The hardware aspects of the industrial computer
Various modular components extended by the CompactPCI standard are small in size, such as PMC daughter cards, which can achieve flexible expansion without increasing the thickness of the card. With 1U, 2U, 4U, 8U, 9U, 12U and other chassis options, the system can realize various applications in the same standard rack, which is convenient for management. In addition, each chassis can be configured with up to 21 sets of I/O, and multiple sets of redundant power supply systems. The "drawer-type" hot-swappable design adopted by the server system is installed from the front end, which provides great convenience for maintenance. High reliability fanless CPU, minimized MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) and other designs provide a guarantee for the realization of high reliability at the telecom level.
CompactPCI is based on the PICMG2.0 specification. Its electrical characteristics are the same as the PCI bus, so the user's software is compatible with ordinary PCs, and the existing PCI peripheral cards can also be easily transplanted to the CompactPCI platform. CompactPCI uses 2mm high-density pinhole bus connectors. Compared with PCI cards using gold finger connectors, it has the characteristics of reliable connection and complete airtightness, and the card has high shock resistance and corrosion resistance. In addition, the CompactPCI card adopts the Eurocard structure that has been tested in the field for more than 20 years. The European standard card adopts vertical installation and front extraction structure, which improves the heat dissipation, shock resistance and easy maintenance of the card. Specifically, it has the following advantages:
The industrial computer system has strong vibration resistance
The CompactPCI card is fixed with guide rails up and down, and the front end of the card is connected to the backplane through air-tight pinhole connectors, each connector has a binding force of 10kg. The card can be fixed to the chassis by the panel screws. The front and rear of the CompactPCI card are fixed up and down, so the system has high shock resistance.
Supports live plugging and unplugging of cards
The backplane of CompactPCI uses a structure of long, medium and short pins, of which the Power and Ground pins are the longest, which can ensure that the card can be inserted and pulled out safely. In addition, the board selection signal IDSEL, BD_SEL pins are the shortest, the system can use this signal to know whether the card is in the process of inserting or pulling out. In addition, CompactPCI has developed a hot-plug hardware process and software management interface to ensure the effectiveness of the card hot-plug process.
Support rear wiring for easy wiring
The card signal line of CompactPCI does not need to be drawn out from the front panel of the card, but the signal line can be drawn out from the rear end with an adapter board through the backplane. When replacing the card, there is no need to replace the signal line, which reduces the workload of replacing the card and reduces the probability of errors caused by replacing the signal line. In addition, the signal line is drawn from the back end, and the front end of the device will be more beautiful.
The card is installed vertically, which is conducive to heat dissipation
The CompactPCI card adopts the European standard card structure, the card is installed vertically, and the cooling airflow of the system is blown from the bottom to the top, which conforms to the principle of air convection and has a good heat dissipation effect.
CompactPCI cards have better electrical characteristics
The pins and connectors of the CompactPCI backplane are all gold-plated, and the maximum length of the signal line, the impedance of the PCB board, the decoupling capacitor, and the resistance of the PCI pull-up resistor are strictly defined. Therefore, the electrical characteristics of CompactPCI are better than ordinary PCI industrial computer. A single CompactPCI bus segment can support up to 7 PCI devices, while an ordinary industrial computer can only support 4 PCI devices.
Good anti-corrosion and electromagnetic shielding
CompactPCI uses 2mm airtight pinhole bus connectors, and salt spray, acid mist and charged dust cannot corrode the bus. In addition, CompactPCI's all-aluminum alloy case shell and card's U-shaped spring can provide good electromagnetic shielding protection for the system. Good anti-static. The lower end of the CompactPCI card has a static discharge strip, and static electricity can be exported to the ground. In addition, CompactPCI stipulates that the logical ground of the system is isolated from the chassis ground to keep the system free from external interference. However, the industrial computer based on PICMG1.0 cannot isolate the chassis ground and the logical ground.
2 Software aspects
In addition to being compatible with Microsoft Windows operating system, because CompactPCI adopts an open operating system and has rich drivers and development tools, it can not only be applied to the development of various real-time switching application systems, but also needs to be built on large commercial servers (such as IBM, HP, Old telecom application systems developed on various RTOS (Real-Time OS, such as Solaris, Linux, VxWorks, etc.) of SUN, etc.) can also be easily transplanted to the CompactPCI platform, such as Billing System, unified Message (Unified Messaging), Streaming Server, etc.
3 System upgrade
Due to electrical load, each CompactPCI bus is limited to eight slots. But with PCI-PCI bridge chips from many manufacturers, it's easy to increase the number of slots. This bridge chip works as a kind of "super buffer" chip. Interrupts, plug-and-play information and data can generally be easily and automatically transferred through this bridge. The CPU and peripherals of Compact PCI are the same as those of standard PCI, so the operating system, drivers and applications do not feel the difference between the two. Converting a standard PCI card into a Compact PCI card requires almost no redesign. Just physically redistribute it.
Moreover, the speed of CPU advancement is often much faster than that of the I/O subsystem. The CompactPCI architecture allows customers to upgrade only part of the CPU motherboard without touching other I/O components. It is an open system supported by the world, so it has sufficient upgrade support and support for peripheral components.
