PCI Express Signal Mapping for  
VITA 46 (VPX)  
 
 
                                               VITA 46.4-200x 
                         
 
      
           Draft 0.3 
                                                        August 20, 2007 
 
 
 
This draft standard is being prepared by the VITA Standards 
Organization (VSO) and is unapproved. 
 
 
 
 
Do not specify or claim conformance 
to this draft standard 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  VSO is a Public Domain Administrator of this draft standard 
     and guards the contents from change except by sanctioned 
meetings of the working group under due process. 
VITA Standards Organization 
PO. Box 19658 
Fountain Hills, AZ 85269 
Ph: 480-837-7486 
URL: http://www.vita.com 
 
 
 
 
 
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Table of Contents 
 
 
 
1 
3 
2.1 
2.2 
2.2.1 
2.2.2 
1.1 
1.2 
1.3 
1.4 
Introduction................................................................................................................. 5 
Objective............................................................................................................. 5 
PCI Express Technology Overview.................................................................... 5 
Terminology........................................................................................................ 6 
References........................................................................................................... 8 
2  VITA 46.4 Compliance............................................................................................... 9 
General Requirements for VITA 46.4 compliance............................................. 9 
Connectors Pin Mapping..................................................................................... 9 
P0, P2, P3 P4, P5 and P6 Connector Signal Mapping ................................ 9 
P1 - Connector Signal Mapping.................................................................. 9 
Link Configuration............................................................................................ 11 
Glyphs............................................................................................................... 12 
Alignment and Keying...................................................................................... 12 
Payload Module Requirements for VITA46.4 compliance ...................................... 13 
3U Module Specific Requirements................................................................... 13 
6U Module Specific Requirements................................................................... 13 
4  Backplane Specific Requirements for VITA46.4 compliance.................................. 13 
Electrical Budgets ..................................................................................................... 14 
5 
AC Coupling Capacitors................................................................................... 14 
Impedance......................................................................................................... 14 
Insertion Loss.................................................................................................... 14 
Jitter................................................................................................................... 15 
Lane-to-Lane Skew........................................................................................... 16 
Intra-Pair Skew ................................................................................................. 16 
Signal Routing Recommendations............................................................................ 17 
5.1 
5.2 
5.3 
5.4 
5.5 
5.6 
2.3 
2.4 
2.5 
3.1 
3.2 
6 
 
 
                                                 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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                                                                   VITA 46.4-200x/D0.3 
 
 
Attendee 
(alphabetical by last name) 
Randy Banton 
Rodger Bird 
David Compston 
Stewart Dewar 
Gerard Drewek 
Steve Edwards 
Val Gueorguiev 
Greg Griffith 
Mike Gust 
Mike Hasenfratz 
Melissa Heckman 
Dean Holman 
Richard Jaenicke 
Aaron Kaiway 
Emil Kheyfets 
Jing Kwok 
Andreas Lenkisch 
Michael Monroe 
André Moorma 
Gene Palmer 
Gerry Palmer 
Elwood Parsons 
Bob Patterson 
Doug Patterson 
David Pepper 
Brian Rach 
Andy Reddig 
Jim Robles 
John Rynearson  
Jeff Smith 
Andrew Spence 
Ivan Straznicky 
Eran Strod 
Bob Sullivan 
Bruce Thomas 
Dan Toohey 
Bob Whyms 
Randy White 
Company 
Mercury 
Boeing 
Radstone 
CWCEC-Ottawa 
GD-AIS 
CWCEC-Leesburg 
Aitech 
Tyco 
Mercury 
Northrop Grumman 
Bustronic 
Mercury 
Mercury 
Spectrum Signal 
CWCEC-S Clarita 
CWCEC-Ottawa 
Pentair/Schroff 
Bustronic Corp. 
Rockwell 
Radstone 
DRS Tactical Systems 
Foxconn 
Tyco 
Aitech 
GE Fanuc 
Rockwell 
TEK Microsystems 
Boeing 
VITA 
GHz Systems Inc. 
Amphenol 
CWCEC-Ottawa 
Mercury 
Hybricon 
CWCEC-S Clarita 
Mercury 
Northrop Grumman 
CWCEC-Ottawa 
 
 
                                                TASK GROOP 
 
             At the time this standard was competed, task group membership included: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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                                                                   VITA 46.4-200x/D0.3 
 
 
Comments, Corrections, or Additions 
 
Comments, corrections, or additions to this proposed standard may be forwarded to: 
 
Val Gueorguiev, Draft Editor 
Aitech Defense Systems Inc. 
9301 Oakdale Avenue 
Chatsworth, CA 91311 
(818) 350-6814 
EMAIL: vgueorguiev@rugged.com 
VSO and Other Standards 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Information about other standards being developed by VSO as well as VME Product 
Directories, VME Handbooks, and general information about the VME market is 
available from the VITA office listed on the front cover. 
 
Draft Summary 
 
This is draft 02of this standard. The original content of this draft standard was presented 
and agreed upon at the xxx VSO meeting. See the draft history for a summary list of the 
major changes made to each draft. 
 
 
Draft History 
 
 
Draft No. 
 0.1 
 Date 
 02/20/2006 
 0.2 
0.3 
  
 05/06/2006 
08/20/2007 
  
 Comments & Major Changes/Updates 
 Preliminary Draft 
Removed 2X PCI Express Links from Table 4.                                      
Updated Section 5 per recommendations provided by Brian Rach.    
Update per minutes from the VPX meeting in Vancouver 18, 19-Jul-2007.  
  
 
 
                                    Issues to be resolved 
1 
2 
3 
 
 
 
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1  Introduction 
The VITA 46 standard regulates the standardization of switched serial interconnects for 
VME bus applications, with specific concern taken to allow deployment in ruggedized 
environments.  
The VITA 46.0 base standard defines the physical features of VITA 46 components.  
 
The VITA 46.4 standard is a subset of VITA 46 standard and defines the implementation 
of PCI Express, high speed serial interconnect interface within VITA 46.0 form factor 
constraints. 
1.1  Objective  
The objectives of this document are: 
-  To assign 16 PCI Express Lanes over the data links defined in VITA 46.0. 
-  To recommend signal mapping for 32 PCI Express Lanes over the data links 
defined in VITA 46.0. 
-  To define requirements and constraints for the implementation of PCI Express 
Physical Layer in VITA 46.0 environment. 
 To define auxiliary signals necessary to implement PCI Express interface in a 
system environment. 
- 
The guidelines and design rules defined in this standard are intended to be consistent with 
the applicable sections of the PCI Express Specification. It is expected that VITA 46.4 
products will comply with PCI Express Transaction, Data Link and Physical Layer 
Specifications in order to maximize interoperability with other PCI Express hardware and 
software products. 
 
1.2  PCI Express Technology Overview. 
PCI Express provides signaling architecture supporting high-speed serial communication 
and allows a smooth transition from PCI to a faster, more scalable interconnect 
technology. 
PCI Express defines three logical layers: the Transaction Layer, the Data Link Layer and 
the Physical Layer. The Transaction Layer and the Data Link Layer generate, transmit 
and receive data packets. The Physical Layer converts the information into appropriate 
serialized format and transmits it across the PCI Express Link. The PCI Express fabric is 
composed of point-to-point Links that interconnect the components of the fabric – 
Endpoint, Root Complex, Switch and Bridge. The First Generation of PCI Express 
Technology defines a signaling rate of 2.5 Gigabit/second /Lane and uses encoding 
scheme supporting embedded data clock.  
PCI Express Technology develops on the foundation of the PCI architecture and provides 
complete backwards compatibility and interoperability with the existing PCI software, 
ensuring successful migration path at system level and broad industry support. 
 
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1.3  Terminology 
Specification Key Words  
To avoid confusion and to make very clear what the requirements for compliance are, 
many of the paragraphs in this standard are labeled with keywords that indicate the type 
of information they contain. These keywords are listed below: 
Rule 
Recommendation 
Suggestion 
Permission 
Observation 
Any text not labeled with one of these keywords should be interpreted as descriptive in 
nature. These will be written in either a descriptive or a narrative style. The keywords are 
used as follows: 
 
Rule .: 
Rules form the basic framework of this draft standard. They are sometimes expressed in 
text form and sometimes in the form of figures, tables or drawings. All rules shall be 
followed to ensure compatibility between board and backplane designs. All rules use the 
"shall" or "shall not" words to emphasize the importance of the rule. The "shall" or "shall 
not" words are reserved exclusively for stating rules in this draft standard and are not 
used for any other purpose. 
 
Recommendation .: 
Wherever a recommendation appears, designers would be wise to take the advice given. 
Doing otherwise might result in poor performance or awkward problems. 
Recommendations found in this standard are based on experience and are provided to 
designers to speed their traversal of the learning curve. All recommendations use the 
"should" or "should not" words to emphasize the importance of the recommendation. The 
"should" or "should not" words are reserved exclusively for stating recommendations in 
this draft standard and are not used for any other purpose. 
 
Permission .: 
In some cases a rule does not specifically prohibit a certain design approach, but the 
reader might be left wondering whether that approach might violate the spirit of the rule 
or whether it might lead to some subtle problem. Permissions reassure the reader that a 
certain approach is acceptable and will cause no problems. All permissions use the "may" 
words to emphasize the importance of the permission. The lower-case "may" words are 
reserved exclusively for stating permissions in this draft standard and are not used for any 
other purpose. 
 
Observation .: 
Observations do not offer any specific advice. They usually follow naturally from what 
has just been discussed. They spell out the implications of certain rules and bring 
attention to things that might otherwise be overlooked. They also give the rationale 
behind certain rules so that the reader understands why the rule must be followed. 
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VITA 46 Definitions 
The following terms may be used within the body of the specification. In this context, 
they have the following meanings: 
5x2 wafers- A single-ended wafer providing five signal contacts and two ground contacts 
Air cooled – a plug-in module which is intended to have heat removed by transfer to an 
air stream flowing over the module  
Chassis Ground – See Safety Ground. 
Conduction cooled – a plug-in module which is intended to have heat removed by 
transfer to the chassis through mechanical contact with a chassis component 
Dedicated System – A system designed for a single use or application; not available to 
general users. Such a system will usually embody a feature which precludes full 
compliance with this standard. 
Differential Wafer - A pair of wafers designed for the connection of high speed (up to 5 
GBaud) signaling intended for use with differential pair signals, such as LVDS. 
ESD – Electrostatic discharge. 
Ground – Unless otherwise specified the term Ground means logic ground or signal 
ground, not safety ground. Also referred to as RF Ground. See Safety Ground and RF 
Ground. 
MultiGig RT2 7-Row – A family of connectors, or their equivalent, used in VITA 46 
systems for high speed interconnections. 
Power Wafer – A wafer providing two contacts which are intended to be used to supply 
prime power to a plug-in module. 
PS Module – A plug-in module which provides an allocation of differential connectors in 
addition to an allocation of single ended connectors, suitable for implementation of 
both serial fabric and parallel bus interconnection in the same module. Thus Parallel 
Serial (PS) to indicate the combination. 
RF Ground - A distributed low impedance common reference between plug-in module 
circuitry/shields and other electrical equipment (rack, other plug-in modules, and power 
sources). See Safety Ground and Ground. 
Safety Ground - Plug-in module features that ensure hazardous voltages are not present 
on accessible hardware under single fault conditions. See Ground and RF Ground. 
SS Module – A plug-in module which provides differential connectors in all connector 
locations, suitable for serial fabric or high speed I/O interconnections. Thus Serial Serial 
(SS) to indicate fabric connections are the only connections anticipated to be used. 
VME Board – A plug-in module that complies with the ANSI/VITA-1.1, VME64 
Extensions standard. 
Vs – Notation representing Prime Power from the system to the plug-in module. 
VXS – a VMEbus Switched Serial (VITA-41) payload module 
PCI Express Definitions 
Endpoint – A device with a Type 00h configuration space header.                                 
Lane – A set of differential signal pairs – one pair for transmission, one pair for 
reception.                                                                                                                          
Link – A collection of two ports and their interconnecting Lanes. Dual simplex 
communication path between two components.                                                                 
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Packet – A fundamental unit of information transfer consisting of header that, in some 
cases, is followed by data payload.                                                                                 
Root Complex – An entity that includes a Host Bridge and one or more Root Ports. 
 
1.4  References 
The following publications are used in conjunction with this standard. In the event that 
one of these standards is revised, the revised standard should be used unless it conflicts 
with this standard. 
The following standards are available from the VMEbus International Trade 
Association. http://www.vita.com 
 
ANSI/VITA 1-2002 American National Standard for VME64 
ANSI/VITA 1.1-1997 American National Standard for VME64 Extensions 
ANSI/VITA 46.0 - 2005-46.0 Advanced Module Format for Fabric Based systems 
 
The following are available from their respective maintainers: 
 
IEEE 1101.1-1998, IEEE Standards for Mechanical Core Specifications for 
Microcomputers Using IEC 603-2 Connectors 
IEEE 1101.2-1992 IEEE Standard for Mechanical Core Specifications for 
Conduction-Cooled Eurocards 
PCI Express Base Specification 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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