Bridge Extends cPCI Capabilities

This single-slot CompactPCI InfiniBand-based CompactPCI-to-CompactPCI bridge makes it possible to extend a traditional cPCI system’s expansion capability beyond a single chassis. Using the VMICPCI-5800 card, a single host controller can transparently access other cPCI devices in multiple cPCI chassis. Transparent PCI-to-PCI bridging requires a minimum of two VMICPCI-5800 boards—one configured as the master and the other as a slave. The master can control up to four 1x slave boards or one 4x slave board. The VMICPCI-5800 has four channels and supports two link speeds at the physical layer, 1x and 4x. Each individual link provides a four-wire serial differential connection with two wires in each direction achieving a full-duplex connection at 2.5 Gb/s. The boards include multiple virtual lanes plus a dedicated management lane. Each board has 100 Gb/s internal bandwidth. The VMICPCI-5800 card costs $1,712. VMIC, Huntsville, AL. (800) 322-3616.