| Compact
peripheral component interconnect (CPCI)
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Introduction
Compact
peripheral component interconnect (CPCI) is an adaptation of the peripheral component
interconnect (PCI) specification for industrial computer applications requiring
a smaller, more robust mechanical form factor than the one defined for the desktop.
CompactPCI is an open standard supported by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturer's
Group (PICMG). CompactPCI is best suited for small, high-speed industrial computing
applications where transfers occur between a number of high-speed cards. It
is a high-performance industrial bus that uses the Eurocard form factor and is
fully compatible with the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum(ECTF) computer telephony
(CT) Bus™ H.110 standard specification. CompactPCI products make it possible
for original equipment manufacturers (OEM), integrators, and resellers to build
powerful and cost-effective solutions for telco networks, while using fewer development
resources. CompactPCI products let developers scale their applications to the
size, performance, maintenance, and reliability demands of telco environments
by supporting the CT Bus, hot swap, administrative tools such as simple network
management protocol (SNMP), and extensive system diagnostics. The move toward
open, standards-based systems has revolutionized the computer telephony (CT) industry.
There are a number of reasons for these changes. Open systems have benefited from
improvements in personal computer (PC) hardware and software, as well as from
advances in digital signal processing (DSP) technology. As a result, flexible,
high performance systems are scalable to thousands of ports while remaining cost
effective for use in telco networks. In addition, fault-tolerant chassis, distributed
software architecture, and N+1 redundancy have succeeded in meeting the demanding
reliability requirements of network operators. One
of the remaining hurdles facing open CT systems is serviceability. CT systems
used in public networks must be extremely reliable and easy to repair without
system downtime. In addition, network operation requires first-rate administrative
and diagnostic capabilities to keep services up and running.
The
Compact PCI Standard The Peripheral Component
Interconnect Industrial Computer Manufacturer's Group (PICMG) developed the compact
peripheral component interconnect (CompactPCI) specification in 1994. CompactPCI
is a high-performance industrial bus based on the peripheral component interconnect
(PCI) electrical standard. It uses the Eurocard form factor first popularized
by VersaModule-Eurocard (VME). Compared to the standard PCI desktop computer,
CompactPCI supports twice as many PCI slots (eight) on a single system bus. In
addition, CompactPCI boards are inserted from the front of the chassis and can
route input/output (I/O) through the backplane to the back of the chassis. These
design considerations make CompactPCI ideal for telco environments. CompactPCI
offers a substantial number of benefits for developers interested in building
telco-grade applications. CompactPCI systems offer the durability and maintainability
required for network applications. At the same time, they can be built using standard,
off-the-shelf components and can run almost any operating system and thousands
of existing software applications without modification. Other advantages of CompactPCI
are related to its Eurocard form factor, durable and rugged design, hot swap capability,
and compatibility with the CT Bus.
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