Industrial computers evolved just like regular commercial PCs, from the early 8086 then 286, 386 to the later 486 and into the Pentium, until now the Pentium 4 and IA32 the highest level of Xeon series, in the field of CPU, has been Both are the world of x86 architecture and are the areas where Taiwanese computer manufacturers are best at. However, CPU technology continues to break new ground. The busses that appear in computer systems seem to be unable to keep up with the pace of innovation, and review the evolution of the bus from ISA (Industry Standard). After more than ten years of evolution, the transmission interface between Architecture, EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) and MCA (Micro Channel Architecture), VL-Bus (VESA Local Bus), PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), PCI-X and AGP, etc. At this moment, the bottleneck in the transmission bandwidth. Re-examining the evolutionary history of this segment, after the PCI was introduced in 1992, it played a unified role. It was not until 1997 that AGP replaced some of the functions of PCI as an interface standard for higher-order mapping work.
The bandwidth of traditional PCI is gradually insufficient to meet the needs of more and more new generations of high-speed transmission peripherals, such as Gigabit Ethernet, Serial ATA, and Fiber Channel. The specifications of the new generation have been published one after another, such as PCI-X and the topic of this article. PCI Express. Traditionally, the industry will have a slower or even more advanced industrial computer than the consumer market. When facing great changes, what kind of contingency strategies and thinking will the industry have?
The PCI standard was developed by the PCI-SIG, and it was introduced from the earliest PCI version 1.0 in 1992. It has been developed to the PCI 2.3, 3.0 version and the PCI-X 1.0, 2.0 specification. During the development of this bus, due to various requirements and applications, the early VL Bus and AGP Bus, which are commonly used in graphic cards, are derived. For developers, it increased the complexity of the product. So more than ten years after the advent of PCI, due to the rise of 3D games and wireless communication applications, the current PCI bus is not used in terms of performance and bandwidth, AGP and Busses such as PCI-X were born. This phenomenon reflects the fact that the bus is like a long wagon, and pointing out these serious problems is in fact the common issue of internal transmission.
Therefore, the industry generally hopes to have a common interface standard technology. This interface can be applied to various fields. Under this premise, the third generation I/O bus interface (Third Generation Input Output; 3GIO) Finally born. On April 17, 2002, the PCI-SIG announced the completion of the third-generation interface and officially named PCI Express. The PCI Express 1.0 specification was announced on July 22, 2002, officially pushing the transmission speed of the bus to a higher speed. (Figure 1)
(Figure 1) Evolution of the bus. Source: Intel, Institute of Finance, Industrial Technology Research Institute, 2003/04.
Industrial computer changes
As for industrial computer applications, regardless of the PCI Express interface defined by PICMG 3.x, first consider the application of CPU cards and backplanes on the existing traditional PICMG 1.x. The connection between the traditional CPU card and the backplane is shown in Figure 2.
This has the advantage of improving overall system stability and resiliency, and reducing the replacement time required for maintenance. The current architecture is the PCI-ISA architecture of PICMG 1.0 and the PCI-X architecture of PICMG 1.2, but for the market What will be the changes in industrial computers that will come out soon and are likely to sweep the market at a rapid rate?
The characteristics of industrial computer-based computers are mainly “small and variedâ€, and provide stable and highly customized solutions for industrial users. In the next generation PICMG 1.x system, it is expected that there will not be too much from the chassis. The difference, but in the chassis, backplane and CPU card assembly, it will not be much different from the current approach. Due to the PCI Express architecture and its features, it is conceivable to keep the design of the gold finger segment on the CPU card, connect the PCI Express signal of the Northbridge or Southbridge to the backplane, and because the high bandwidth of the PCI Express corresponds to many interfaces. In practice, bandwidth is more than enough, so many vendors such as Intel, HiNT, and Pericom have designed many different bridge chips for PCI Express applications, including PCI Express to PCI-X, PCI Express to PCI or to iSCSI and Fiber Channel. And other interfaces.
The information released by market leaders such as Intel, in fact, can be speculated that in the next generation of industrial computer specifications, it will be very interesting, through the updated and diversified backplane design, to further customers in various application areas. demand. In the past, most of the backplanes were PCI/ISA or PCI-X Slots. After entering the PCI Express era, there will be many exciting applications and designs on the backplane. Because of the characteristic of PCI Express differential signal, the way of connecting signals can be achieved through cable or board-to-board design. The new generation of backplanes may no longer be a large block, but a more modular design. Conceptually very much like Lego bricks, the end customer sees how the customer will want to combine the CPU card chassis and the new generation of backplanes to map out applications such as high-bandwidth network equipment or high-level firewalls and VPNs.
The trend of PCI Express will not only affect the general commercial and consumer markets, but will also revolutionize industrial applications. It is good news for users. Through a new generation of specifications and ideas, not only industrial computers will be reached. The small variety of features, closer to the needs of customers, while creating a win-win situation for manufacturers and users.
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