Playing a key role in PICMG’s COM Express update

28th July 2016

Joe Bush

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The new Type 7 pinout that is included in PICMG’s COM Express standard update to version 3.0 has been announced by ADLINK Technology. The new Type 7 pinout was defined to leverage contemporary low power, server grade silicon and introduce 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) capabilities to the computer-on-module (COM) form factor.

Customer applications benefiting from the Type 7 pinout include space constrained systems in industrial automation and data communication, such as virtualisation and edge computing, that require high density CPU cores balanced by reasonable power consumption.

ADLINK has played a key role in the PICMG sub-committee that is currently defining the new COM Express 3.0 specification. The committee, which started its work in late 2015, is chaired by ADLINK’s Jeff Munch, CTO of Americas, and has benefited from the efforts of ADLINK’s team of technical contributors. The preview of the Type 7 pinout definition allows module manufacturers and customers to start designs before the full COM Express 3.0 specification is published, which is expected to be the end of Q3 2016.

The COM Express standard’s new Type 7 pinout, as compared to the Type 6 pinout, does away with all graphics support and replaces it with up to four 10GbE ports and an additional eight PCI Express (PCIe) ports, bringing the total PCIe support to up to 32 PCIe lanes. The Type 7 pinout has been specifically tailored to leverage all the functions of low power, headless server grade System-on-Chips (SoCs) with a TDP below 65W. In addition, the Type 7 pinout brings out 10GBase-KR signals, meaning the carrier board designer can choose between KR-to-KR, KR-to-optical fibre or KR-to-copper. A Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) bus is also supported, allowing for Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) Board Management Controller (BMC) support on the carrier board.

“Ongoing updates are critical to enable full-featured designs using any open specification, particularly one as accepted in the embedded vendor community as COM Express,” said Joe Pavlat, President and Chairman of the PICMG consortium. “We greatly appreciate the active participation of members like ADLINK to lead these efforts.”

The preview of PICMG’s COM Express 3.0 Type 7 pinout definition is available for download to PICMG members on the PICMG website at www.picmg.org.