CompactPCI® Gets a Plus with an IO and a Serial Companion Specification

2009-12-04, Eelco van der Wal

CompactPCI® has been very successful in its 15 years of existence with its support for 6U and 3U systems. However, the move from a parallel bus to a strictly serial solution has not been made yet.

The 2.16 specification, with a CompactPCI® packet switching backplane, was a good starting point for integrating parallel and serial busses coherently, combined with 2.17 (StarFabric), 2.18 (Serial RapidIO), 2.20 (Serial Mesh Backplane) or EXP.0 (PCI Express®). Within the PICMG organization, the serial busses were originally implemented in the telecom-centric AdvancedTCA concept and its more compact microTCA derivative. Both systems are built around switched fabrics which can incur additional costs for systems that do not need this functionality.

Now a new technology adds serial busses to the CompactPCI® standard to extend its life to the next 15 years. Its name is CompactPCI® Serial, and it contains both the CompactPCI® PlusIO (2.30) specification for the extension by serial I/O and CompactPCI® Serial (CPCI-S.0). These two form the future serial approach, making all modern serial interfaces cost-effectively available directly on the system level.

CompactPCI® PlusIO expands the system slot by serial signals on the J2 connector. This I/O definition is fully backward compatible to 32-bit CompactPCI® and will interoperate with existing 32-bit systems. It also allows the implementation of hybrid systems: CompactPCI® with a CompactPCI® PlusIO system slot and up to four CompactPCI® Serial peripheral slots in a star topology.

CompactPCI® Serial defines new system and peripheral slots in combination with connectors for at least 10 Gb performance, and specifies the support of PCI Express®, Ethernet, SATA/SAS and USB concurrently. The system slot supports up to eight peripheral slots.

Writing specifications is only the first step. Implementing is the next step. And for this a wide community is needed, ranging from connector suppliers, backplane suppliers, racks, power supplies, and yes – computer modules like processing and I/O. Together with its members PICMG creates ecosystems to support the acceptance of the specifications as well as the multiple sources of supply. For CompactPCI® PlusIO nearly 40 companies supported the work. This is a sufficiently high number to create a viable ecosystem contributing to the success of the specification.

With the technical improvements, the smooth transition path, and the broad support from the industry, CompactPCI® Serial will certainly have its future, and perhaps change your future.

Eelco van der Wal, Chairman PICMG Europe

German version on ElektronikPraxis: Plus-Punkte für CompactPCI dank Spezifikationen für IO u. Serial

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