3U VPX Takes Creative Design Solutions

3U VPX is much more than just a half size version of 6U VPX. It can actually match the speed and bandwidth of the 6U version and has creative design options.

Although 3U VPX has a much more limited number of potential IO channels than the larger 6U version, it probably has more than enough connectivity for most applications. Using the right routing schemes, 3U VPX is compatible with existing PMC mezzanine modules as well as the newer XMC mezzanine modules. The substantial existing ecosystem for of PMC modules means that many interface standards can be supported immediately, through the use of either XMC/PMC carrier cards or VPX SBC cards with a PMC/XMC socket.

The flexibility of the backplane interconnect topologies is an important feature. The 3U VPX architecture has three backplane connectors in each slot. The J0 contains power at three voltage levels and such system signals as geographic address, power fail, JTAG and a reference clock. The other two connectors provide a total of 64 differential signal pairs and associated reference grounds.

The J1 and J2 connectors can be configured as x1, x2 or x4 channels. The Multi-Gig connector supports XAUI 2.5 Gbps signaling and is scaleable to at least 6.25 Gbps. Because the VPX architecture allows the end user to define how the differential channels in J1 and J2 can to be used, there is great flexibility to emphasize either channel interconnect mapping or rear panel IO.

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