Unveiling VITA 93 Quantum Microcircuit Technology
New Rugged Mezzanine Card Standard, VITA 93 QMC, Gains Traction
A new rugged mezzanine card standard, VITA 93 QMC, has been making waves in the industrial, military, and avionics sectors. Unveiled in 2025, this standard is designed to provide high-speed serial interfaces like PCI Express Gen 6, ideal for Compute Express Link (CXL) and similar protocols.
Current Status
The VITA 93 QMC standard has now been officially released, and initial products such as QMC I/O modules and carrier cards are available from vendors like Acromag as of August 2025. The standard is gaining adoption for rugged environments requiring robustness against shock, vibration, and harsh conditions.
Features and Functionality
The VITA 93 QMC standard uses Samtec’s AcceleRate HD Ultra-Dense Slim Body Arrays with 0.635-mm pitch connectors, providing high-density, high-speed connectivity. On the host side, it supplies power (3.3V and 12V), I2C for Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), and supports platform management consistent with upcoming VITA 100.20 management systems. The module includes a x4 PCI Express Gen 6 interface plus additional signals like JTAG. The I/O side has five I/O pipes, each supporting eight single-ended or four differential signals, with matched ground pins. This provides up to 40 I/O signals per x1 socket.
The standard offers modularity and scalability, with modules coming in four sizes, successively larger with more I/O pins and sockets. Form factors scale from x1 to x4 widths, accommodating more bandwidth and larger chips like GPUs or AI accelerators. For thermal management, the standard defaults to convection cooling, but heatsinks can be added for conduction cooling.
Form Factors
The modules are small form factor, roughly comparable in size to M.2 modules, but designed for ruggedness. Four form factors are defined, scaling progressively larger to increase I/O and bandwidth via additional sockets. Each module features a pair of sockets at each end and four mounting holes for secure attachment.
In summary, VITA 93 QMC is a small, rugged, scalable mezzanine module standard optimized for high-speed PCIe Gen 6 connectivity and robust applications. It supports industrial and military usage with flexible module sizes and comprehensive I/O, power, and management interfaces while addressing thermal management through convection or conduction cooling options.
The webinar, which covers the standard, form factors, and more regarding VITA 93 QMC, features the participation of Matthew Burns, Director of Technical Marketing at Samtec, Jan Zimmerman, General Manager at TEWS Technologies, and Mark Littlefield, Senior Manager of Embedded Computing at Elma Electronics. These companies are involved in the development of VITA 93 QMC. The standard is about to be released, making it an exciting development for industries requiring rugged, flexible peripheral expansion.
Technology and data-and-cloud-computing industries may find the newly released VITA 93 QMC standard particularly beneficial, as it offers high-speed PCIe Gen 6 connectivity and was designed with robustness against shock, vibration, and harsh conditions in mind. This standard, suitable for rugged environments, has been developed by the involvement of companies like Samtec, TEWS Technologies, and Elma Electronics, and its upcoming webinar provides an excellent opportunity for further exploration.
