By Christia Gibbons
TNAZ Regional Correspondent

Justin Dyster doesn't just toss, he slams his computer to the ground to prove a point – it's rugged.

As vice president of engineering for Tempe-based Black Diamond Advanced Technology, a subsidiary of RMT, Dyster heads the design team for the SwitchBack™.

These computers can be dropped in puddles, withstand intense vibrations and shock, heat, cold, dust and run smoothly during monsoon conditions. And, the user doesn't have sit down to use it or take the time to flip open a top to access the screen.

For Dyster, an aerospace and systems engineer, it's nearly a labor of love. After years working with NASA and at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, and experiencing the changes in the defense industry that came with 9/11, he realized there was a need for a highly efficient, highly adaptable and dependable rugged computer.

It became his mission when his good friend George Gear was killed in 2003 in Ramadi, Iraq.

"It was a lot of personal incentive to do something with this chaos," Dyster said. He already had a side business developing gaming systems, but decided to leave Raytheon and develop his own rugged computer.

He partnered with Todd Einck, Shane Lewis and Michael Stimpson to develop the mini PC with reconfigurable hardware. In a traditional PC, the CPU and chipset control the entire operation system from input to storage to display.

The SwitchBack puts the control system in a programmable gate array, a semiconductor device that can be programmed as a re-definable circuit board, a virtual CPU, a memory storage device, or any combination of the three. Hardware can be added by a simple download, eliminating peripheral devices.

While originally designed to aid in close-air support to reduce error and increase speed and accuracy in military applications, the rugged computer has found a home in such commercial industries as border security and other law enforcement arenas, Dyster said.

The SwitchBack can be further customized with its BackPack and TopCap technology, which allows the user to choose modular devices including radio frequency identification, iris scanning, a digital gamer, fingerprint reader, magnetic card read and GPS.

One biometrics SwitchBack unit weights a little more than 4 pounds. Individually, and not even including cables and chargers, it would take 44 pounds of equipment to do the same job.

The SwitchBack debuted during the Embedded Systems Conference in 2006.

Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, editor-in-chief of "Rugged PC Review," called RMT "a good, solid company."

Rugged and semi-rugged equipment is a growth industry, he said. "That's because commercial computers are quite flimsy and delicate, and failure rates are very high."

Panasonic, GETAC, General Dynamics Itronix, Amrel, Dell, HP, and DRS are making what Blickenstorfer calls "ruggedized notebooks." Besides RMT, other makers of rugged tablets include, DRS, Advantech, Motion Computing, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Amrel.

While the circuit board and manufacturing is done elsewhere, the final assembly and testing of the SwitchBack is done in the Tempe office.

"Thirty-seven people in this facility are doing really remarkable global things," Dyster said.

RMT's product lines include Black Diamond Advanced Technology, Duros™; which supplies rugged and tablet fixed-mount PCs; and DAP Technologies, which designs and manufacturers rugged handheld and mobile computers.