Just in time for Embedded World 2024, a new PICMG standard will see the light of day and is designed to make industrial box PCs more modular and cost-efficient: ModBlox7™. The specification standardizes the structure of the hardware into individual functional units and thus guarantees interoperability between different providers.
The current members of the ModBlox7 working group are Ci4Rail GmbH, EKF Elektronik GmbH, Elma Electronic, Embeck Co, Ltd, ept GmbH, HEITEC AG, Hirose Electric Europe B.V., nVent/Schroff GmbH, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG, Samtec, Inc, Westermo ELTEC Elektronik AG
Our Current Modblox7 Products
Benefits
Modular and Cost Effective
Scalable in Small Space Constraints
Interoperability Across Suppliers and Users
Enables Small Quantity Tailoring
Only Pay for What You Need
Standardized Modularity for Industrial PCs
Expandable System Widths
Based on a modular and flexible IPC system, every functional unit – power supply, CPU and I/O – are built in multioles of 7 HP. When combined, they can create a system (up to 12 x 7 HP) specifically tailored to individual needs using cost-effective standard modules.
The system is based on standardized mechanical and electrical interconnection between units and can be mounted multiple ways, such as wall, DIN rail, panel or 19″ rackmount.
The unique mechanical and electrical modular approach means no additional expensive components like backplanes or shelf controllers are needed.
Architecture Examples
There are many different architectures possible. Below are two examples. High availability solutions with redundant architectures can be easily realized.
The Importance of Standardized Industrial PCs
As some market observations confirm, the demand for industrial PCs is incredibly high, and will continue to grow over the next few years. No wonder; industrial PCs are used in a wide range of state-of-the- art applications such as industrial automation, Al, lloT, cloud and edge computing.
Currently, there is an almost endless number of different manufacturers with equally different products in terms of performance, interfaces, market qualification, and mechanics. These are often proprietary within their own product family. Customers therefore must select and stay with a specific product for many years, binding themselves to a single manufacturer.
lndustrial PCs are increasingly demanding optimized space, weight, power and cost (SWaPc), yet have a lack of interoperability and flexibility from current offerings. This formed the motivation to create a new open specification – ModBlox7.
Leveraging the advantages of other modular architectures like CPCl and AMC, ModBlox7 is intentionally designed for applications where highly integrated BoxPCs are used.
Widespread Applications
ModBlox7 Ecosystem
ModBlox7 already has a healthy and growing ecosystem of manufacturers with new designs to support the specification – shown here is a list of participants that continues to grow.
The combined experience of these companies and beyond are contributing to a reliable, scalable industrial PC standard that provides an innovative technology ecosystem.
