Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions from engineers and product managers evaluating Design-in Services.
What is Axiomtek's Design-in Service?
Axiomtek's Design-in Service was created to offer indispensable engineering support at every critical stage of the embedded product development process. It helps system designers deal with electric design challenges, heat dissipation, verification testing, production quality control, and warranty support. The service directly reduces design uncertainty and the integration risk associated with bringing a custom embedded system to completion. Rather than adapting your design to fit Axiomtek's products, our team adapts our products to fit your design.
How is Design-in different from OEM/ODM services?
Design-in Services focus on customizing Axiomtek's embedded platforms to fit your application, covering hardware modification, system integration, embedded software optimization, and engineering partnership throughout the development cycle. OEM/ODM Services extend this into full-scale certified manufacturing, volume production, global logistics, and formal quality management. The two services are complementary: Design-in typically precedes OEM/ODM, taking a product from concept and specification through production-ready validation, at which point OEM/ODM handles volume manufacturing and delivery.
What level of hardware customization is available?
Axiomtek offers three tiers. Micro-customization covers minor changes such as BIOS settings, connector labeling, or pre-installed software. Semi-customization involves targeted hardware modifications to an existing embedded platform. Full customization is a ground-up product design including new board layout, enclosure design, system integration, and complete software stack. The appropriate tier is determined during the initial requirements review with our U.S.-based engineering team.
What embedded operating systems and SDKs does Axiomtek support?
Axiomtek supports Windows 10 IoT, Linux Ubuntu, and the Yocto Project embedded Linux toolkit. For Edge AI applications, we support Intel Edge Insights for Industrial (EII) with OpenVINO, the Axiomtek AI Suite (AIS) for no-code deep learning deployment, and NVIDIA JetPack SDK for Jetson-based platforms. BIOS/UEFI firmware customization, custom boot screens, and hardware driver support are also available.
Does Axiomtek provide thermal design and simulation support?
Yes. Axiomtek's thermal engineering services include proven thermal modules from a pre-validated library, customized thermal solutions with custom heat sink and cooler designs for specific form factors and environments, and system-level thermal simulation analyzing airflow and heat transfer before manufacturing. This ensures embedded platforms dissipate heat effectively and survive the operating conditions they will face in industrial, transportation, outdoor, and mission-critical deployments.
How does the Design-in process work?
The Design-in process follows five stages: Initial Planning (requirements intake, feasibility review, platform selection), Design (hardware and software customization), Debug (prototyping and issue resolution), Validation (functional, environmental, and compliance testing), and Ready to Ship (final production configuration, QA sign-off, and documentation). The process is iterative at each stage, and our U.S.-based engineering team works directly with you throughout to ensure all requirements are met before advancing.
What warranty and lifecycle support does Axiomtek provide?
All products ship with a standard 2-year warranty covering software, firmware updates, and all repairs, extendable to up to 5 years total. Axiomtek has a history of ensuring parts availability beyond 7 years, with many current platforms offering up to 15-year component availability. Customers receive 12 months advance EOL notification whenever possible, and extended technical support continues after EOL as long as original replacement parts are available. Design-in projects that scale to volume production transition to Axiomtek's OEM/ODM manufacturing program.
What industries do Design-in Services cover?
Axiomtek's Design-in Services serve industrial automation and IIoT, transportation and fleet systems, medical and healthcare technology, smart retail and hospitality, energy and utilities, networking and cybersecurity, and edge AI and machine vision applications. If your application requires a ruggedized, long-lifecycle embedded computing solution, we likely have relevant experience and an applicable platform to start from.
