CompactPCI
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A CompactPCI (cPCI) system is a 3U or 6U Eurocard-based industrial computer, where all boards are connected via a passive PCI backplane. The pin assignments of the connectors are documented in standards, published by the organization PICMG US and PICMG Europe. PICMG stands for PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group. The connectors and the electrical rules allow for 8 boards in a PCI segment. Multiple segments are allowed with bridges.
Unlike the original Eurocard solutions such as VME, which use connectors with a 0.1-inch pin spacing, CompactPCI cards use metric connectors with a 2-millimeter pin spacing, designed to the IEC 1076 standard. 3U boards have a 110-pin connector (J1), which carries the 32-bit PCI bus signals, and an optional 110-pin connector (J2), which carries either user-defined I/O or the upper 32-bits of an optional 64-bit PCI bus. 6U cards have an identical J1, a J2 that is always used for 64-bit PCI, as well as J3, J4, and J5 connectors for a variety of uses either as user-defined I/O or specified signaling such as Telephony and/or ethernet signaling. Hot-plugging is a supported feature of CompactPCI.
CompactPCI was initially ratified as PICMG 2.0 in late 1995 as a passive backplane for PCI signaling. The 2.x series of specifications from PICMG provid support for a variety of technologies including Hot Swap (PICMG 2.1), Telephony signaling (PICMG 2.5) and most notably the expansion of the architecture to include switched Ethernet (PICMG 2.16).
Originally designed to support the PCI signaling protocol (and hence the name "CompactPCI"), CompactPCI has grown to include a variety of technologies centered around the application of the 2mm HM connector on the 3U and 6U form factor. In fact many systems are implemented with no PCI bus on the backplane, such as those implemented with switched ethernet board interconnection (PICMG 2.16).
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