Product Information

The Technobox, Inc. P/N 8366 Compact XMC-to-PCIe (PCIe) adapter permits use of a standard VITA 42.3 air-cooled XMC in the smallest possible edge finger PCIe form factor. The length of the adapter is the length of the XMC, while the height is a standard PCIe board, not the low-profile version. It provides up to eight lanes (8X) from the XMC’s P15 connector to the edge fingers.

PCIe Gen1 (2.5 Gb/s), Gen2 (5 Gb/s) and Gen3 (8 Gb/s) are supported, but should be demonstrated for a customer’s specific board complement. Variants of the adapter are available to support 4x (P/N 8366) and 1X (P/N 8367) lanes. All variants can be built with VITA 61 style (XMC 2.0) connectors for enhanced performance. The front-panel of the XMC engages with a machined aluminum opening for the PCIe card bracket, mimicking the mechanical fit in a typical IEEE 1101.10 front-panel as would be used for VME, Compact PCI, and VPX. To save space and cost, this product does not support P16 rear I/O. Other Technobox, Inc. adapters are available with Rear I/O support.

The adapter’s prominent circular opening serves two purposes. When left open, it provides sufficient convection-cooling airflow for low-power XMCs. For high-power modules, an optional fan assembly (P/N 8254) can be installed by the end-user. The 8254 uses a highly reliable ball bearing blower-style fan with a 50,000-hour MTBF. Normally used for cooling processors, it is rated for a generous 11 CFM airflow and does not stall, as can be the case with pancake fans. Note that the height of the fan is 15 mm off the back side of the adapter and will take up the adjacent slot.