New Trends with VME/VPX – Part 2

An historical perspective with a look at the future

Overview

Part 1

• VME: how it all started

• VME: motivations

• VME: electrical features

• VME: mechanical features

• VME: enhancements (VME64,

2eSST, etc)

• VME64: An example - Advme8028

• VME64x + 2eSST: An example -

Advme8027

• VME: CPU architectures

Part 2

• From VME to VPX

• VPX - OpenVPX

• OpenVPX: basics

• OpenVPX: MultiGig RT2

connector

• OpenVPX: planes and profiles

• OpenVPX: 2 level maintenance

• OpenVPX: an example

From VME to VPX

Two disruptive facts:

• introduction of high speed, serial links (PCIe, SRIO, etc)

• better performing physical layer (connectors, etc)

VME has been able to evolve greatly over 30 years, but a new

standard matching current and future capabilities is desirable

VPX (VITA 46) was designed to allow the introduction of a very

flexible standard supporting modern technologies such as multi

gigabit links, high performance devices, etc

VPX - OpenVPX

VPX (VITA 46) allowed for a lot of freedom many proprietary

mappings for functions on the connectors

As a result, VPX is weak on the side of interoperability: boards from

different manufacturers might be not mixed in the same system

OpenVPX (VITA 65) builds upon VPX a common ground that

ensures interoperability

OpenVPX is a recent, vital standard that is still being enriched

OpenVPX: basics

OpenVPX:

• maintains the popular 3U and 6U form factors

• new connector: MultiGig RT2 (7-row, up to 6.25Gb/s)

• more power: 115W@5V (VME 90W), 384W@12V, 768W@48V

• more cooling options: air, conduction and liquid

• larger horizontal pitch: 0.8” and 1.0” (with REDI)

• differential option for mezzanines

• switched fabric

• three communication planes + user defined I/O

• profiles

OpenVPX: MultiGig RT2 connector

Differential pair

Ground

7-row differential

Backplane footprint

Row A

Row B

Row C

Row D

Row E

Row F

Row G

Row H

Row I

7-row differential

Card footprint

Row A

Row B

Row C

Row D

Row E

Row F

Row G

Differential pair of signals

Ground

Single-ended signal

OpenVPX: planes and profiles

OpenVPX defines 3 communication planes, 1 utility plane, 1

management plane and 1 user defined zone:

• Data Plane: High speed links (e.g. PCIe, SRIO )

• Expansion Plane: High speed links (e.g. PCIe, SRIO)

• Control Plane: Control traffic (e.g. Gigabit Ethernet)

• Utility Plane: Power, clocks, etc

• Management Plane: IPMC (independent service processors)

• User Defined I/O: A flexible zone (i.e. rear I/O through a transition

module)

The serial links allow very fast communication and permit different

topologies (e.g. the Data Plane is often switched, while the

Expansion Plane is often point-to-point).

The physical layer supports many protocols (PCIe, SRIO, 10G Eth,

etc)

OpenVPX: planes and profiles

VPX

1

VPX

2

VPX

3

VPX

4

VPX

5

Switch

Switch

Expansion plane (e.g. PCIe)

Data plane (e.g. SRIO)

Control plane (e.g. Gb Eth)

Management Plane (IPMC) Controller

Utility Plane (Clock, Power, etc)

One example:

Sw

itch

and

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

OpenVPX: planes and profiles

OpenVPX uses the concept of “profile”:

• Slot profile:

• physical mapping and definition of the planes and user I/O as seen

from the backplane

• Module profile:

• definition of the protocols

• Backplane profile:

• definition of the connectivity across the backplane for each plane

• Chassis profile:

• Mechanical specs, input power, slot number

Slot/ Module profiles can be Payload, Switch/Management , Bridge,

Peripheral, Storage

OpenVPX: 2 level maintenance

OpenVPX allows great maintenance savings through 2LM (two level

maintenance) compared to the traditional 3LM

Traditionally (3LM) the Line Replaceable Unit is the Chassis

(system). With OpenVPX the LRU is the Module/Card

Estimated savings as high as 70% with 2LM

Level Type 3LM 2LM

Organizational Directly on aircraft/equipment.

Inspection/testing/calibrating √ √

Intermediate Off-equipment. Test&repair. Fixed or mobile

shops √ X

Depot On- or off-equipment. More sophisticated

shops. √ √

OpenVPX: an example

Eurotech CPU-111-10 is a 6U OpenVPX board with a Quad Core

Xeon CPU and a 10Gb Ethernet switch.

It supports multiple ruggedization levels, including 2LM

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