Bustronic Upgrades VPX Backplanes to OpenVPX™ Compatibility

ELECTRONICS:  Elma Bustronic Corp. is upgrading its 3U and 6U VPX backplanes so they are compatible with the new OpenVPX system interoperability efforts.Bustronic first upgraded its 3U 6-slot OpenVPX backplane. It features a centralized switching topology for a Gigabit Ethernet switch card. OpenVPX redefined two reserved P0/J0 signals Aux_Clk (+/-) and added two P1/J1 single ended Utility signals of GDiscrete and Maskable Reset. The SysCon signal is also now configurable. These changes will be implemented on the new backplane versions. Bustronic will also be updating its 17-slot VPX development backplane, five-slot 6U VPX backplane, and seven-slot 6U Hybrid VPX backplane.

OpenVPX is an effort by a joint group of companies to provide definitions for system interoperability. VPX is a highly flexible architecture, allowing a wide range of configurations and topology options. OpenVPX provides definitions for module profiles, slot profiles and backplane configurations so that VPX interoperability is more easily achieved. The OpenVPX efforts have been sent to the VITA 65 Working Group within the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) for voting on its ratification. Elma is a co-sponsor of the VITA 65 specification and steering committee member of OpenVPX.

Once the VITA 65 specification is complete, Bustronic will be creating new backplanes in various OpenVPX profiles. The company also offers several VPX accessories, including test extender boards, load boards, air baffles, and SerDes test modules.

- Edited by Liz Taurasi