The rugged computer is a computer specifically designed to reliably operate in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions. They are designed from inception for the rough use typified by those conditions commercial units upgraded for this purpose make poor substitutes. In general, ruggedized and hardened computers share the same design robustness, and frequently these terms are interchangeable. Extreme temperature capabilities include hard drive heaters, solid state hard drives, and hybird hard drives with enhanced operating temperature range. The difference between the two terms is that hardened generally refers to computers that can withstand a bit more shock and/or more adverse environmental conditions. Enclosure o-ring gasket sealing the entire case against dust, water and sand. Shock mounted hard drives.
