This is off the cuff, and I'm sure there is a lot more to this, but in a
nutshell the following is what I have surmised and heard:

Compact PCI is a standard developed as a low cost alternative to VME
backplanes.  The greatest advantage is the PC cards used
may be easily converted to Compact PCI from a standard PC PCI (mostly the
same signals, but compact PCI is using bussed architecture). 
 So it is more rugged than a standard PC and less expensive than a VME
system.

There are some new specs on Compact PCI out soon (any day) including specs
dealing with telephony, a major market segment for 
compact PCI. 

You might want to check out the following web sites:
www.picmg.com 
www.hybicon.com


Skip Siemon of JER

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