ESC Silicon Valley – Day 3

Today’s trek through the aisles of embedded treasures revealed more evidence of the industry’s transition to serial switched fabric technology. For example, a group of twelve board and component manufacturers led by WinSystems, VIA Technologies, VersaLogic, and Ampro just banded together to form the Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF-SIG) to develop open standards for the latest fabric technologies while maintaining compatibility with the enormous inventory of legacy equipment. One of their first efforts is the SUMIT (Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technology) interface specification aimed toward next generation, low power, expandable single board computers. With a blend of high-bandwidth PCI Express lanes, USB ports, and lower speed multiplexed and serial buses, SUMIT can be added to a variety of board form factors. SUMIT defines two, 52-pin high-density (0.025” pitch) connectors with center ground blades for impedance, EMI, and DC ground return purposes. Each connector is optional depending on the target applications of a particular SBC.  The SFF-SIG also created some controversy with their new Express104 specification that uses the SUMIT connector system to define a series of stackable embedded modules that combine PCI Express and PC/104 compatibility. Does this sound familiar?