Switch fabric products spun for PICMG

摘要

CompactPGI technology will take the next step in its ongoing evolution when the Bus & Board/ 2003 Conference convenes today in Long Beach, Calif. Suppliers are expected to roll out products that are compliant with the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) 2.16 and 2.17 specifications. PICMG 2.16 and 2.17, adopted in September 2001 and May 2002, respectively, lay the groundwork for a redundant, high-speed point-to-point architecture that many engineers believe is necessary for the future of telecommunications. "For reasons of basic physics, parallel buses are going away," said Joe Pavlat, president and chairman of PICMG (Wakefield, Mass.). "When you have a lot of boards sharing one computer data bus, there are upper limits on how fast you can go." For that reason, many hardware developers say they plan to phase out the concept of the "single party line" and ultimately replace it with switch fabrics. PICMG 2.16 takes an initial step in that direction by overlaying a packet-based switching architecture atop GompactPCI, thus enabling engineers to create a switched Ethernet StarFabric switch cards.