The PICMG specification CPCI-S.0 CompactPCI serial as a successor of the parallel CompactPCI paves the way to serial point-to-point connections at the backplane. As a manufacturer of embedded hardware, MEN Mikro Elektronik already offers the first CPU board with an Intel i7 processor as well as a range of peripheral boards with different I/O functions for building up complete systems.

A Multitude of Available Functions for CompactPCI Serial
CompactPCI Serial is a new standard for modular 19″ systems based on fast serial interconnects, which meets the growing requirements regarding bandwidth and data processing capacity in embedded applications.

The first CompactPCI Serial SBC G20 from MEN can be used as a system slot as well as a peripheral slot board and supports Ethernet mesh configurations with up to nine participants using appropriate mezzanine modules. The high-end computer is equipped with the Intel Core i7 and processor types with up to 2.53GHz and supports Intel’s active management technology (AMT) based on the Intel vPro architecture.

The matching new peripheral boards offer one PCI Express, SATA and USB 2.0/3.0 interface each on the lower system connector.

The G501 is a carrier for 2.5in SATA hard disks or Solid State Disk drives. This way, every peripheral slot can be used as a hard disk slot for building modular RAID systems.
The G213 supports an XMC or a PMC plug-on module for flexible I/O. Two PCI express x4 links for an XMC module ensure fast data transfer, while the PMC interface also supports 64 bits/66MHz and PCI-X (133MHz).

The G212 can accommodate two PCI Express MiniCards or two Express Cards with internal PCIe or USB as well as two SIM cards. The carrier has been developed for mobile HF applications such as GPS, WLAN, UMTS, GSM or HSDPA and leads two robust SMA antenna connectors for each plug-on module to the front.

The G211 Gigabit Ethernet interface also ensures fast communication via cable. At the front, four RJ45 or robust M12 connectors are available, the connection to the backplane is done via a PCI Express x4 link.

The G301 comes as a Gigabit Ethernet switch, again with RJ45 or M12 ports at the front. The board is fixed managed and supports Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) with Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) for up to 4 external devices.

The card pair G100/F100, finally, creates a connection between CompactPCI Serial and the parallel CompactPCI 2.0. While the G100 is plugged into a peripheral slot of the CompactPCI Serial system, the F100 replaces the system slot CPU of the CompactPCI system and is connected to the G100 via a PCI Express cable at the front panel.

Five additional peripheral boards will complement the I/O board range by the end of 2011.