DFI Industrial Fanless System Brings Intel Power to Factory Automation
January 29, 2026
Blog
The challenges of bringing AI into the industrial sector can be immense, especially in legacy facilities laden with outdated infrastructure and technology. When looking to layer factory automation and other industrial embedded and IoT solutions into a legacy manufacturing space, an enterprise is often wisest to work with a partner that’s equipped with exactly the experience, tools, and strategies that they need.
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DFI is exactly such a partner, and the company’s EC70A-MTH Ultra Compact Fanless System is designed to solve factory automation and AMR challenges by packing the Intel Core Ultra processor performance into a compact, fanless, and rugged system.
The company says it delivers advanced AI inference via built-in Intel Arc graphics, eliminating the need for bulky discrete GPUs that introduce complexity and potential failure points, especially in environments that require extended temperature resilience, hazardous conditions, and real-time shock resistance.
The EC70A-MTH is engineered for motion, DFI says. It features 5G connectivity, out-of-band (OOB) management, and shock/vibration certification with a -20°C to 60°C operating range. With 3 LAN and 4 COM ports, the EC70A-MTH is designed to ensure reliable, real-time control for critical industrial applications.
It's targeted at a wide variety of industries, including Education, Health & Life Sciences, Manufacturing & Robotics, Retail, Transportation, Video Safety, and Critical Infrastructure, but it’s built to be ideal in rugged and hazardous conditions like those found in Industrial environments.
The Intel features that enable the EC70A-MTH’s AI processing include:
- Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 155U / Intel Core Ultra 5 processor 125U (TDP 15W for Fanless; TDP 28W for w/ Fan)
- Intel Arc Graphics (DirectX 12, Open GL 4.6, Vulkan 1.2)
- Intel Ethernet
- OpenVINO Toolkit
- Intel oneAPI Toolkit
- Dual Channel LPDDR5 6400MHz memory down 16GB (up to 32GB by request)
- 1 x M.2 2280 M key (PCIe x4/SATA)
- 1 x M.2 B key 3042/3052 for 5G-NR module (with SIM slot) & 1 x M.2 E Key 2230 for WiFi/BT expansion
- 2 x 2.5GbE (Intel Ethernet Controller I226-IT) & 1 x GbE (Intel Ethernet Controller I210-IT, supports OOB)
- Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 64bit, Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024, Linux
It’s important to remember that industrial environments require industrial engineering, even in sensitive AI processing environments, and DFI’s EC70A-MTH Ultra Compact Fanless System is ready to enable just these applications.
Intel’s AI Edge Initiative
This blog is part of a series outlining Intel’s AI Edge initiative. Intel recently unveiled its Intel AI Edge Systems, Edge AI Suites and Open Edge Platform. These are designed to help partners to integrate AI into existing infrastructure and help them to jumpstart development and to increase trust in their system performance and security.
Intel is working together with its software partners in the creation and optimization of AI for edge applications, as illustrated by this series of blog posts. Intel is working with its hardware platforms to specify AI Edge systems that allow for best-fit AI performance for key AI edge workloads and are available in a variety of power levels, sizes, and performance options.
To find out more, click here to visit Intel.
Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers, he would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars. In previous lives, he’s been a short order cook, telemarketer, medical supply technician, mover of the bodies at a funeral home, pirate, poet, partial alliterist, parent, partner and pretender to various thrones. Most of his exploits are either exaggerated or blatantly false.
