The RMS Consortium (formerly the PC/104 Consortium) develops and maintains rugged, modular, and stackable embedded computing standards trusted across aerospace, defense, industrial automation, transportation and energy sectors. Foundational specifications like PC104, PCI/104-Express™, and PCIe/104™ offer proven reliability and backward compatibility, while newer architectures such as UxV/35™ enable modular controller cores for uncrewed systems. RMS standards support high-performance, small-footprint designs with robust mechanical interfaces and scalable, stackable buses. Samtec interconnect solutions—including Elevated Socket Strip (ESQ), FleXYZ™ (ESQT), and OneBank Q2™ (QMS/QFS)—are optimized for these architectures, ensuring signal integrity and mechanical durability in demanding environments.
UxV/35
The UxV/35 standard outlines a modular assembly approach designed to reduce wiring complexity and improve the success rate of integrating components from diverse open-system vendors. It offers a rugged, compact, and adaptable solution featuring a stackable bus architecture and plug-and-play extensibility for third-party systems.
The term “UxV” encompasses Uncrewed Air Vehicles (UAV/UAS), Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USV), and Uncrewed Ground Vehicles (UGV), among others. The “35” refers to the 35-pin connections used within the standard.
PC104
The base PC104 Standard defines a compact form-factor that can be used in self-stacking buses. This eliminates the cost and bulk of backplanes and card cages.
The PC104 Standard extends upon the existing PC bus allowing companies that embed PC technology in limited space applications to have a standardized system architecture as well as a broader range of vendors and vendor support.
PC/104-Plus™
PC/104-Plus™ is a specification that was accepted in 1997 by the PC/104™ Consortium (now the RMS Consortium) and establishes a standard for embedded applications with the use of a high speed PCI bus.
Like the PC104 extends upon the PC bus, the PC/104-Plus™ is an extension of the PC104 with all of the same benefits, plus more.
PC/104-Express™
The PCI/104-Express™ specification establishes a standard to use a high speed PCI Express® bus in embedded applications.
The PC/104™ Consortium (now the RMS Consortium) chose PCI Express® because of its full PC market adoption, performance, scalability, and growing silicon availability worldwide. It provides a new high-performance physical interface while retaining software compatibility with existing PCI infrastructure.
