Modular crate electronics

This allows circuits to be designed, built, tested, and deployed very quickly (in days or weeks) as an experiment is being put together.

A crate is a box (chassis) that mounts in an electronics rack with an opening in the front facing the user.

Some modules just draw power from the backplane connectors and have all of their data inputs and outputs on the front plate.

Some types of modules have active circuitry inside them, and act almost as small computers; others are not stateful at all and are only dumb single components.

There are number of types of modular crate electronic systems used on particle physics experiments.

The Renatran system consisted of a 5U rackable crate that could accept up to 8 single-width or up to 4 double width plug-in units, with the backplane supplying several power rails, as well as serial and parallel communications between modules, and between the rack and external equipment such as printers and computers.

Certain units had additional connectors on the rear, either doubled from the front panel for a more permanent installation, or extra ports for specific purposes, such as daisy chaining counting modules or linking level comparators together.

There is also an upper connector that consists of pass-through pins to the back side of the backplane; this allows custom modules to be plugged in there.

These platforms are used as a basis for building electronic test equipment, automation systems, and modular laboratory instruments.

[6] MicroTCA is an open, modular standard, based upon AdvancedTCA, but with a smaller form factor.