cPCI SBC in 1u rack

I have access to a 6u cPCI CP2060 Ultrasparc 500MHz board with 512MB
Ram on board. It also has 2 ethernet chips, USB and serial, but no
connectors on the front panel. The size of the board and its very low
power requirements (23W max) begs the question, can it be put into a
1U chassis and how.

I will need a cPCI power supply that fits in 1u. Given than, I'll need
to connect a PCI scsi card to this board. So here goes my questions:

(1) Can a cPCI device be connected to a PCI device on a pin-to-pin
basis minus the cPCI power segment?
(2) Whats the best source of lowcost/used cPCI power supplies? Ive
checked eBay without success. Elsewhere the price exceeds $4000. I
have more like $40 or less in mind.
(3) If a PCI device cannot be connected to cPCI without expensive
parts, where can I get one-board or 2-board cPCI backplane, or
chassis? All the chasses I've searched start at 4u.
(4) Whats the best source of lowcost/used EIDE or SCSI cPCI boards?
(5) Any recommendations or suggestions? Especially how to connect a
harddisk without using a PCI card?


Thanks in advance for any help.

On 2004-03-14 12:14, Ghazan Haider wrote:
> I have access to a 6u cPCI CP2060 Ultrasparc 500MHz board with 512MB
> Ram on board. It also has 2 ethernet chips, USB and serial, but no
> connectors on the front panel. The size of the board and its very low
> power requirements (23W max) begs the question, can it be put into a
> 1U chassis and how.
> 
> I will need a cPCI power supply that fits in 1u. Given than, I'll need
> to connect a PCI scsi card to this board. So here goes my questions:
> 
> (1) Can a cPCI device be connected to a PCI device on a pin-to-pin
> basis minus the cPCI power segment?
> (2) Whats the best source of lowcost/used cPCI power supplies? Ive
> checked eBay without success. Elsewhere the price exceeds $4000. I
> have more like $40 or less in mind.
> (3) If a PCI device cannot be connected to cPCI without expensive
> parts, where can I get one-board or 2-board cPCI backplane, or
> chassis? All the chasses I've searched start at 4u.
> (4) Whats the best source of lowcost/used EIDE or SCSI cPCI boards?
> (5) Any recommendations or suggestions? Especially how to connect a
> harddisk without using a PCI card?
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help.

This is a Sun product, and manuals etc. can be found at:
 
http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/hardware/docs/CPU_Boards/Netra_CP2060_CP2080/index.html

I've not used this particular board, but for I/O access a rear I/O 
transition card in a cPCI rack is recommended, unless you want to hack 
something yourself. The rear I/O would have all connectors you need.

As for PCI to cPCI, there are some adapters (VMETRO sell some) but it's 
really intended for lab use, not production.

I've used 2-5 slot 6U cPCI backplanes from TreNew in a generic 
configuration in my lab, but the power is either external ATX or 
screw-in connectors to a 6U unit, no 1U power...but I guess you could 
roll your own.


/Rolf

I could connect the right pins, bring out ethernet and serial pins
from the back panel etc, but I dont think I should tryto power cPCI
myself. I know datasheets both of the cPCI standard and this board are
availabel, but I expect clock issues, other detection issues (this
board detects if it should be active or passive). Something that just
connects to the rear panel and provices power, or a single slot 6u
backplane would be wonderful, given its cheap enough.

I guess theres a reason why this board was so cheap on eBay.

ghazan@ghazan.haider.name (Ghazan Haider) wrote in message news:<2f57764a.0403140314.10c07a01@posting.google.com>...
> I have access to a 6u cPCI CP2060 Ultrasparc 500MHz board with 512MB
> Ram on board. It also has 2 ethernet chips, USB and serial, but no
> connectors on the front panel. The size of the board and its very low
> power requirements (23W max) begs the question, can it be put into a
> 1U chassis and how.
> 
> I will need a cPCI power supply that fits in 1u. Given than, I'll need
> to connect a PCI scsi card to this board. So here goes my questions:
> 
> (1) Can a cPCI device be connected to a PCI device on a pin-to-pin
> basis minus the cPCI power segment?
> (2) Whats the best source of lowcost/used cPCI power supplies? Ive
> checked eBay without success. Elsewhere the price exceeds $4000. I
> have more like $40 or less in mind.
> (3) If a PCI device cannot be connected to cPCI without expensive
> parts, where can I get one-board or 2-board cPCI backplane, or
> chassis? All the chasses I've searched start at 4u.
> (4) Whats the best source of lowcost/used EIDE or SCSI cPCI boards?
> (5) Any recommendations or suggestions? Especially how to connect a
> harddisk without using a PCI card?
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help.


I really don't know it this will be of any help but take a look at this:

http://www.advantech.com/products/sub_category.asp?Category_ID=1-DEN3F

Regards,
Goran Stepanovic
IMP - Telekomunikacije
Volgina 15, 11000 Beograd
Serbia & Montenegro

Hey thanks alot. I didnt find it on that site, but from its links I
found this:
http://www.interfacebus.com/chassis.html#h

And have been going through each company looking for 1 slot 6u
ATX-powered backplane. I even found a 2-slot and many 3-slots. I saw a
couple 1u enclosures but theyre around $500 and that defeats my
purpose of getting a cheap powerful ultrasparc 1u server.

Now my new question, and I guess I'll have to ask this in a new thread
to get a good answer:

Can you use a 6u cPCI card in a 7u, or a 3u slot? The card is the
active controller and doesnt really need to communicate with anything
else through cPCI, so can a 3u cPCI backplane power a 6u card...

Oh well back to the datasheets, I'm 95% convinced its possible. 

Thanks again

On 2004-03-18 20:45, Ghazan Haider wrote:
> Hey thanks alot. I didnt find it on that site, but from its links I
> found this:
> http://www.interfacebus.com/chassis.html#h
> 
> And have been going through each company looking for 1 slot 6u
> ATX-powered backplane. I even found a 2-slot and many 3-slots. I saw a
> couple 1u enclosures but theyre around $500 and that defeats my
> purpose of getting a cheap powerful ultrasparc 1u server.
> 
> Now my new question, and I guess I'll have to ask this in a new thread
> to get a good answer:
> 
> Can you use a 6u cPCI card in a 7u, or a 3u slot? The card is the
> active controller and doesnt really need to communicate with anything
> else through cPCI, so can a 3u cPCI backplane power a 6u card...
> 
> Oh well back to the datasheets, I'm 95% convinced its possible. 
> 
> Thanks again

Yes, provided there's no mechanical snag,
the 3U backplane has to be fastened in the bottom half of the 6U rack,
and the 6U middle/3U top support must not interfere with the cPCI P3 
connector. I have used customized supports to allow mixing 3U/6U in one 
rack, so I know it's possible.

(bottom/top, etc assuming the board is vertically mounted)

/Rolf

Thanks a bunch Rolf, that helped alot. Mechanical snags arent a
problem since I'll put it all in a 1u rack and will be drilling holes
and adding supports all customized. In the first stage, I have to add
power to the system. If the 3u sPCI power works out (right after I
find a cheap source), second stage is connecting its ethernet pinout
to an rj45 port and booting the system. Third is a PMC card, or some
other way of adding main storage...

...I dont even wanna think about the third stage now :)