Reclaiming “Made in the USA”: Driving Transparency in Rugged Computing

What does “Made in the USA” mean? 

Over past few months, I’ve seen a lot of folks within the rugged computing space utilize the term “Made in the USA.”  

When customers ask for products (in our case, servers) that are made in the United States, they typically want products that are designed and manufactured in the USA.  

This refers to the most critical component of a server—the motherboard—being not only conceptualized but populated here, whether in-house or through third parties. 

According to the Federal Trade Commission, “Made in the USA” means that “all or virtually all” of the product has been made in America; that is, all significant parts, processing, and labor that go into the product must originate in the USA. 

Executive Order 14005 states that for a product to be considered “Made in the USA,” it must contain at least 75% USA-sourced content. 

To be clear, this is not the same as saying a product is “TAA-compliant,” though the two terms are often conflated.  

TAA-compliant refers to compliance with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), a United States federal law enacted in 1979. The TAA ensures that the US government acquires only goods and services that are either: 

1. Made in the USA 
2. Substantially transformed in a country that is part of a trade agreement with the USA (referred to as a designated country). 

Here is a comprehensive list of TAA-compliant countries as of January 2025. 

Why “Made in the USA” matters 

When dealing with mission-critical applications and large volumes of sensitive data, system integrity is of the utmost importance. This spans across various markets, from defense and government (radar, ISR, test equipment) to commercial and enterprise (healthcare, Fintech). 

Making products here in the USA ensures the physical safety of individuals (especially defense personnel), secures confidential information, and protects intellectual property. 

Additionally, companies that invest in American manufacturing bolster our domestic economy through creating jobs here, and consumers who buy these products contribute to the broader tax base.  

What does “Made in the USA” not (necessarily) mean? 

Disclaimer: This is not in any way to call out or make accusations against any specific company. Additionally, we realize that some of the following points may in fact meet some customers’ definitions of “Made in the USA.”  

1. Assembling, testing, and supporting a server here in the USA, even though the boards are populated outside the USA (i.e. Taiwan). 
2. Assembling, testing, and supporting a server in a TAA-compliant country (i.e. Mexico), even though the boards are populated outside the USA. 
3. Wrapping a USA-made chassis around a board populated outside the USA, and then claiming the server is “Made in the USA.” 
4. Populating boards outside the USA, shipping them here, and then inspecting them for improprieties or scanning them for security risks before they go into a chassis. 
5. Designing motherboards here but populating them outside the USA. 
6. Merely designing a server (motherboard and chassis) in the USA, but manufacturing, assembling, testing, and supporting it outside the USA. 

The Trenton Advantage 

The biggest reason I hear from our customers as to why they choose Trenton Systems for their rugged computing needs? Our products are customer-driven and USA-made. 

What does that mean? 

1. From conceptualization to population, our boards (and the solutions they go into) are designed, manufactured, assembled, tested, and supported here in the USA, meeting all current and future Executive Order 14005 directives.  
2. All customers enjoy lifetime support and a five-year warranty. 
3. We work with each customer in a consultative relationship to provide them with standard (COTS), modified (MOTS), or fully custom computing solutions that meet and exceed their technical, performance, and environmental requirements. 
4. We fully vet, track, and trace each component that goes into our products down to the resistor level, issuing prompt end-of-life (EOL) notices and form, fit, and function (FFF) alternatives when and where necessary.  
5. All components are sourced only from companies on our approved vendor list. In addition, we can “engineer-in” alternative components that we make.  
6. We can make incremental changes to our products and keep detailed records of each revision. This, in turn, translates to an average 11-to-15-year product lifecycle, reducing total cost of ownership over time. 
7. Our products are market-agnostic. You can find our products being utilized for radar backend processing, running programs for test equipment, capturing seismic data on offshore oil rigs, or securing financial transactions. 

Working closely with our global technology partnership ecosystem, we deliver the latest and greatest edge computing technologies—processing, AI/ML/DL, networking, security, and storage—to provide our customers with unmatched performance alongside ever-evolving, increasingly complex application and program needs. 

If you have any questions about our capabilities or are potentially interested in crafting a computing solution with us, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.  

I’d love to chat more with you and hear about what complex problems you are solving for your customers. In fact, that’s where we thrive. 😊