May, 2003

Welcome to Connected. Our newsletter is designed to keep you informed about our expanding serial communication solutions for the Industrial and Embedded PC market, including CompactPCI, PC/104, PCI and ISA bus compatible boards, and external USB-to-serial and Ethernet-to-serial devices. Your feedback is always welcome!

CompactPCI: A bus for all conditions

CompactPCI is best characterized by its rugged behavior and small footprint. Designed initially as an industrial bus, it is well suited to applications involving industrial automation, machine control, instrumentation, military systems, telecommunications, and computer telephony.

An adaptation of the popular PCI specification, cPCI includes a number of design factors that improve upon the original for uses in situations requiring both industrial strength and compact size. Embedded computers often operate in the midst of temperature extremes and conditions of heavy shock and vibration. Modularity is a must, as are redundant capabilities in mission critical applications.

In response, the CompactPCI standard combines the best of PCI and VME, making it an attractive option for system integrators. Like VME, it is built using the Eurocard Form Factor (6U or 3U). It can go anywhere VME can, making it more suitable for industrial conditions than the PCI. The PCI component includes off the shelf products and universal support. And, it has a high bandwidth, enabling fast data transfer for routers and servers or any other applications requiring high speed communication transfer.

CompactPCI adapters require less space, allowing for density intense designs. The CompactPCI bus supports twice as many slots: Eight instead of PCI's four. This can be further extended through the use of PCI-PCI bridge chips. These features have made the card a darling of the telecommunications industry, which requires rugged expandability and reliable equipment. Repairs need to be accomplished quickly, and CompactPCI's injector/ejector mechanism means a board can be changed with minimal effort.

While favored by the telecommunications industry, the cPCI architecture is being adopted in more application areas outside of telecom. The CompactPCI design is rugged. Held firmly in place in the connector, the face plate secures with screws. Its pin-and-socket connector protects against vibration and shock better than those of the PCI. Vertical mount enables air flow, natural or forced, to keep the elements from overheating. It also is built for hot-swapping: an attractive feature for those who maintain industrial systems.

CompactPCI is a "systems level" bus, with plug and play configuration and hardware abstraction layers. This permits a high level of software portability, common in the desktop PC world but not often found in embedded systems.

Read more about the Titan/cPCI here.

CompactPCI
Our Titan/cPCI is perfect for embedded, industrial and telecommunications applications.
Available in rear or front I/O.

Connect Tech expands your networking options with the release of the Blue Heat/Net Ethernet-to-serial device
CTI's newest product line will be ready for beta testing next month. Watch for news of the device that enables you to network your peripherals. If you have a Windows XP or 2000 system and would like to experience our quality product and free support, contact sales today.

View our entire product list:
Click here.

We now have signed Windows 2000/XP drivers
for our low profile PCI BlueStorm/LP. All our most recent  drivers and upgrades are available for download here:

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