Kontron Launches 'High-Speed CompactPCI Initiative'

This initiative gives the CompactPCI bus architecture a next generation product enhancement providing CompactPCI applications with an enormous performance boost, and extending the investment security of CompactPCI technology for another decade.

The scope of applications using 3U CompactPCI Serial is extremely broad and varied. It ranges from multi-processor systems for the computation of complex imaging processes to high-performance video or radar data recording through flexible SATA/RAID architectures, and from high bandwidth wireless communication with parallel working radio modules WLAN, UMTS, LTE right up to powerful multi-monitor systems in control rooms.

Sample applications for the new modular CompactPCI Serial Mesh (based on PICMG 2.20) systems are in high availability telecommunications and datacommunications applications for carriers and also with government and security companies. Applications include secure wireless systems, radar and sonar applications, and complex computational algorithms such as imaging processing. Now, even with smaller space requirements, existing system installations are provided with a significant increase in data throughput when new long-term generation systems are being developed which, in the future, could be scaled up to 40 GbE.

CompactPCI Serial is a logical enhancement to the very successful and worldwide-accepted CompactPCI specifications. It enables a new generation of high-performance installations requiring massive bandwidth, and also provides a way to boost the performance of any existing CompactPCI deployments in a wide range of industries, explains Norbert Hauser, Executive Vice President Marketing at Kontron. CompactPCI Serial allows data transmission at a rate of several gigabytes per second. By way of comparison, the highest possible data throughput via a parallel 32-bit/66 MHz PCI interface in CompactPCI is 0.264 GB/s. That means that with CompactPCI Serial, completely new system configurations become possible, and with 6U CompactPCI Serial Mesh, 10 Gigabit Ethernet means a huge performance increase too.

In parallel to the announcement of the 'High-Speed CompactPCI Initiative', Kontron is introducing five 3U boards and one 6U board as well as the corresponding system platforms. For 3U CompactPCI, Kontron launched the processor board CPS3003-SA with 3rd generation Intel Core i7 processors, the hard disk carrier CPS3101, the XMC carrier CPS3105 as well as the network cards CPS3402 with two 10GbE interfaces and CPS3410 with four 1GbE interfaces. The new products introduced for 6U CompactPCI Serial Mesh are the processor board CP6004X-SA with Intel Core i7 processor of the 3rd generation and the 6U chassis CP-RAPID3, which offers a full mesh backplane for 10GbE and PCIe. Apart from the availability of these standard products, complete system integration can be provided as well. Application engineers need only to specify their hardware requirements. As required, these modular systems can be shipped as a completely integrated solution platform - including all the necessary drivers. For the chassis, Kontron utilizes enclosures from proven industry partners or can design a custom solution.