Two Tech: Rugged individualism

HORSHAM, Penn.–”2E” settles into his chair at “2T” surrounded by blinking, colorful handheld devices on a demo table. One sits in a small fish tank, doing its work uninterrupted underwater.

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Eric Eckstein is “2E,” his email signature, and “2T” is Two Technologies, Inc. (Two Tech), a company that was named in a fairly straightforward but amusing manner described by the president and COO in our interview below.

The company was founded almost 25 years ago. It was a period during which a lot of us in the industry thought a couple of different ways about rugged computers:

1. Great for the military and battlefield conditions.

2. Lower-cost PCs will eventually grow a rugged design “head” and take over what was then a profitable but niche business, and customized devices will turn in a warm memory.

Two Tech has taken #1 to new applications and turned #2 on its head.

The company made customization a strong systems business with the best of mass-produced, widely available electronics components technology and a respect for software lineage.

They’re a big XScale house but not wedded to it, Eckstein explains. They use different MCU engines for different platforms, but they’re mindful of the fact that some customers have incredible systems longevity: Two Tech has been selling the same product to one customer since 1987.

“We’re more concerned that our clients’ software remain consistent over a period of time,” Eckstein said. “We all experience operating-system changes which beget application changes. We mitigate that by layering out the hardware and saying the application software you have is consistent … over the product experience you have with us.”

They also understand and articulate the different “rugged” computers and “ultra-rugged” computers. What’s the difference? Ultra-rugged can survive in water three feet deep for an hour.

Here’s Eckstein on the origins and mission of Two Tech:

 

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Editorial Director for EE Times' EE Life engineering community. Baseball fan and road trip guy for the next several months. View all posts by Brian →

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