing to do with its size. Surprisingly, it also has nothing to do with the processor speed, although most heavy-duty applications require higher microprocessor speeds. Modern high-performance SBCs have processors with typical speeds of 1.7 to 2.7 GHz with 800 MHz system bus speed. It is not uncommon to find high performance SBCs in the 40 to 400 MHz ranges, especially if the SBC is small and used as an embedded SBC.

The memory size, whether the board uses a DDRAM or an SDRAM, won’t help you identify whether an SBC is high performance or not. Most high performance SBCs are equipped with more than 1 GB of memory, although there are units that are equipped with only 256 MB of memory. If you look at the specs of most high performance SBCs, you’ll their capability to support many I/O operations are common. Many of these SBCs have integrated video, serial devices, graphics support and other I/O devices. Most of them are also open for I/O expansion.

For heavy-duty applications, only a high performance SBC that has superior computer capabilities and can support rigorous I/O operations may be used.