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What is CompactPCI

Overview

CompactPCI (CPCI) was introduced around 1995, to provide a modular approach to building embedded systems. CompactPCI is a versatile form factor and is suitable for use in a wide range of industrial, defence, test, transportation and telecommunications industries.  Applications using these boards have achieved long life-cycles, with modularity and simplicity enabling relatively easy technology transitions.

Standard

The CompactPCI specification is owned by the PICMG standards body, cards use metric connectors with a 2-milimeter pin spacing and have either 32-bit and 64-bit PCI bus signals for primary communication.  Many of the other connector pins are available for user defined I/O, Concurrent Technologies offers a well-defined user I/O regime and offers the option of customer specific I/O variants based on the opportunity.

Performance Comparison

CompactPCI is a simple to use parallel bus architecture that enables multiple processor cards to operate in a single system.  Concurrent Technologies processor boards operate as the system slot controller, peripheral controller or as a satellite board without the CPCI interface for flexible system configurations.  When introduced, the underlying PCIbus was a high bandwidth 66MHz interface, that is sufficient for legacy applications but has low throughput compared to modern fabric architectures like VPX and AdvancedMC.  Enhanced versions of the CompactPCI standard that offer higher throughput rates are available but have not achieved widespread market adoption.

Benefits

CompactPCI boards are available in 3U and 6U form factors to suit application needs: 3U boards are more attractive for lower functionality and rugged applications; 6U boards offer more panel space for I/O functions and typically offer the ability for two PMC/XMC expansion mezzanines. One of the key features that differentiates CPCI is that it supports hot swapping of boards.  Whilst not widely used in defense and test applications, it enables mission critical systems to remain operational. 

Compact PCI Boards from Concurrent are typically known for long-term availability, making them an ideal choice for embedded applications that need stability from regular update cycles. In addition, the latest boards are available with enhanced security capabilities to be suitable for defense and sensitive test applications.

Our CompactPCI Solutions

CompactPCI® (CPCI) continues to be a popular architecture, particularly for transportation and defense applications. We offer a range of commercial and ruggedized processor boards based on high performance Intel® Core™ processors, or the lower power Intel® Atom™ processors. Many of the products are available in commercial and extended temperature variants, with this popular family of single board computers complemented by our range of switch fabric boards and XMC/PMC carriers.