VITA 46: Performance enhancement for the aging

As embedded system performance expectations skyrocket, designers continue to stretch the technology envelope to keep up. For example, VITA 46 (a.k.a. VPX) is one of latest fabric extensions for the 25-year-old, but widely used VMEbus standard. VITA 46 upgrades the standard multidrop VMEbus connector and delivers high-speed serial fabric for all board-to-board communications. Although VITA 46 is dimensionally and electrically compatible with VMEbus modules, the boards are not interchangeable. Special backplane configurations allow legacy VMEbus and VITA boards to coexist in the same system. You can get a great overview of VITA 46 in a new video produced by Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing for EDN’s Tech Clips section. If you want design details, check out the VITA website or the afternoon workshops from the January 2007 Bus and Board conference.