CompactPCI PlusIO - General

1 - What is CompactPCI PlusIO?

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CompactPCI PlusIO (PICMG 2.30) fixes the pin assignment and the function of the free user pins of CompactPCI (PICMG 2.0) on the J2 connector for 32-bit system slot cards. That way it defines 4 PCI Express x1 links, 4 SATA, 4 USB 2.0 as well as 2 Ethernet 1000BaseT interfaces to the backplane.

2 - What are the unique features of CompactPCI PlusIO?

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  • 19” mechanics (IEC 1101) as known from CompactPCI (or VMEbus)
  • 100% downward-compatible to CompactPCI (CompactPCI system slot can be replaced by CompactPCI PlusIO system slot)
  • 3U and 6U cards on a passive backplane supporting serial interconnects in addition to parallel signals
  • Communication with up to 4 peripheral CompactPCI Serial cards per system without switches and bridges (more with bridge)
  • System slot card can control a mix of CompactPCI and CompactPCI Serial cards in hybrid systems
  • All peripheral cards (CompactPCI Serial) can be plugged in any of the peripheral slots (CompactPCI Serial)
  • Star topology with USB, SATA, PCI Express and Ethernet (connecting up to 4 peripheral cards)

3 - How compatible is CompactPCI PlusIO to CompactPCI?

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CompactPCI PlusIO is 100% downward-compatible to CompactPCI. It offers the modularity, robustness and economic efficiency of CompactPCI, adding fast serial data transfer inside the same 19” standard environment.

4 - Which board sizes are available for CompactPCI PlusIO?

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CompactPCI PlusIO supports both 3U and 6U Eurocard formats. All CompactPCI PlusIO relevant signals are defined on the free pins of the CompactPCI 2.0 rear connector J2, thus staying fully compliant to 32-bit CompactPCI.

5 - Is there a second source for the CompactPCI PlusIO connector?

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The UHM socket connector is currently available from 3M and designed to be intermateable to 2 mm hard-metric (IEC 61076-4-101) headers and compatible with 2 mm hard metric PCB footprints. It therefore helps enable much greater performance in legacy backplane designs. As the 3M technology is license-free according to PICMG rules for standardization it can be easily adapted by other suppliers of 2-mm connectors.

6 - Which software can CompactPCI PlusIO computers run?

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As the parallel CompactPCI bus, also CompactPCI PlusIO is truly a "systems level" bus, with configuration (plug and play) and hardware abstraction layers. This permits a high level of software portability, common in the desktop PC world but much rarer in embedded systems.

7 - Are the serial interfaces future-proof?

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Yes – the CompactPCI PlusIO specification is upward-compatible to next generation PCI Express, USB 3.0 and 10 Gbit Ethernet. And SATA is only dependent on the on-board features of the CPU card.

8 - Which future developments are likely for CompactPCI PlusIO?

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There is currently no workgroup planned beyond the one for CompactPCI Serial. We might expect to see, however, a series of design guides to describe the multitude of possibilities of building and designing hybrid solutions on system level as well as on board level – including CompactPCI Express, VMEbus, VPX, VXS.