Detailed Examination of VITA 93 Quantum Memory Controller
Introducing VITA 93 QMC: A Versatile Mezzanine Card Standard for Industrial Applications
VITA 93 QMC, a new mezzanine card standard, is making waves in the electronics industry. Designed with rugged or industrial applications in mind, this standard goes beyond the traditional military and avionic applications.
The I/O side of VITA 93 QMC modules is organised into five I/O pipes, each offering either eight single-ended or four differential I/O signals. This modular design provides flexibility for a wide range of applications, particularly those with shock and vibration challenges commonly found in industrial environments.
When it comes to cooling, VITA 93 QMC modules support both convection and conduction cooling. The default cooling method is convection, which relies on air circulation, but for applications requiring greater thermal capacity, especially in high-performance use cases or rugged environments, conduction cooling is available. This option necessitates the use of heatsinks or cold plates integrated into the module stack, which demands careful mechanical design of the carrier board to ensure proper mating with the module’s heatsink, with thermal interface material (TIM) applied between the two.
On the host side, VITA 93 QMC modules provide power (3.3 V and 12 V) along with an I2C interface that supports the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). The host side also includes a x4 PCI Express (PCIe) interface and a few additional signals like JTAG.
VITA 93 QMC utilises Samtec's AcceleRate HD Ultra-Dense, Slim Body Arrays with a 0.635-mm pitch, making it suitable for high-speed serial interfaces like PCI Express Gen 6 that supports the Compute Express Link (CXL) standard.
The standard defines four different size modules, scaling by width rather than length, with the most compact version being only 9 mm high. These modules can be stacked in cramped locations, with the stacking height based on the socket on the carrier board. Each module has two sets of sockets: one for the host interface and one for I/O. Notably, each signal pin on the I/O side has a matching ground connection.
Carrier boards for VITA 93 QMC can be custom or based on standard board form factors like PCIe and OpenVPX. A four-slot carrier board, for example, can support various configurations, such as four x1 modules, two x2, one x1, and one x3, or a x4 module.
The wider versions of VITA 93 QMC modules provide more I/O pins, with each signal pin offering 40 I/O signals per x1 QMC socket. The connector used in VITA 93 QMC is rated up to 64-Gb/s PAM4, ensuring high-speed data transmission.
In summary, the VITA 93 QMC standard offers a versatile solution for industrial and commercial applications, providing flexible cooling options, high-speed data transmission, and modular design for various use cases.
The VITA 93 QMC standard, with its support for embedded systems, offers a versatile solution for industrial and commercial applications, particularly those with shock and vibration challenges. This technology also includes data-and-cloud-computing features, as evidenced by the provision of an I2C interface that supports the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) and a x4 PCI Express (PCIe) interface.
