It is based on the established PICMG 2.0 CompactPCI standard,[1] which uses the parallel PCI bus for communication among a system's card components.
CompactPCI Serial includes different connectors that permit very high data rates.
CompactPCI Serial backplanes and chassis are developed by Schroff, Elmа, and Pixus Technologies companies, as for the CompactPCI Serial board level electronics – they are developed by MEN Mikro Elektronik, Fastwel, EKF, Emerson Embedded Computing, ADLINK, and Kontron.
Fast serial point-to-point connections have become the state-of-the-art technology and are gradually replacing the classic bus architecture in computers.
[4] Thanks to modern chipset architecture, the structure of computers is slowly changing from bus-based interconnections between interface controllers to a star topology built up of serial point-to-point connections.
A peripheral CompactPCI Serial slot only has a small connector with 6 rows of contacts for power and signals.
By contrast to CompactPCI, no midplane or transfer connector is needed here, which reduces costs and increases system flexibility.
It is 100% compatible with CompactPCI but includes a fixed definition of fast serial I/O interfaces at its backplane J2 connector.