If one could walk through a store with shelves lined with military embedded systems and their respective “ingredients,” what would set one SBC or backplane apart from the rest? It’d be power and processor type for sure, or serial fabric accommodation and speed, but what else? I/O, the great differentiator. And it appears that this could’ve been the thought process behind SIE Computing Solutions’ enhanced 5-slot I/O PLUS 3U VPX Full Mesh Backplane. Inside the rather long nomenclature, you probably noticed what the company calls “I/O PLUS.” Enabling fit within a widely spanning VPX application array, I/O PLUS provides two front-edge, high-speed VPX connectors, along with two interchangeable I/O daughtercards … So the designer makes the choice of what goes where.
Not only that, the backplane packs a “power”ful punch, delivering more than 200 W for each VPX slot. With the aforestated high-performance enabling power coursing through its proverbial veins and its ability to additionally comply with VPX-REDI, the 5-slot I/O PLUS 3U VPX Full Mesh Backplane is ready for duty in vetronic and also aerospace apps. While tucked inside a VPX application, the backplane accommodates on J1: 10 high-speed differential channels and fat pipes; meanwhile, J2 provides 20 single-ended signals and 16 fat pipes. Will the company make an OpenVPX compatible version? Time will tell.
