Top Five Reasons To Invest PCI Express Gen 2

We’ve had several PCI Express blogs lately related to the PCIe 2.0 technology and PCI Express Gen 2 option card availability.  This time around, let us look at a few reasons why you should invest in PCIe 2.0 technology.

 

1. The system solution technology risks are low

Since PCI Express 2.0 builds upon the previous PCIe 1.1 standard, new PCI 2.0 cards can operate in either a PCIe 2.0 or 1.1 industrial computer system environment.  This inherent PCIe 2.0 backward compatibility means that in Government & Defense applications such as Secure Cross Domain Network and Video Image Processing system solutions where secure networking or advanced video processing is key, and the systems are deployed for long periods of time; the option card technology can evolve without adversely affecting the current system installation. 

2. The system solution technology rewards are great

PCIe 2.0 cards use a 5.0 GT/s base signal frequency, while PCIe 1.1, cards have a 2.5GT/s frequency.  This doubling of the base frequency leads to an effective doubling of the available bandwidth between the single board computer and the option cards or between the motherboard’s processors and the PCIe 2.0 option card slot.  In Industrial Automation applications this 2x bandwidth availability can have provide enormous advantages in Human Machine Interface (HMI) and Semiconductor Fabrication system solutions.  In HMI applications this extra bandwidth can allow sensor data transitions to been seen faster and silicon wafer machine to process more build and test instructions.

 

3. Chipset & CPU technology is available today for PCIe 2.0

The Intel® 5520 and Intel® 3420 chipsets and Intel® Xeon® C5500-series processors used on embedded motherboards like Trenton’s WTM7026 and single board computers such as Trenton’s JXT6966 offer multiple PCI Express 2.0 interfaces.  These long-life chipsets and processors from the Intel® Embedded Products Division simplify the task of designing in the industrial computer longevity needed in Medical Imaging system solutions.

 

4.  Implementing PCIe 2.0 in a system is easy

The PCI-SIG group simplified the task of incorporating PCI Express 2.0 into system designs by developing PCIe specifications that truly incorporate the advantages of backward compatibility and automatic PCIe link training. 

5. Might as well get started with PCIe 2.0 because PCIe 3.0 is right around the corner

In early 2011 we will be discussing the benefits of PCIe 3.0 interfaces in your system solution designs.  So what better way to get familiar with the benefits of faster data throughputs and wider bandwidths than by jumping on the PCIe Gen 2 bandwagon?

 This submission is from Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing.

Virtualization Replaces Client-Server With Virtual Machines

As mentioned in our previous post on virtualization, the advent of client-server topology thankfully put computing power into the hands of end users, but as these applications were rolled out over many years a number of financial and technical issues became readily apparent.

• Low Infrastructure Utilization – often times operating at less than 25% of total capacity
• Increased Infrastructure Cost – for servers, desktop computers, facilities and cooling
• Increased Maintenance Cost – more network administrators and server upgrades
• Insufficient Disaster Protection – complex networks became more difficult to backup

 Coming to the rescue was the implementation of virtualization technology inside x86-based hardware.  Pioneered by VMware, this new layer of software allowed multiple “virtual machines” to operate on a single server.  Taking advantage of multi-core, multi-processor hardware, these virtual machines act like a single physical computer, complete with CPU, memory, hard drive storage, and network interface.

 

 Operating systems, which are loaded onto each of the virtual machines, behave as though they were running on a dedicated server, even though this fully isolated environment is software based.  These operating systems, which can include Microsoft Windows running alongside various flavors of Linux, are completely isolated from each other.  If one virtual machine encounters a problem and crashes, the others are unaffected while the problem is resolved and the one machine is rebooted separately.

 

Beyond the level of a single server, users can now create what VMware calls a Virtual Infrastructure which lets the IT group manage a series of servers as though they were a single machine.  In this case, the physical resources of multiple servers, along with associated storage and networks, are pooled in a way that offers greater utilization, availability, performance and flexibility.

 

 Within such configurations, dynamic provisioning allows computing resources to be allocated where needed, and these workloads can even be moved across hardware systems in real time.  Scheduled maintenance can also occur without critical applications being taken off line while at the same time reducing overall points of failure.

Virtual machines and virtual infrastructures are being widely deployed, from data centers to industrial automation, video processing and simulation.  Trenton offers a broad range of computing platforms that support such applications, using single board computers and backplanes or fully integrated rackmount computers with segmented backplanes supporting multiple SBCs in a single rackmount enclosure.

Two Trenton white papers covering the topics of Cross-Domain Networks and Cluster Computing can provide additional information on how Trenton is serving the needs of high performance computing in a virtualized environment.

This submission is by Mark Lovett, Chief Marketing Officer.

PCI Express Gen 2 Cards – What’s Available Today?

In a past blog, we talked about the evolution of PCI Express and specifically what advantages PCI Express Gen2 or PCIe 2.0 offers an industrial computer system over the previous PCI Express 1.1 interface technology.  The main advantage of PCI Express 2.0 is a doubling of the card-to-card interface speeds, which enables some impressive system data throughput improvements.  Unlike many new computer technologies, the backwards compatibility with older PCIe 1.1 boards simplifies the PCIe 2.0 system integration task.  PCI Express 2.0 interface connectivity is certainly becoming more common in the latest embedded motherboards, single board computers, system host boards and backplanes. 

The question is, are there enough different types of PCI Express 2.0 COTS option cards available today that will enable us to take full advantage of PCIe 2.0 in various embedded computing applications? 

To try to answer this question, I went on a simple web search for different types of PCIe 2.0 option cards.  Using some basic keyword phrases, a number of different PCI Express Gen 2 COTS option cards were found in just about an hour of looking.   

 

PCIe 2.0 Board Type	Brief Description	Model Name/Number	Vendor
Remote Graphics Card	A variety of single-slot & dual-slot PCIe 2.0 video card that enables two remote monitors	FirePro™ RG220 FirePro™ V8800 plus other select FirePro-series boards	ATI
Graphics Processing Unit	A variety of single & dual-slot PCIe 2.0 video cards that provide enhanced graphics and multi-monitor display capabilities.	GeForce 9600 GT GeForce 8800 GT plus other select GeForce-series boards	NVIDIA
Eight-port SATA+SAS Bus Adapter	This single-slot PCIe 2.0 card is used in data storage arrays and can drive up to 256 SAS or SATA devices	LSI™ SAS 9211-8i	LSI Corporation
SATA Host Adapter	These single-slot PCIe 2.0 cards support multiple eSATA or SATA III ports	S3-PCIE1XG201 S3-PCIE1XG202	IOI Technology Corporation
USB 3.0 Expansion Card	This single-slot PCIe 2.0 card adds two additional USB 1.1/2.0/3.0 ports to the system design	PDU3	Transcend
FPGA Accelerator Card	A single-slot PCIe 2.0 card with multiple-FPGA capability	PCIe-280	Nallatech Interconnect Systems Inc.
Protocol Test Card	This single-slot PCIe 2.0 card is a PCIe 2.0 compliance test board	PE020AGA-X	LeCroy

 

Option card technology always seems to lag processor card innovations, but I was happy to uncover quite a bit of variety in available PCI Express 2.0 option cards.  Obviously, there are a lot of PCIe Gen2 video and graphics cards available, but you can see that other card types are also available.  Trenton’s currently available JXT6966, JXTS6966, NTM6900, WTM7026, BPC7041 and BPC7009 are examples of PCIe 2.0 embedded computing hardware that supports all the different COTS card technologies including the PCI Express Gen2 cards listed above. 

For more information on the details of PCI Express visit our website or see www.pcisig.com. 

 

This submission is from Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing.

Making Computer Systems Fly

Recently a major OEM came to us with an interesting computer system design dilemma. The OEM was looking for an engineering design partner that could provide an industrial computer that met the following parameters:

•   Consolidate as much computing capability as possible into a single rackmount enclosure

•  Enable multiple single board computers within a common rackmount enclosure to run individual applications when necessary

•   Use the same multi-SBC approach within a common enclosure to scale computing hardware requirements to match individual application software requirements

•   Minimize weight by reducing the total number of rackmount computer enclosures needed for the total system solution.

•   Operating in an airborne environment, the industrial computers must be able to withstand the rigors of flight, and do so without adding unnecessary weight

•  The Mil-COTS end user needed U.S. made computers that met the military’s requirements for hardware availability, stability and longevity.

 That is a long wish list for any industrial computer supplier. The OEM tried other suppliers, but came to us because of our ability to design a system from the ground up that satisfied their unique application requirements.

Trenton engineers working with the OEM engineers and end-user representatives developed an initial system concept around a lightweight, 5U, aluminum computer chassis with a compact 18” (45.7cm) depth dimension. Developing a rugged and lightweight chassis solution is one thing, but to reduce the total aircraft hardware weight load something more was needed. We needed to figure out how to consolidate computer capabilities within each rackmount enclosure in order to reduce the overall hardware footprint. What would you do?

Fortunately for our OEM and end-user customer, that in addition to system integration, Trenton also designs and manufactures long-life embedded motherboards, single board computers and backplanes. To pack as much computing capability as possible into a single lightweight computer enclosure, Trenton engineers devised a four-segment backplane that we call the Trenton BP4FS6890. This backplane enables the OEM to put up to four, high performance computer boards or SBCs in the enclosure. The SBCs could be single processor boards like the Trenton TQ9 or even dual-processor SBCs like the Trenton JXT6966 featuring two quad-core Intel® Xeon® C5500 series processors.

 

The total system solution that we call the Trenton TRC5000 could not have been possible without:

•  Trenton’s ability to listen to the customer needs
•  The capability of producing a COTS board solution like the BP4FS6890 backplane
•  Our ability to manufacture the boards and integrate the total industrial computer solution in our ISO certified facilities located in the U.S. The BP4FS6890 backplane, as well as the other products discussed, are ready to deploy in your applications. If you need something different for your specific parameters, give us a call and lets work together to design the optimum system solution for your customer.

This submission is by Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing

Can You Really “Simplify” Integration of Industrial Computer Systems?

The short and “buy our stuff” answer to this question is obviously “Yes”, but the real answer is “It Depends”. Many application factors determine if an industrial computer system solution will be appropriate. A short list of some of these factors include:

• System location requirements

• Projected service life of the system

• Number of option cards needed in the computer

• System expansion requirements

• System power and fail-over requirements

• System O/S and application software solution requirements

The first five items on this short, and by no means all-inclusive list of industrial computer integration factors relate to the computer hardware itself. The last item has an indirect hardware relationship, but for the most part, it is the system’s software component that often times will command the lion’s share of time in integrating a system. If we can unburden the OEM or End User from the task of engineering the hardware and O/S elements into the industrial computer system, that should simplify the integration task while giving the customer’s engineering resources more time for implementing the all important application software solution. For example, industrial automation motion control and distributed process control software solutions can be very complex. Virtualization in a motion control application involves several specialized application software components in addition to the multiple operating systems and Virtual Machine Manager or VMM software. The following articles talk about these virtualization applications and the need to have stable industrial computer hardware platforms for successful installations:

•  Motion Control Application Article

•  Distributed Process Control Article

An integrator that understands the subtle nuances of embedded computing hardware can use this knowledge to provide hardware platforms that ensure successful industrial computer installations. The simplicity of the industrial computer’s hardware integration really depends on the integrator’s knowledge of:

•  Available processors and which CPUs are long-life embedded processors

•  Option card interconnect interfaces such as PCI Express 2.0 and how these interfaces interact with various card types

•  The board topology of different single board computers and embedded motherboards, including BIOS configuration issues

•  Power supply technology and capabilities such as power availability, start-up surges and redundancy

• Hardware enclosure form factors, air-flow designs, shock & vibration concerns, availability and longevity

Trenton’s product answers to system integration simplification include our line of Standard Systems as well as our Customer-Driven Solutions product line.The TCS4500 is Trenton’s latest standard system and this 4U rackmount computer comes pre-configured with the dual-processor (Jasper Forest) JXT6966 single board computer and a BPC7041 PCI Express 2.0 backplane. The TCS3500 is an example of one of our standard systems pre-configured with a single processor, long-life embedded motherboard. Our Customer-Driven Solutions, such as our 5U  TRC5002, enable more hardware choices such as two systems in one enclosure for cluster computer applications. Either way, Trenton simplifies the integration task by taking care of the hardware component, thereby enabling the OEM customer more time to dedicate to the system’s application software solution.

 

This submission is from Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing.

Trenton Technology ships JXT6966 SBC with Intel® Jasper Forest CPUs

The latest Intel® Xeon® C5500 Series (i.e. Jasper Forest) are a new generation of quad-core processors specifically built for high-performance computing in long-life embedded system applications. 

The Intel® Xeon® LC5528 offers some compelling industrial computer advantages when deployed on a dual-processor single board computer like the Trenton JXT6966.  Here are a couple of LC5528 processor parameters that you may find useful in your next rackmount computer / industrial server system design:

• Better Thermals – Maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) is only 60W
• Better Thermals II – Maximum T_case excursion temp = 85° C with T_case nominal being 70° C
• Multi-Core / Multi-Thread Architecture – Quad-Core processor with Intel® Hyper-Threading results in eight processing cores being available for multi-threaded software applications.

These LC5528 processor advantages, coupled with the inherent Jasper Forest processor advantages of direct DDR3 memory interfaces and PCI Express® 2.0 links to the CPU enable your system to operate faster and consume less power than previous generation single board computer and processor technology.

We have a Trenton’s JXT6966 product video posted on You Tube that steps you through the capabilities of the JXT6966.  The video covers SBC:

• Performance benchmarks
• Available I/O for the system
• Alignment within a backplane
• Mechanical layout benefits
• System design advantages

Application information for the JXT6966 single board computer plus additional system integration details on our new BPC7009 and BPC7041 PCI Express 2.0 backplanes are found on the Trenton website.  If you prefer, Trenton’s TSC4500 is a complete 4U rackmount computer system already integrated with a JXT6966 SBC and a BPC7041 backplane with additional options available to meet your specific configuration requirements. 

 For additional information on single board computer form factors and the advantages they provide in industrial server designs see:

http://www.picmg.org/v2internal/SHB_Express.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-board_computer

 This submission is by Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing

PCI Express 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 – What’s Happening & Why Do I Care?

It’s pretty clear to me that given the number of PCI Express plug-in cards available on the market today that PCI Express has won the high-bandwidth, serial interconnect wars of a few years ago.  No doubt, there are specific application niches were InfiniBand, RapidIO or HyperTransport work the best.  However, given the ever-expanding volume and types of PCI Express COTS boards available, you have to admit that PCI Express is the clear victor.  Maybe you disagree, but next time you’re searching on-line or in your local Fry’s for a plug-in board let me know how many non-PCI Express high-bandwidth, serial interconnect boards you manage to find.  I’m guessing that the number will be very small.

 

That brings us to a discussion on all the flavors of PCI Express that are now popping up. Does it matter that the interface is PCI Express version 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 or even the latest and greatest 3.0?  From the strictly, “Will the cards work?” standpoint the answer is “Yes”, because the basic interconnect functionality is not affected by the PCIe version.  The PCI-SIG (Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group) did a smart thing when PCI Express 1.1 was first developed because they built the basic PCIe interconnect in such a manner as to ensure both scalibility and backwards compatibility.  This critical specification feature enables the computer hardware to operate fine with just about any PCI Express card regardless of the board’s interface version.  So, if that’s the case why do I care about the various types of PCI Express interfaces?

 

Increased system performance is the primary reason you care about the specific PCI Express interface.  A PCI Express 2.0 COTS board installed in an industrial computer will send its data over to the system host board (SHB) twice as fast as older PCI Express 1.1 boards.  Of course, this assumes that the systems’ SHB has PCIe 2.0 interfaces.  The same scenario plays out in an embedded motherboard.  If the motherboard is equipped with PCIe 2.0 card slots then any PCIe 2.0 card placed into one of these slots will send it’s data to the board’s CPUs twice as fast as in a PCIe 1.1 system.  This speed advantage is cumulative and can be critical in high-performance computing applications.  

 

Here’s a table that summarizes the key parameters of the various PCI Express interfaces.

 

	Base Clock Speed	Data Rate per lane & per direction	Total Bandwidth (x16 link)	Data Transfer Rate
PCIe 1.1	2.5GHz	250MB/s	8GB/s	2.5GT/s
PCIe 2.0 / 2.1	5.0GHz	500MB/s	16GB/s	5.0GT/s
PCIe 3.0	8.0GHz	1000MB/s	32GB/s	8.0GT/s

 

PCIe 2.1 uses many of the interface architecture improvements developed for PCIe 3.0, but communicates at the same interface speeds used in PCIe 2.0.  PCIe 3.0 achieves twice the communication speeds of PCIe 2.0 through various architecture and protocol management improvements.  PCIe 3.0 silicon will start becoming readily available in 2011.  Trenton’s currently available JXT6966, JXTS6966, NTM6900, WTM7026, BPC7041 and BPC7009 are examples of PCI Express 2.0 embedded computing hardware. 

 

For more information on the details of PCI Express visit our website or see www.pcisig.com

 

This was submitted by Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing Communications.

PCI Express GEN 2 Questions and Answers

Trenton will be releasing a new system host board later this week that supports PCI Express Gen 2.0. There are some great questions and answers on the PCISIG website (www.pcisig.com) regarding PCIe 2.0 so I took the opportunity to republish here.

 Q: What are the benefits of PCIe 2.0? What business opportunities does it bring to the market?

A: While doubling the bit rate satisfies high-bandwidth applications, faster signaling has the advantage of allowing various interconnect links to save cost by adopting a narrow configuration. For example, a PCI Express 1.1 x8 link (8 lanes) yields a total aggregate bandwidth of 4GBytes/s, which is the same bandwidth obtained from a PCI Express 2.0 x4 link (4 lanes) that adopts the 5GT/s signaling technology. This can result in significant savings in platform implementation cost while achieving the same performance level. Backward compatibility is retained as existing 2.5 GT/S adapters can plug into 5.0 GT/S slots and will run at the slower rate. Conversely, new PCIe 2.0 adapters running at 5.0 GT/S can plug into existing PCIe slots and run at the slower rate of 2.5 GT/S.

Q: Then PCIe 2.0 must be backward compatible with PCIe 1.1 and 1.0?
A: Yes. The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both the 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling technologies. A device designed to the PCIe Base 2.0 specification may support 2.5GT/s, 5GT/s or both. However, a device designed to operate specifically at 5GT/s must also support 2.5GT/s signaling. The PCIe Base specification covers chip-to-chip topologies on the system board. For I/O extensibility across PCIe connectors, the Card Electromechanical (CEM) and ExpressModule^TM specifications will also need to be updated, but this work will not impact mechanical compatibility of the slots, cards or modules. Currently, the PCI-SIG is defining the PCIe CEM 2.0 specification which has been released to members for review at v0.5. There are currently no plans to adapt the PCIe Mini CEM specification for the faster bit rate as the market need has not yet materialized.

Q: What are the initial target applications for PCIe 2.0?
A: The same set of core applications, high-performance graphics, enterprise-class storage and high-speed networking that benefited from the introduction of PCIe 1.0 architecture are expected to lead the charge for adoption of PCIe 2.0.

Top 3 PICMG 1.3 System Host Boards questions

Here at Trenton, we get questions about the PICMG 1.3 System Host Board specification. We have answered a few below. The full spec can be found at www.picmg.org. Enjoy!

 Q: Why call the PICMG 1.3 specification SHB Express and not SBC Express?

A: SHB means System Host Board and the technical subcommittee that wrote the specification felt that SHB provided a good way to avoid confusion with PICMG 1.0 and PICMG 1.2 SBCs that support the PCI/ISA or PCI-X/PCI parallel bus interfaces. An SHB performs the same function as an SBC, but an SHB by virtue of the multiple PCI Express serial links along the board's edge connectors supports multiple communication pathways into the SHB unlike the common parallel bus used in PICMG 1.0 SBCs. PICMG 1.3 SHBs therefore can handle greater data traffic into and out of the board as compared to PICMG 1.0 SBCs. We use the term SHB Express to define a system host board that uses PCI Express as the primary interface to the backplane. The terms "SHB Express" and "PICMG 1.3" are used interchangeably. Additionally, PICMG 1.3 SHBs must always be used with PICMG 1.3 backplanes.

Q: What is meant by the terms "Server-Class" and "Graphics-class" as it relates to PICMG 1.3 board hardware?

A: Server and Graphics class refers to how the PCI Express electrical links are routed to the SHB's card edge connectors A and B and how these links are in turn routed or "plumbed" to the option card slots and/or devices on a PICMG 1.3 backplane. Server-class SHBs usually feature two x8 PCI Express electrical links on edge connectors A and B plus either one x4 or four x1 PCIe links. Graphics-class SHBs usually feature one x16 PCI Express electrical link on edge connectors A and B plus either one x4 or four x1 PCIe links. The type of chipset utilized in an SHB design determines if the board is a server- or graphics-class SHB. Matching the class of a PICMG 1.3 SHB to the PICMG 1.3 backplane class results in the maximum use of all available option card slots and devices on a PICMG 1.3 backplane.

Q: Does the PICMG 1.3 specification provide support for PCI Express Gen 2 products and can a PCI Express serial communication link support multiple PCI Express card slots like a PCI or PCI-X parallel bus?

A: Provisions have been worked into the specification that allow the PICMG 1.3 SHBs and backplanes to support both PCI Express Gen 1 and Gen 2 hardware. Remember that PCI Express is a point-to-point, high speed and scalable bandwidth serial communication interface and as such cannot support multiple card slot interfaces without some help. While the chipsets support multiple PCI Express links that can be routed to a PICMG 1.3 backplane to support a number of PCI Express option card slots, PCI Express fan-out switches or simply PCIe switches are also commonplace in many backplane designs. A PCI Express fan out switch takes an incoming PCI Express link and produces multiple PCI Express links. The basic function of a PCIe switch is similar to that of a PCI-to-PCI bridge chip in that the PCIe switch enables support for multiple PCI Express option card backplane slots.

Top 6 Engineering Acronyms

Top 6 Trenton Engineering Acronyms

Engineers love their acronyms. Here is a list of the top 6 acronyms you will hear when walking the halls here at Trenton. There is already plenty of technical info on the internet about each, but below you'll find a very high overview, how Trenton utilizes the technology, and maybe even a brief application story.

1. ISA - Industry Standard Architecture - It may seem like forever ago, but ISA was the interconnect of choice from the early 80s until the mid 90s. Typical examples were sound cards, dial-up modems, video cards, and custom telephony cards. Trenton has many customers that designed their systems around a specific card and they want to continue selling that exact same product for as long as possible. For example, some of Trenton's medical customers spend a lot of time and money getting their equipment approved, and they want to continue selling that product for 10-20 years. Trenton still supports products with the ISA bus, allowing customers to get the most out of their engineering efforts.

2. PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect - This is where Trenton was really able to differentiate itself. Customers could specify each slot's clock speed (33, 66, 100, 133MHz) and bus width (32 or 64bit). Backplanes could have up to 18 slots with many different configurations (depending on what a customer needed). To this day most Trenton products still ship with PCI slots.

3. PCIe - Peripheral Component Interconnect Express - Most cards designed these days are PCIe. Note that while PCI was a parallel bus topology (meaning 2-4 slots shared a bus and only 1 could communicate at a time), PCIe is point-to-point, which means the connection is not shared and simultaneous bandwidth is huge. Trenton is able to put up to 9 links directly back to the processor board all running simultaneously. We can put even more slots on a backplane by using a PCIe switch.

Slot bandwith is another major advantage of PCIe. Slots can be x1 (0.25GB/s), x4 (1GB/s), x8 (2GB/s), or x16 (4GB/s) in each direction.

Note that there is a newer PCIe Gen 2 that is emerging, but outside of super high end video cards, I haven't seen much on the market yet. I'm sure we'll see more Gen 2 cards coming in the next year or so.

4. PICMG 1.0 - PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group 1.0 - Trenton Technology is the only remaining founding member of PICMG. To this day Trenton still sells many products around this form factor for anything from telecom, military, semiconductor, to medical industries.

Note that the spec's main purpose is detailing how to route PCI and ISA to a backplane. From the backplane the customer has the ultimate flexibility on which slots they want. One really beautiful thing about this form factor is that it allows customers to utilize off the shelf peripheral cards (i.e. video capture cards, Ethernet, etc).

You'll also hear a PICMG 1.0 processor board called a SBC (Single Board Computer). This was a very appropriate name since all of the computer essentials were contained on one board (except the peripheral slots of course).

5. PICMG 1.3 - PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group 1.3 - This is the form factor where Trenton really shines. Not only was Trenton the draft editor, but we also have the widest selection of PICMG 1.3 products in the industry. At first glance the PICMG 1.3 form factor looks identical to the PICMG 1.0. You'll notice that the ISA & PCI going from the processor to the backplane has been replaced by PCIe, USB, Ethernet, and SATA. One beautiful thing about the PICMG 1.3 form factor is that we can use PCIe-to-PCI bridges to get legacy PCI (and yes we can even bridge to ISA slots). This means that customers can mix and match old and new technology giving the ultimate flexibility.

This form factor allows up to 8 links (20 lanes) to go down to the backplane. With the use of a Trenton IO3B1 board a customer can actually get one more link (4 lanes) down to the backplane as well. To say it another way, imagine 9 slots are running simultaneously directly back to the chipset. We need another blog to detail how these links can be configured, but let's just say that this form factor has a ton of flexibility.

You'll also hear a PICMG 1.3 processor board called a SHB - System Host Board. Since the processor board now has optional USB, Ethernet and SATA going to the backplane, Trenton thought SHB was more fitting.Trenton is planning to support PCIe Gen 2 with the PICMG 1.3.

6. PrAMC - Processor Advanced Mezzanine Card - The μTCA (Micro Telecom Computing Architecture) form factor was originally spun off from the ATCA (Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture) form factor (you have to love all the acronyms). Nowadays μTCA is becoming more and more popular with military, telecom, and many other customers who need good compute power in a small form factor. Applications range from small appliances to large 6U high applications. Customers have the option of doing power management, system management, hot swap peripherals, vPro, etc. I'm excited about the potential that this form factor has and what options it opens up to customers.

This contribution is from Michael Bowling, Director of Operations.