Elma Bustronic is your resource for the latest in the development of next-gen backplanes and systems. On a periodic basis, we will post news and advancements in the StarFabric (PICMG 2.17), Compact Packet Switching (cPSB, PICMG 2.16), Serial Mesh (PICMG 2.20), VXS (VITA 41), GigE (VITA 31.1), AdvancedTCA (PICMG 3.0), CompactPCI Express (Exp 0), MicroTCA, VPX (VITA 46), and optical backplanes.
Top News The VITA 41 specification for the VXS switched serial backplane has been ratified by VITA. The VXS backplane allows three options: plug in standard VME64x cards for parallel bus use, integrate new payload and switch cards for parallel bus and switch fabric transport, and switch fabric transport only.Elma Bustronic has developed five types of VXS backplanes. Card vendors have released a wealth of VXS products, some details are below. Background The VXS backplane is a Motorola-backed effort by VITA to bring switched serial fabrics to VME. Part of the "VME Renaissance", the VITA 41.0 specification for VXS has been ratified. VXS adds a high-speed connector over P0 of a VME64x backplane for serial data traffic. The VXS spec allows for four differential serial pairs per direction link over P0, and supports up to two such ports on each VMEbus card.The subsets of VITA 41 include InfiniBand (VITA 41.1), Rapid I/O (VITA 41.2), and may include GigaBit Ethernet (VITA 41.3), PCI Express (VITA 41.4) and StarFabric (VITA 41.5). VXS
Backplane Design - A Closer Look
Top News The PICMG 3.0 core specification for AdvancedTCA has been ratified since December 2002. The sub-specifications for Ethernet (PICMG 3.1), Infiniband (PICMG 3.2), StarFabric (PICMG 3.3), PCI Express (PICMG 3.4) and RapidIO (PICMG 3.5). The AdvancedTCA Interoperability Workshop continue and are for any participant who brings working product to test interoperability. Bustronic and sister company Elma TreNew have developed a 14-slot Dual Star, 14-slot Full Mesh, 16-slot Full Mesh, 5-slot Replicated Mesh and 2-slot Replicated Mesh ATCA backplanes (some details below). * IPM Sentry is a trademark of Pigeon Point Systems Background Advanced TCA, via the PICMG 3.0 specification, is a major effort by over 100 companies to develop a next-generation telecom architecture. The specification is geared towards the telco carrier grade market. Utilizing Dual Star, Dual Dual Star, and Mesh switched fabric topologies, the spec will be able to handle the massive bandwidth requirements, High Availability (99.999% uptime), and Quality of Service issues demanded by the industry. The form factor will go to an 8U x 280mm card size plugging into an approx. 5U (or 8U) backplane spaced at 1.2". The larger cards allow more space for more components, while the wider spacing between slots allows for taller components. In addition, the backplane allows for 48VDC input from an external source to be distributed to the individual slot cards. Industry
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Top News MicroTCA is one of the newest PICMG specifications in development. MicroTCA defines a modular backplane architecture designed to support redundant "pods" of AdvancedMC (AMC) modules. The AdvancedMC modules (AMC0/.1/.2/.3) are front removable mezzanine modules first designed to be used on AdvancedTCA cards. The MicroTCA specifications is expected to be completed later this year and early adopters are beginning to build prototype products even prior to the full document's release. Background The MicroTCA architecture will allow large arrays of AdvancedMC modules to be used in a wide array of applications where a lower cost solution is required than could be achieved by the standard AdvancedTCA architecture. The MicroTCA backplane allows single or redundant virtual carriers to provide power management, platform management and fabric connections to greater numbers of modules than a single physical carrier card could support in a classic ATCA application. MicroTCA systems will support up to 48 single width, half height AdvancedMC modules in a 19" EIA rack or an assortment of full height modules either in single or double widths. AdvancedMC modules are targeted for such modular applications as storage arrays, firewalls, blade servers, and even home entertainment centers. Each module may dissipate between 20 and 60 watts each and the platform management scheme is designed to support applications from 99.99% to 99.999% availability. AdvancedMC module specifications have already been released and the most recent, AMC.3 (storage systems), is nearing completion. Modular MicroTCA - Bringing Flexibility to MicroTCA Systems
Top News Elma Bustronic is completing the design of a 4-slot CompactPCI Express hybrid backplane. It contains a system slot, one Type 1 slot, and two Type 2 slots. Contact Elma Bustronic for more details. The high performance capability of the new CompactPCI architecture makes possible performance levels that will support such features as a new generation of video graphic capability. The backward compatibility to CompactPCI and the wealth of user available backplane IO of the P3, P4 and P5 connectors will allow many new specialized applications to be supported while continuing to support all existing card designs. PXI Express versions are also coming soon. Background CompactPCI Express supports the next generation Intel PCI Express architecture in the familiar 6U-160 Eurocard form factor. CompactPCI Express connects cards via a serial point-to-point bus with a read-only bandwidth of up to (16x) 2.5 Gigabits/second or (8x) 2.5 Gigabits/second full duplex bandwidth. CompactPCI Express provides support for several different card for factors with connectivity in 1x, 2x 4x, and 8x increments. Each link represents one full duplex 2.5 Gigabit/second interconnect path. The support of legacy 32 or 64 bit CompactPCI boards is accomplished by a PCIe to PCI-X bridge. CompactPCI boards of 33MHz, 66MHz, or 133MHz are possible. Because the CompactPCI Express architecture continues to support the P3, P4 and P5 in all 6U slot types, CompactPCI Express can continue to support for all existing CompactPCI secondary architectures such as PICMG 2.5, 2.20, 2.16, 2.17 and 2.18 either as functions on native CompactPCI Express cards or as legacy cards in the original CompactPCI form. Versions for PXI Express will also be available.
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