A CompactPCI (cPCI) system is a 3U or 6U Eurocard-based industrial computer[1], 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.
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Technology Focus: Conduction-Cooled cPCI Boards
Rad-Tolerant SBC Boasts Low Operating Power Space-based applications require a level beyond the typical definition of ruggedness. Aitech Defense Systems offers aRead More...
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COTS Products
3U cPCI Board and Rack Family Satisfies Extreme Thermal Needs CompactPCI, particularly in its 3U flavor, is no longer the new kid on the block in the military market. It’s paidRead More...

COTS Products
Managed Ethernet Switch Rides 3U CompactPCI Attracted by its ubiquity and longevity, the military is growing ever more fond of Ethernet. And switched Ethernet is becoming asRead More...

What's the Computer Inside?
When I participate in any kind of press meeting or briefing, I’m the guy who always asks a question–or many questions. I ask questions to satisfy my naturally curious nature, but alsoRead More...

Stand-Alone Rugged Boxes Fine-Tune their Feature Sets
A trend has been building in the past couple of years where traditional embedded board vendors are adding stand-alone rugged box-level systems to their military market offerings. TheseRead More...

Multicore Solutions Target a Variety of Emerging Military Needs
Embedded developers in many arenas are constantly facing competitive pressure to provide more application features and improve performance capabilities. As a result, it’s becomeRead More...

COTS Products
PXI Controller Boasts 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU Long test cycles can be costly–and with pressure on the defense industry to reign in costs and development timelines, any test gearRead More...

System, Board and Panel Innovations Fuel Rugged Display Demands
Leveraging cutting-edge graphics chips developed for the demanding gaming market, military graphics subsystems are now able to offer complex video and graphics functionality in highlyRead More...

Serial ATA Stakes out Territory as Next-Gen Storage Interface
Over the past several years, serial interconnect schemes have been steadily pushing aside parallel buses, and that trend has impacted the memory and storage realm just as it has everyRead More...

Data Acquisition Boards Roundup
USB Analog Input Modules Are Software Selectable USB has earned its way into the mindshare of military data acquisition system designers. ACCES I/O’s latest offering in the USBRead More...

MicroTCA Gaining Ground in Military Applications
Deeply rooted in VME and CompactPCI platforms, military embedded design is undergoing a noticeable shift. Modern warfare initiatives are driving designers to find more bandwidth, whileRead More...

Multicore Boards Roundup
6U CompactPCI Boards Sport Quad Core Xeons The multicore trend has hit all levels of processor families, and the Xeon is no exception. Concurrent Technologies has released theRead More...

COTS Products
Tiny SMD Fuse Approved for Space Applications Reliability and ruggedness take on a whole new meaning for electronics used in space applications. There’s no repair truckRead More...

Small Form Factors Mean Big Design Choices
Military applications represent some of the most challenging and broad-ranging design demands today. New technologies can be difficult to adopt and develop quickly, and as a resultRead More...

Multicore Processor Boards Push the Compute-Density Envelope
Processor architectures sporting multiple CPU cores on the same device have moved swiftly from the exotic and into the mainstream desktop and sever realm. Gone now are the days whenRead More...

Conduction-Cooled CompactPCI Steers a Steady Course
The acceptance of CompactPCI–particularly in its 3U size–is no longer in question for any military application where the mix of size constraints and demand for sturdy slot-card styleRead More...

COTS Products
0.3 mm Pitch Sockets Support Devices Up to 6.5 mm2 Keeping up with the fast moving pace of IC packaging technology is a tough challenge for the military market. FortunatelyRead More...

COTS Products
Quad-Core Intel Xeon-Based VME SBC The multicore trend has swept through the military embedded computing industry, and military system developers are embracing it with open arms.Read More...

FPGA Processing Boards Roundup
PMC Uses Virtex 5 FPGA for Speedy I/O Processing At one time FPGAs served merely as glue logic interfaces. Now they function as complete processing engines. Acromag’s PMC-VFXRead More...

FPGA Boards Deliver DSP Muscle and I/O Flexibility
As FPGAs evolve to ever greater sophistication, complete systems can now be integrated into one or more FPGAs. Board-level product developers continue to ride that wave in two ways. OnRead More...

Space-Qualified Boards and ICs Satisfy Rad Hard Needs
Electronic systems designed for space face unique requirements over and above those of any typical military application. Satellites designed for space missions, for example, have toRead More...

VME and cPCI Maintain Tight Grip on Mil Embedded Market
The market for military embedded computer boards and systems today is both healthy and growing. VDC Research Group has been covering the embedded systems market for over twenty years,Read More...

Cots Products
20-Inch 2U Chassis for Trenton 32 Gbyte Boards The days when military system developers did everything themselves are long gone. They’d much rather find building blocks to pieceRead More...

COTS Products
Qseven-Based Carrier/SBC Duo Rolls The Qseven connector scheme leads the way on the notion of combining a variety of I/O technologies onto one connection. Supporting that standard,Read More...

COTS Products
3U VPX SBC Sports Freescale MPC 8640D Processor There have been only a handful of SBC vendors so far that have rolled out VPX products. The ones that jumped on board haveRead More...

PXI, VXI and LXI Boards Roundup
16-bit PXI Digitizers Boast up to 40 MS/s Sampling High-channel count and simultaneous sampling are the watchwords for a variety of military test applications. Feeding those needs,Read More...

1U Rackmount Servers Feed High-Density Computing Needs
Government organizations deploy a vast array of servers for mission-critical applications in a wide variety of networks—including enterprise computing, field operations, command andRead More...

PXI, VXI and LXI Boards Each Find Their Instrumentation Strengths
At one time, it took a whole rack of test gear to implement military and aerospace test systems. Now that same functionality can be built using standards-based instrumentation andRead More...

Rugged Box Systems Tighten Their Military Focus
Over the past couple of years, traditional embedded board vendors have been adding stand-alone rugged box-level systems to their military market offerings. These complete systemRead More...

Rugged Stand-Alone Box System Roundup
Rugged System Features Military Connectors The stand-alone rugged box trend has touched nearly every corner of the military embedded computer market. ADLINK Technology, for its part,Read More...

Small UAV Tap the Rich Variety of Embedded Options
UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) were originally developed to take the soldier out of harm's way and have come a long way since the days of "large" surveillance drones like the PredatorRead More...

Rugged Boards Push the Performance/Power Envelope
Compute-density has become the watchword in many segments of military system design. More and more programs are pushing for as much computer processing muscle as can possibility fitRead More...

6U CompactPCI SBC Sports Core2 Duo Processor
6U CompactPCI SBC Sports Core2 Duo Processor The multicore trend has hit every corner of embedded computing, and the military is no exception. Extreme Engineering Solutions is nowRead More...

Secure Network Communications Pushes Compute Limits
New and evolving technology initiatives such as Brigade Combat Team Modernization, JTRS (Joint Tactical Radio System) and WIN-T (Warfighter Information Network-Tactical) rely heavilyRead More...

Intel Architecture Ups its Appeal for Military Embedded Apps
There used to be a delay-numbered in years-between when the latest and greatest computer microprocessors first rolled out and when they made their way into the embedded computerRead More...

Conduction-Cooled cPCI Lands a Secure Place in Military Systems
Now with over eighteen years of experience under its belt, CompactPCI can claim to offer all the factors that attract military decision makers. An expanding set of conduction-cooledRead More...

Conduction-Cooled cPCI Board Roundup
6U cPCI Blade Does Extended Temps and Conduction Cooling The Core2 Duo processor quickly became the most widely used multicore processor, and the military embedded space was quickRead More...

UAV Payloads Focus on Autonomy, ISR and Comms
As the use, design and planning of military UAVs matures, the DoD has adopted a strategy of closely pairing its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) programs with itsRead More...

Ethernet Switch Boards Roundup
Rugged 10 Gbit Ethernet XMC Sports Dual Front-Panel Interfaces The military has completely embraced Ethernet both as a network technology and as a fabric interconnect scheme.Read More...

Configurable Integrated Systems Support cPCI, PXI, VME and VPX
Designed for use in development systems and for production runs, Verotec has introduced a family of 1U, 2U, 3U and 6U configurable integrated systems. Based on combinations of standardRead More...

CompactPCI Embedded Board Supports DisplayPort Standard
A variety of military applications have stepped up their demand for sophisticated graphics as net-centric information sharing has become a priority. Kontron offers a 3U CompactPCIRead More...

Many Factors Influence Slot-Card vs. Module Choice
Military embedded system designers are always eager to take advantage of new technologies and emerging industry standards once a critical mass of acceptance is achieved and a clearRead More...

Slot-Card Systems Vie with Rugged Box Solutions
There’s no doubt that there has been a change occurring in the military embedded computing industry over the past five years or so. At the heart of that change is the risingRead More...

FPGA Boards Rev Up for Signal Processing Duties
Military applications like sonar, radar, SIGINT and software radio—all of which rely on heavy amounts of waveform processing—continue to leverage advances in FPGA technology. FasterRead More...

FPGA Processing Boards Roundup
Virtex-5 FPGA PMC Aims at I/O Processing At one time FPGAs served merely as glue logic interfaces. Now they function as complete processing engines. Acromag’s PMC-VFX modulesRead More...

cPCI Gbit Ethernet Switch Supports Failsafe Operation
Ethernet, both as a networking technology and as a high-speed interconnect fabric, has won its way into the mindshare of military system developers. GE Intelligent Platforms hasRead More...

Ethernet Ascends as 1553 Gets Boxed In
The great dilemma with military I/O technology is accommodating the needs of legacy interface schemes while meeting the performance needs of next-generation computing and electronicRead More...

Rugged Sensor Interface Supports Remote Data Acquisition
The multifunction I/O trend has been particularly useful for military applications, where reduced system size is such a priority. North Atlantic Industries (NAI) has announced theRead More...

Gigabit Ethernet Switch Rides 3U CompactPCI
Ethernet is now firmly entrenched in the mindshare of military system developers. It’s useful both as a networking technology and as a high-speed data plane interconnect fabric.Read More...

3U cPCI Card Serves Up FPGA and Atom CPU
FPGAs are now powerful enough to be used alongside general-purpose CPUs as coprocessors. MEN Micro offers a 3U CompactPCI SBC that combines low-power Intel Atom XL processors withRead More...

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