I'm looking for a converter that will allow me to hook up a compact PCI expansion chassis to a PCI based machine. (basically a CPCI board, a PCI board, and a cable to go between the two.) I figure it may be that simple since CPCI is electrically identical to PCI, just on a different form factor, right? Anybody know of somebody who makes such a thing? Also, how would hot-swap capable boards be affected by this? I seem to recall from reading that whenever a hot-swap capable card is inserted, the #ENUM line gets hit and the bus gets enumerated. Would this cause a PCI device to be detected at this point by a windows box (2K for instance), or would hot swap not work right in this situation? I already tried a Ziatech adapter card designed to allow a 3U CPCI board to plug into a PCI slot, this didn't work for me. I was using it with a 6U card, and it would power up partway but wouldn't come up fully. (I sort of wonder why, since I thought the secondary connector that 6U boards use was just for transition (ie back card) signal use. Anybody have any ideas?

PCI to compact PCI converter? (looking for one)
Started by ●November 10, 2005
Reply by ●November 10, 20052005-11-10
"reenigne" <k8jlf@aol.com> wrote in message news:1131624591.758174.93370@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...> I'm looking for a converter that will allow me to hook up a compact PCI > expansion chassis to a PCI based machine. (basically a CPCI board, a > PCI board, and a cable to go between the two.) > > I figure it may be that simple since CPCI is electrically identical to > PCI, just on a different form factor, right? > > Anybody know of somebody who makes such a thing? > > Also, how would hot-swap capable boards be affected by this? I seem to > recall from reading that whenever a hot-swap capable card is inserted, > the #ENUM line gets hit and the bus gets enumerated. Would this cause a > PCI device to be detected at this point by a windows box (2K for > instance), or would hot swap not work right in this situation? > > I already tried a Ziatech adapter card designed to allow a 3U CPCI > board to plug into a PCI slot, this didn't work for me. I was using it > with a 6U card, and it would power up partway but wouldn't come up > fully. (I sort of wonder why, since I thought the secondary connector > that 6U boards use was just for transition (ie back card) signal use. > > Anybody have any ideas? >Check out the following link. http://www.stargen.com/starfabric/partner_products.shtml
Reply by ●November 11, 20052005-11-11
I think Catalyst have all that kind of thing... http://www.getcatalyst.com/adapters.jsp "reenigne" <k8jlf@aol.com> wrote in message news:1131624591.758174.93370@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...> I'm looking for a converter that will allow me to hook up a compact PCI > expansion chassis to a PCI based machine. (basically a CPCI board, a > PCI board, and a cable to go between the two.) > > I figure it may be that simple since CPCI is electrically identical to > PCI, just on a different form factor, right? > > Anybody know of somebody who makes such a thing? > > Also, how would hot-swap capable boards be affected by this? I seem to > recall from reading that whenever a hot-swap capable card is inserted, > the #ENUM line gets hit and the bus gets enumerated. Would this cause a > PCI device to be detected at this point by a windows box (2K for > instance), or would hot swap not work right in this situation? > > I already tried a Ziatech adapter card designed to allow a 3U CPCI > board to plug into a PCI slot, this didn't work for me. I was using it > with a 6U card, and it would power up partway but wouldn't come up > fully. (I sort of wonder why, since I thought the secondary connector > that 6U boards use was just for transition (ie back card) signal use. > > Anybody have any ideas? >
Reply by ●November 11, 20052005-11-11
> news:1131624591.758174.93370@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > >>I'm looking for a converter that will allow me to hook up a compact PCI >>expansion chassis to a PCI based machine. (basically a CPCI board, a >>PCI board, and a cable to go between the two.) >> >>I figure it may be that simple since CPCI is electrically identical to >>PCI, just on a different form factor, right? >> >>Anybody know of somebody who makes such a thing? >> >>Also, how would hot-swap capable boards be affected by this? I seem to >>recall from reading that whenever a hot-swap capable card is inserted, >>the #ENUM line gets hit and the bus gets enumerated. Would this cause a >>PCI device to be detected at this point by a windows box (2K for >>instance), or would hot swap not work right in this situation? >> >>I already tried a Ziatech adapter card designed to allow a 3U CPCI >>board to plug into a PCI slot, this didn't work for me. I was using it >>with a 6U card, and it would power up partway but wouldn't come up >>fully. (I sort of wonder why, since I thought the secondary connector >>that 6U boards use was just for transition (ie back card) signal use. >> >>Anybody have any ideas? >>On a 3U cPCI board, both P1 & P2 are sharing the PCI bus. (upper part of 64bit bus is on P2, plus a slot address (GA), and there is also a 'system slot' identifier pin that may be looked at by combined master/slave cpu:s, to determine if they should power up or wait for an external master giving the go-ahead, as part of the hot-swapping logic. (You may need to look at your individual board spec to find out what's needed, but the bus specs are at picmg.org) On a 6U cPCI board, the P3 is for the rear transition panel, but I've not seen any rear I/O used with standard 3U boards. Custom I/O could be differently made I expect. One thing I've seen when using a cPCI board in a PC, is that some PC power supplies isn't really suitable to cPCI; modern cPCI relies mainly on +3.3V supply, while modern ATX PSU:S are mainly supplying +12V power. Also the +3.3V regulation is often dependent on +5V load, so one may have to introduce a dummy load to get within tolerable +3.3V levels. The +3.3V requirement is also marginal in some cases due to differences in precision, ATX is +/-5% on +3.3V, while cPCI wants +5% -3% accuracy, and if the cPCI bord is marginally designed, it can be a problem. If you have older 33MHz 32 bit cPCI board, it's +5V VI/O on the pci bus, not +3.3V as the newer 66MHz 64bit boards; this too must be considered, as not all adapters can be configured to work with either voltage; i.e. you can burn off some copper traces if mismatched. /Rolf
