CompactPCI (cPCI)

CompactPCI (cPCI), initiated in late 1994 by Ziatech Corporation under the auspices of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG), is the newest specification for PCI-based fault resilient and fault tolerant computers and defines many features that make a PC more fault resilient. The CompactPCI Specification is the result of a concerted effort of the CompactPCI subcommittee composed of the following companies: Digital Equipment, GESPAC, I-Bus, Pro-Log, Teknor, VMIC, and Ziatech.

CompactPCI offers a host of telecom features required for network applications including:

• A standard telecom bus (32 streams and 4096 time slots) for communications between cards in a chassis rack.

• Redundant chassis and board configurations for highly available resource requirements.

• A telecom form factor (3U and 6U card heights with rear panel I/O).

• Transition cards and cabling assemblies to simplify installation.

• Telecom power bus (- 48 V DC) and provision for ringing voltage.

• Hot swap capability with staged pins and system notifications with card tab release, allowing systems to be upgraded or expanded, or cards replaced without taking servers off-line.

• Software compatible with mass market PCI systems.

• Redundant power management, CPUs, disks.

• No interruption of system operation if a subsystem module fails

• The principal benefits of CompactPCI include:

• Higher reliability through hot swapping of components.

• Delivery of hot-swappable telecom features required for industry (H.110, rear panel I/O, power specs).

• Compatibility of software from standard PC (PCI) systems to CompactPCI systems existing PC software can run unchanged on CompactPCI systems.

• An open, industry-accepted specification eliminating the proprietary...