Because the customer can profit from both individual configuration of the system and moderate cost, mezzanine concepts are very popular for industrial grade computers. Based on the PC•MIP module standard, EKF presents the CM5-TRIO, a 3U CompactPCI ® passive carrier board for PC•MIP modules.

The PC•MIP electrical characteristics are derived from the PCI specification. Compared to PMC modules, PC•MIP allows for higher system integration due to its considerable smaller dimensions. A 3U form factor Eurocard carrier board can hold up to three PC•MIP modules.

The CM5-TRIO is provided with the popular PCI bridge chip Intel/DEC 21150. All 3 PC•MIP slots are connected to the local PCI bus. Access to any individual PC•MIP module by the host CPU takes place transparently across the PCI bridge.

2 of the PC•MIP slots are suitable for Type-II modules with front panel orientated I/O. The remaining slot can be used with a Type-I module only.

EKF already offers a variety of I/O functions as PC•MIP Type-II module, e.g. Ethernet, USB, ISDN and IEEE-1394 (FireWire).

Please note that the CM5-TRIO does not provide rear I/O across the PC•MIP modules J3 on any of the three PC•MIP slots. This is in order to avoid potential conflicts with a 64-bit CompactPCI backplane.

For volume quantities however, EKF would like to offer a customer specific version of the CM5-TRIO using the J2/P2 CPCI connector as rear I/O path to a transition module.