PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group

The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) is a consortium of over 150 companies. Founded in 1994, the group was originally formed to adapt PCI technology for use in high-performance telecommunications, military, and industrial computing applications, but its work has now grown to include newer technologies. PICMG is distinct from the similarly named and adjacently-focused PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG).

PICMG currently focuses on developing and implementing specifications and guidelines for open standards-based computer architectures from a wide variety of interconnects.

PICMG is a leading standards development organization in the embedded computing industry. Members work collaboratively to develop new specifications and enhancements to existing ones. The members benefit from participating in standards development, gain early access to leading-edge technology, and forging relationships with thought leaders and suppliers in the industry.

The original PICMG mission was to provide extensions to the PCI standard developed by PCI-SIG for a range of applications. The organization's collaborations eventually expanded to include a variety of interconnect technologies for industrial computing and telecommunications. PICMG's specifications are used in a wide variety of industries including industrial automation, military, aerospace, telecommunications, medical, gaming, transportation, physics/research, test & measurement, energy, drone/robotics, and general embedded computing.

In 2011, PICMG completed its transfer of assets from the Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA). Since 2006, CP-TA had been a collaboration of communications vendors, developing interoperability testing requirements, methodologies, and procedures based on open specifications from PICMG, The Linux Foundation, and the Service Availability Forum. PICMG has continued the educational and marketing outreach formerly conducted by members of the CP-TA marketing work group.

Open specifications and standards provide several benefits including multiple sources, scalability and upgrades, a large ecosystem of interoperable products, proven and tested designs, and much more. But they should not be confused with open source. The open source groups tend to focus on specific product designs where even the Gerber files, schematics, and mechanical drawings are included. This lends itself to monochrome, commodity products with little differentiation. Open specification/open standard groups on the other hand define focus on common interfaces for interoperable products rather than finished products. Multiple vendors contribute to the base definitions and interfaces, but the implementation can vary greatly. The result is a rich and diverse set of interoperable products geared for a wide range of applications.

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