RTD/Target Catalog - RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc.

“Accessing the Analog World”
The key to rugged PC/104 Express architectures is the bus configuration, the connector design, and the add-on card
interchangeability. In 2007, RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. and Samtec Inc. allocated substantial engineering and
financial resources to modify the high speed, rugged Q2 connector pair for the 104, EPIC and EBX form factors of
the PC/104 Consortium PC/104 standard 0.600 inch and 22 mm stacking heights.
Four x1 links have the bandwidth to handle many applications. What do you do if you need more than four x1 devices?
How do you meet the requirements of multiple high bandwidth PCI Express devices such as high-end graphics, powerful
Virtex FPGA engines, advanced DSP architectures, and 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet to name a few? Ultimately, the ability to
expand through a x16 PCI Express link is an imperative for stackable PC system configurations.
RTD’s innovative expressMate modules (see page 13) take advantage of the x16 link to break the current 6 board PCIe/104 and 4 board PCI-104 stack height limits.
The expressMate modules use the x16 link to repopulate the x1 links and allow for additional x4, x8, and x16 links, add PCIe-PCI bridge, enable PCIe peer-to-peer
communication, and provide redundant fail-over processing for PCIe/104 and PCI/104-Express applications.
PCI Connector PCI Connector PCI Connector
ISA Connector ISA Connector PCIe Connector
PCIe Connector
PC/104 PC/104-Plus PCI-104 PCI/104-Express PCIe/104
Above: bus structure diagrams
showing the evolution of PC/104.
Right: ISA, PCI & PCIe connectors.
PCI/104-Express Connector Overview
Excerpt from an article by Jim Blazer, RTD Chief Technology Officer, published in COTS Journal
Incorporating the PCI Express bus within the industry-proven PC/104 form factor brings many advantages to users including fast data transfer due to express
technology, low cost due to PC/104’s unique self-stacking bus, high reliability due to PC/104’s inherent ruggedness, and long-term sustainability. The 68-member
consortium chose PCI Express as its new standard for embedded applications because of its full PC market adoption, performance, scalability, and growing silicon
availability worldwide. It provides a new high-performance physical interface while retaining software compatibility with existing PCI infrastructure. Twenty-two
member companies participated in the PCI/104-Express specification development. The PC/104 Embedded Consortium adopted the PCI/104-Express specification
by member vote in March 2008.
In defining an addition of PCI Express to PC/104, the consortium board aimed to preserve the attributes that have made PC/104 so successful in embedded applications.
The PCI/104-Express module size, like others in the PC/104 family, is a compact 3.6 by 3.8 inch (90 x 96 mm). The boards self-stack so stacks can expand
without backplanes or card cages. Rugged, reliable connectors ensure reliability in harsh environments, and four corner mounting holes increase resistance to
shock and vibration. Full PC compatibility reduces end-user development costs and improves their time-to-market. In addition, the PC/104 Embedded Consortium
RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. | 2010 Product Guide 9