Form Factor Independent Print E-mail

Overview

CES has developed a high-throughput, low-power generic computing core (PowerPC processor, tightly coupled FPGAs, buses, and network interfaces), which is reused in all of our boards and can be easily adapted to a variety of form factors:
  • VPX (3U or 6U)
  • VXS (6U)
  • VME (6U)
  • CompactPCI (3U or 6U)
  • PMC
  • Custom Form Factor

Hardware Level

CES VME and CompactPCI same generation processor boards contain the same architecture. The only difference resides in the programming of a single FPGA building block.

Software Level

VxWorks® BSPs for all CES processor boards are identical, except for the VME and CompactPCI-specific calls. CES VxWorks® BSPs provide the necessary hooks for VxWorks®, so that the user can access the backplane bus regardless of whether it is VME or CompactPCI.
  
  • Example: The only difference between a standard CES VME and CompactPCI processor board is the content of one FPGA with virtually identical calls. Therefore switching from VME to CompactPCI or vise-versa can be done within weeks, at the user-level.

VME - CPCI


  • Example: The 3U computing core contains exactly the same elements as the 6U, with the exception of only one PMC slot, instead of two. The custom form factor is a bit richer than the 3U, due to a very large user proprietary FPGA, which contains additional facilities. The BSPs are virtually the same, the only difference being the private board extensions.

6U - 3U - Custom