Box PC + Screen = Compact Solution.

Panel PCs are a PC and a screen built into a "single box" solution. The advantage is that you do not need to allocate space to mount/locate the CPU box. There are no interconnecting cables between the PC and the Screen to route, trip over, break, fall out, etc. In fact, as panel PCs come with the option of a touch screen, it is often the case that the only connection required is the power supply cable.

Panel PCs come in a wide range of sizes. Small screens are useful for displaying specific instrumentation data whereas large screens are great for running standard windows applications or for custom applications where large amounts of data need to be displayed on the screen at the same time.

Generally all the functionality you require such as serial, parallel, USB, ethernet (LAN), external monitor, sound etc is built in to the standard unit. Wireless LAN, firewire, PCMCIA etc are also offered, sometimes as standard, sometimes as an option.

A flexible approach.

Panel PCs can be mounted in a panel, on a VESA compatible fixing arm, or in a custom designed enclosure.

Because Panel PCs can run x86 based operating systems such as Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Embedded XP, etc they are highly flexible which allows them to run standard desktop software or custom written applications.