OpenCS

OpenCS will be an open-hardware (and open-source) console server project.

Status

• 2012-10-25: Finished routing BACK4VS Rev001, 4-slot vertical single-sided backplane. Now just waiting to submit all 3 to OSH Park when I can fund it.
• 2012-10-14: Finished routing CTLR Rev001, added mounting holes to be able to vertically stack IO232 and tagged Rev002. Backplane board still needs to be done.
• 2012-10-09: Schematic for CTLR done, started routing board.
• 2012-10-08: Finished schematic/routing/CAM for IO232. Working on CTLR now.
• 2012-10: Started putting design together

Specs

• 1U rack-mount chassis with 8 slots (4 front, 4 back) connected by an internal backplane
  • Slots will ideally all be equivalent so users can put power/ports where they want them, can be filled with:
    • a PSU (up to two per system)
    • a controller (up to two per system)
    • an expansion module (lets you chain more chassis, up to two per system)
    • an I/O module (gives you serial ports)
• SPI between modules with module select pins shifted by one by the backplane for each slot
• Fully-expanded base chassis would be two PSUs, two controllers, and 4x 8-port RS232 modules.
  • 2 controllers + 4 I/O modules + 2 PSUs in the base
  • 4 I/O modules in each expansion unit, up to 3 expansion units
  • Each slot on the base gets 4 module select lines, which it can use or give to another chassis
  • Total of 4*8 = 32 select lines needed
• Controllers will have an Ethernet port and two serial ports on them (console/aux)
  • Probably PIC32-based makes the most sense
• I/O modules will have up to 8 serial ports on them
  • Probably CPLD-based makes the most sense