VNX Overview

The VNX Small Form Factor standards define both mechanical and electrical standards to implement a small form factor system. The standards address the need for a common approach to small-scale systems to be used in a range of applications. The standards enable multiple vendors to supply components to be used in small systems at various levels, including modules, backplanes, enclosures and completed solutions. The goal is to allow vendor implementation flexibility at the same time as ensuring component interoperability.

In order to take advantage of previous work, the VPX standards were used as a basis for VNX. The VNX standards take many of the VPX conventions and leverages the signal definitions into a small form factor environment. The standards adopt the signal mappings, introducing a new high-speed low-cost connector and reduce the number of serial fabric options. The result is a family of standards that have two serial fabrics, Ethernet and PCI Express. In the interest of keeping the system as simple to implement as possible, a single CPU root node is specified.

The base standard gives details on the mechanical implementation of the system plug-in modules. Two types are defined, 19mm and 12.5mm. Each type addresses a different set of functions. Fabrication of the module enclosure is left to the vendor. In addition, details are provided for the module base carrier board, including connector location, assembly hole locations and component keep-out. The 19mm module has room for a two-board stack. The inter-board connector selection is outside the scope of this standard.

Finally, even though the standards do not specify backplane implementation, details are provided as part of a 4-slot backplane. This can be used as a design starting point for doing a derivative implementation, as defined by the particular application. Also, an example chassis with detail dimensions is given as a starting point for a chassis design. The chassis example can be reproduced in whole or modified a required depending on the requirements.

VNX+

VNX was expanded to VNX+ under VITA 90.x standards to improve the performance capability of the VNX technology.