Industry News

A Fresh Look at CompactPCI Serial

Contributors: Dolphin, EKF, Elma Electronic and PICMG’s president

CompactPCI Serial has been around for many years. It’s enjoyed notable success in a diverse set of rugged embedded industries thanks to its modularity, scalability and cost efficiencies, especially in more complex application environments. We believe it’s a modular, open standard that has great application opportunities in applications where it can withstand most tough environmental requirements. After all, it’s widely used in the railway and transportation industry.

We asked a few CompactPCI Serial community members the following question, and this blog is the result of their shared thoughts.

Q: What are some aspects that engineers should know about when evaluating CompactPCI Serial as a potential system architecture?

Jess Isquith, President, PICMG

CompactPCI Serial is alive and thriving! In fact, the active technical working group addresses increased high-speed I/O, processing, and system management requirements. New applications and products are regularly introduced to strengthen the ecosystem, and the level of collaboration between PICMG members working on the specification and in industry has been remarkable.

Thanks to all of this, the CompactPCI Serial standard has become a popular platform for various applications requiring modularity, high performance, and symmetric multi-processing.

Recent enhancements include the cPCI Serial Space specification, which the European Space Association (ESA) adopted for many applications. As a result, over twenty European space agencies have acquired the specification and are incorporating cPCI Serial Space-compliant components in their systems. This development will ensure decades of deployment.

This current level of adoption and momentum ensures that the CompactPCI community will see continued success in various transportation, medical, industrial control/automation, communications, robotics and space applications.

On the PICMG website, you can learn about the many CompactPCI Serial reference materials and view the member product directory, which has over 140 standard product listings from over fifteen companies. https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/compactpci-serial/

Herman Paraison, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Dolphin Interconnect Solutions

System engineers evaluating potential system architectures should consider the new capabilities of CompactPCI Serial.  Those developing complex systems can now use CompactPCI Serial to not only connect I/O components, but also multiple processors and more.  With the introduction of new CompactPCI Serial advanced PCIe switch modules, larger, more complex topologies can be created, which will have increased performance and lower latency.

New features such as processor-to-processor communication, I/O sharing, scaling multiple chassis with copper and fiber cabling are now available.  You will also be able to connect a CompactPCI Serial chassis to standard servers, increasing the processing power and scalability of CompactPCI Serial topologies.  System engineers can envision heterogenous environments with multiple processor and high-speed I/O based on CompactPCI Serial systems.

A key component enabling these new system architectures is the introduction of PCI Express (PCIe) software to CompactPCI Serial systems.  PCIe software is designed to enable communication between processors, SoCs, FPGAs, NVMe drives and other components.  For example, Dolphin’s standard PCIe software package, eXpressWare, includes APIs for shared memory, sockets, TCP/IP, and sharing as well as provides a standard interface to lower-level standard PCIe hardware.

Several new system architectures are now available to system engineers looking for scalability or increased processing within a CompactPCI serial format. Let’s say an engineer combines Elma CompactPCI Serial modules and chassis with Dolphin’s CompactPCI Serial switch.  The resulting system can use eXpressWare to communicate between processors, hot-add components within or to a CompactPCI Serial chassis as well as share components between multiple processors inside or outside these chassis.

The rugged, modular, scalable and cost-effective nature of CompactPCI Serial combined with these new capabilities, creates a powerful platform for system engineering evaluating potential new platforms.  And we expect these capabilities to increase in time as CompactPCI Serial continues to evolve. https://www.dolphinics.com

Wolfgang Wiest, Channel Manager, EKF

CompactPCI Serial is one of the most, if not the most, modular standard for embedded applications. Its robust features make it suitable for harsh markets like transportation and heavy vehicles, but it is still cost-effective enough to be a good alternative in more complex industrial and IIoT applications.

With its modularity, robustness and versatility, CompactPCI Serial offers many advantages. In principle, the broad ecosystem and the defined consistent compatibility of the CompactPCI Serial standard make it possible to combine many different boards from different manufacturers.

These advantages can bring with them challenges, as well, especially in the initial phase of system development. However, with the right bridging options, such as those offered by EKF, it‘s possible to accommodate different technologies, e.g. PCI Express and CompactPCI Serial, in a hybrid system.

The connection of CompactPCI and CompactPCI Serial has always been provided by the CompactPCI PlusIO bridge standard. But for all the well thought-out and forward-looking compatibility between cards from different manufacturers and technologies, it still takes an element of experience to bring all this together in a functioning system and guarantee smooth operation.

Many things are possible with CompactPCI Serial, but for certain implementations – especially those that are more complex or have high degrees of customization – be sure to have a strong partners as part of your development team, ones nimble enough to manage special application requirements. EKF values its ability to be this type of partner, and together with a broad partner network, the decision to implement a CompactPCI Serial system offers many more advantages than a less modular standard.  To see EKF’s full range of products: https://www.ekf.de.

David Caserza, Embedded Computing Architect Manager, Elma Electronic Inc.

CompactPCI Serial is a very economical, easy-to-use, robust computing standard.  It utilizes Eurocard packaging standards, which have been popular for decades, and been proven effective, when modular, rugged computing is required.  It supports both multi-processor as well as processor plus multiple-peripheral configurations and should be considered for new designs as well as when there is a need to migrate from legacy CPCI or even VME systems.

CompactPCI Serial backplanes are designed with dedicated slot-to-slot connections for PCIe, SATA, USB, Ethernet and other required connections.  The wide variety of plug-in-cards (PICs) also follows these standards, thereby making hardware integration very easy.  The use of Eurocard packaging standards enables the chassis and boards to all fit together nicely, both during initial build and when performing maintenance or upgrade operations.  This modular approach carries the often-important benefit of keeping the mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) low.

There are single-star and full-mesh backplanes available.  With single-star, one processor board can enumerate and communicate with several peripheral boards and with full-mesh, several processor boards can be connected to one another via Ethernet.  These topology options make CPCI Serial a good choice for replacing legacy CPCI and VME systems, as many of those older systems were often built using a single board computer with multiple peripheral boards or with a cluster of processor boards networked together.

The Eurocard mechanical form factor of CompactPCI Serial also offers the benefit of a very mature packaging ecosystem, where chassis of all types are readily available.  These can range from tabletop and portable to 19-inch rack-mount and other shapes and sizes suitable for a variety of markets including:  industrial, semiconductor processing, medical, transportation, test/instrumentation, military and others. https://bit.ly/cpcis-products.

CompactPCI Serial is a modern computing technology suitable for solving challenging demands in a wide variety of markets and applications.

Blog courtesy of Elma

PICMG COM-HPC 1.15 and COM.0 R3.1 continue evolution to support high-performance, mixed-criticality, and cost-optimized IoT edge, gateway, and server designs with strict time-to-market requirements.

WAKEFIELD, MA. PICMG, a leading consortium for the development of open embedded computing specifications, has announced major updates to the COM-HPC and COM Express families of computer-on-module (COM) standards with the ratification of Functional Safety (FuSa) extensions to COM-HPC (COM-HPC 1.15) and COM Express Revision 3.1 (COM.0 R3.1), which adds 16 Gbps connectors, support for PCI Express Gen 4, USB 4, SATA Gen 3 optimizations, and other enhancements.

COM-HPC 1.15 is a set of safety extensions that expand the FuSa capabilities of “safety island” blocks available on modern chipsets out to the broader system. Available on all COM-HPC form factors – including the upcoming COM-HPC Client Mini – COM-HPC FuSa extensions define a dedicated SPI signal that connects health and status monitoring features of such blocks to a FuSa “Safety Controller” located on COM-HPC carrier cards where any findings can be processed for external use.

The COM-HPC 1.15 architecture thus enables the creation of mixed-criticality multicore embedded systems by providing a direct path to redundancy and fail-safe process implementation for developers of industrial machine control, train and wayside control, robotics, autonomous vehicles, avionics, and other critical systems.

“With the small size definition of the upcoming Mini specification and the recent FuSa extensions, COM-HPC covers all use cases I can think of,” says Christian Eder, Chair of the COM-HPC technical committee and Director Product Marketing at congatec. “COM-HPC is the most complete computer module definition ever. I expect an extremely fast growth for scalable and compute-power hungry embedded applications based on COM-HPC technology.”

The COM-HPC 1.15 specification effort is sponsored by ADLINK, congatec, and Kontron.

COM Express Revision 3.1 continues the evolution of the electronics industry’s most popular COM standard by adding support for PCIe Gen 4 and an updated 16 Gbps connector across the family’s Type 6, 7, and 10 pinouts. SATA Gen 3 signal integrity and loss budget information has also been added for each Type.

These improvements join pinout-specific upgrades including optional USB4 (Type 6), MIPI-CSI connectors (Types 6, 10), SoundWire (Types 6, 10), as well as an additional general-purpose SPI interface (Types 6, 10). A CEI signaling-enabled 10 GbE interface and IPMB management interface are also now defined in the Type 7 pinout as part of COM.0 R3.1.

COM Express Revision 3.1 Type 6 and Type 10 hardware is fully backward-compatible with 3.0 modules and carrier boards, while Revision 3.1 Type 7 modules are backward compatible apart from 10GBASE-KR Ethernet side-band signals and a second PCIe reference clock not included on R3.0 modules.

“The PICMG COM Express specification just had its 23^rd anniversary. During this time, the specification has been updated to support the latest interfaces while focusing on maintaining backwards compatibility. Revision 3.1 is no exception,” says Jeff Munch, CTO of ADLINK Technology and Chairman of the COM Express subcommittee. “In the latest release of the COM Express specification the subcommittee has added support for PCI Express Gen 4, USB4, and newer 10G side-band interfaces while maximizing backwards compatibility.

“These new interfaces will allow COM Express to continue to fill its role as a leading computer-on-module standard.”

For more information on the COM-HPC FuSa extensions specification, visit www.picmg.org/openstandards/com-hpc or purchase the specification for $750 from www.picmg.org/product/com-hpc-module-base-specification-revision-1-15.

For more on the COM Express family of specifications, go to www.picmg.org/openstandards/com-express or purchase the latest specification revision from www.picmg.org/product/com-express-module-base-specification-rev-3-1.

More on PICMG’s range of open, modular computing standards can be found at www.picmg.org.

About PICMG
Founded in 1994, PICMG is a not-for-profit 501(c) consortium of companies and organizations that collaboratively develop open standards for high performance industrial, Industrial IoT, military & aerospace, telecommunications, test & measurement, medical, and general-purpose embedded computing applications. There are over 130 member companies that specialize in a wide range of technical disciplines, including mechanical and thermal design, single board computer design, high-speed signaling design and analysis, networking expertise, backplane, and packaging design, power management, high availability software and comprehensive system management.

Key standards families developed by PICMG include COM Express, COM-HPC, ModBlox7, IoT.1, CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, CompactPCI Serial, COM Express, SHB Express, MicroSAM, and HPM (Hardware Platform Management). For more information visit www.picmg.org.

Wakefield, MA., USA / Nuremberg, Germany, June 23, 2022 – PICMG, a leading consortium for the development of open embedded computing specifications, announces that the MicroTCA Working Group is working on the next generation of the MTCA architecture specifications initially launched in 2006. Efforts target improvements for time sensitive and high bandwidth applications such as in high-energy physics. Current work includes accommodations for the next generation of CPUs and FPGAs that will natively support PCIe gen 5. Future applications in industry require this higher bandwidth i.e. for image processing, signal detection, data acquisition. As current CPU speeds are limited by 80 W per slot power limit the support of more power for faster CPUs is on the task list as well. Future applications will also require other kinds of high- and low-speed fabrics paired with more flexibility in system design. The science market segment for high frame rate Megapixel detectors of the actual photon experiments requires even higher throughput. Thus, all these demands are scheduled to become part of the new releases of these successful specifications. With all these improvements MicroTCA continues to be an pro-active specification with significant updates to support high-bandwidth backplane interconnects. Latest update of the specs happened as recently as 2020.

“I am more than happy that the MicroTCA Working Group is so pro-actively addressing the recent demands. The new spec will find its way into many different vertical markets due to the flexibility of MicroTCA!”, says Heiko Koerte, VP and Director Sales & Marketing of N.A.T., “Applications in industrial automation, medical, telecommunication and networking, aerospace and transportation will not only benefit form these new features but also from how easily MicroTCA can be adapted to the exact needs. More than 16.500 MCHs just from N.A.T and many more I/O and compute cards delivered to the field speak for themselves. The wide spread of MicroTCA definitely makes it both a technically and commercially attractive solution!”.

About MicroTCA

MicroTCA® is a modular, open standard for building high-performance, backplane-based switched fabric computer systems in a small form factor.

MicroTCA has become the de facto standard for precision timing and synchronization equipment at world-renowned particle accelerators CERN, DESY, ESS, XFEL, KEK, SLAC, and others. Its architecture and features are also consistent with the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) being adopted as part of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) electronic media acquisition policy.

Originally designed for edge telecom and networking use cases, the core MTCA.0 base specification defines the mechanical and electrical characteristics of a MicroTCA backplane, card cage, power subsystem, cooling, and system management. Since being ratified in 2011, the MTCA Base specification has been revised to support 10GBASE-KR and 40GBASE-KR4 Ethernet fabrics and spawned four additional sub-specifications adapted for data acquisition, control, and telemetry in markets such as high-energy physics, avionics, defense, mobile infrastructure, and others.

• MicroTCA.0 – The Base specification defines MicroTCA’s electrical, mechanical, thermal, and management characteristics, including support for implemented in MicroTCA.0 Revision 2.0 in 2020.

• MicroTCA.1 – Adds ruggedization features and forced-air cooling.

• MicroTCA.2 – Expands shock, vibration, and temperature operation, allowing for both air and conduction cooling.

• MicroTCA.3 – Continues to increase compliance threshold for shock, vibration, and temperature and requires the use of conduction cooling.

• MicroTCA.4 – Adds features for the scientific community such as Rear Transition Modules (RTMs), which improve RF filtering, pre- and post-processing, clock generation, etc.

Developed as a reduced-footprint alternative to the popular AdvancedTCA family of specifications, MicroTCA defines a backplane-based system for plug-in Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AdvancedMCs). AdvancedMCs are available in different sizes (Full-size, Mid-size, Compact) and can be sourced from multiple vendors to add compute, storage, I/O, and other functionality to a MicroTCA chassis without modification. As mentioned previously, the MTCA.4 sub-specification also adds support for RTMs that increase system expansion possibilities in scientific applications.

A single MicroTCA system contains up to 12 AdvancedMCs slots, and up to two MicroTCA Carrier Hubs (MCHs). MCHs provide intelligent platform management, power delivery, and facilitate switching over Ethernet, PCIe, and/or Serial RapidIO backplane interconnect fabrics.

To learn more about the PICMG MicroTCA family of specifications, download the Short Form Specification for free at https://www.picmg.org/wp-content/uploads/MicroTCA_Short_Form_Sept_2006.pdf. You can also purchase Revision 2.0 of the MicroTCA Base Specification for $750 from https://www.picmg.org/product/microtca-base-specification-r2-0.

The current committee is led by Kay Rehlich of DESY, Heiko Koerte of N.A.T. and Thomas Holzapfel from powerBridge.

About PICMG
Founded in 1994, PICMG is a not-for-profit 501(c) consortium of companies and organizations that collaboratively develop open standards for high performance industrial, Industrial IoT, military & aerospace, telecommunications, test & measurement, medical, and general-purpose embedded computing applications. There are over 130 member companies that specialize in a wide range of technical disciplines, including mechanical and thermal design, single board computer design, high-speed signaling design and analysis, networking expertise, backplane, and packaging design, power management, high availability software and comprehensive system management.

Key standards families developed by PICMG include COM Express, COM-HPC, ModBlox7, IoT.1, CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, CompactPCI Serial, COM Express, SHB Express, MicroSAM, and HPM (Hardware Platform Management). https://www.picmg.org