Developing a Hybrid Space VPX/Open VPX 6U Backplane

Space hardware must be capable of reliable, robust control and data communications. To provide reliable and robust electrical and mechanical connections for plug-in modules, several space systems rely on backplanes that comply with the VITA VPX family of specifications, such as SpaceVPX (ANSI/VITA 78.0) and OpenVPX (ANSI/VITA 65.0). The Los Alamos National Laboratory Space Hardware and Signal Processing team has developed a custom 6U backplane leveraging OpenVPX specifications to maintain compatibility with commercial testing hardware and develop a single-string, SWaP-C-efficient system using SpaceVPX features to improve fault isolation and recovery. It also supports both SpaceWire and SERDES-based protocols for the control plane to provide flexibility and interoperability with SpaceVPX and OpenVPX modules and systems. This paper will discuss the tradeoffs of this hybridization of OpenVPX and SpaceVPX, the approach to system management used for this backplane, and status of this design.