PICMG

What PICMG does

PICMG (originally the PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group) is a U.S.-based non-profit consortium founded in 1994 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It develops and maintains open, royalty-free specifications for modular, high-performance embedded computing systems, organized into 12 standards families spanning backplane architectures (AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, CompactPCI, CompactPCI Serial, CPCI Serial Space), computer-on-modules (COM Express, COM-HPC), industrial and box PC systems (InterEdge, ModBlox7), and firmware/middleware (Hardware Platform Management, IoT.x), plus heritage form factors (PCI-ISA, SHB Express, MicroSAM). The consortium's specifications are adopted by telecommunications carriers, industrial automation integrators, defense and aerospace system builders, and high-performance edge computing OEMs, enabling multi-vendor interoperability, hot-swappability, and long product lifecycles in carrier-grade and rugged environments.

The organization is governed by its Executive Membership acting as a Board of Directors and operates with a small core staff (1-10 employees), drawing on member engineers for technical subcommittee work. PICMG does not sell hardware products; its revenue model combines recurring membership dues (Executive and other tiers, annual billing, pricing not publicly disclosed) with one-time/perpetual specification purchase fees through its online shop, supplemented by short-form free previews and design guides. Its go-to-market is community-led and event-driven, leveraging industry trade shows (embedded world, electronica), interoperability workshops, a website with member press releases and blog content, newsletters, and active technical subcommittees that drive specification roadmaps.

PICMG's competitive position rests on its installed ecosystem of 150+ member companies, hundreds of commercially available compliant products, and decades of deployed systems (notably hundreds of thousands of CompactPCI installations globally, AdvancedTCA deployments meeting ETSI/NEBS carrier-grade requirements, and emerging COM-HPC and ModBlox7 product cycles). Recent strategic activity has been concentrated on specification modernization: 2024 saw ratification of ModBlox7 and revisions 3.0 of MicroTCA and CompactPCI Serial, alongside COM-HPC 1.3; active subcommittees are pursuing next-generation roadmaps including MicroTCA 3.1 and AdvancedTCA 400 Gig. A long-standing co-development partnership with DMTF integrates the Redfish API into the IoT.x standard for industrial device management.

Name

PICMG

Legal name

PICMG

Website

https://picmg.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

PICMG is a U.S.-based non-profit consortium founded in 1994 that develops open, royalty-free specifications for modular embedded computing. It serves 150+ member companies across telecom, industrial automation, aerospace/defense, and edge computing, funded by membership dues and specification sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Wakefield

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: PICMG is a non-profit consortium financed largely through membership dues. No licenses or royalties are required for using or manufacturing to PICMG specifications.
2. Specification Sales: PICMG sells access to full specifications through its online shop. Short-form specifications and design guides are available for free as previews.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

PICMG is a non-profit consortium that develops, publishes, and maintains open, royalty-free technical specifications for modular, high-performance embedded computing systems. Its portfolio spans 12+ standards families—including AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, CompactPCI/CompactPCI Serial, COM Express, COM-HPC, InterEdge, ModBlox7, Hardware Platform Management, and IoT.x—that member companies implement in telecom infrastructure, industrial automation, military/aerospace, and edge computing products. PICMG finances operations primarily through member dues and sales of full specifications, while short-form previews and design guides are available at no charge.

Product overview

PICMG is a non-profit consortium of 150+ member companies that collaboratively designs and manages open, interoperable technology specifications for high-performance edge computing systems. The organization's portfolio consists entirely of open standard specifications organized into twelve distinct 'families', not a commercial product portfolio. The standards cover backplane systems (AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, CompactPCI, CompactPCI Serial, CPCI Serial Space), computer on modules (COM-HPC, COM Express), industrial computing (InterEdge, ModBlox7), and firmware/middleware (Hardware Platform Management, IoT.x). PICMG also provides Design Guides and Short Form Specifications as technical resources. The standards enable modular, scalable edge computing for applications in telecom infrastructure, industrial automation, aerospace & defense, medical, transportation, and data acquisition. PICMG does not manufacture products; member companies produce compliant products based on these open standards.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• COM-HPC Open Computer-On-Module (COM) form factor standard targeting very high I/O and computer performance levels. COM-HPC modules integrate core CPU and memory with rich I/O including USB Gen 4, PCIe Gen 5, and Ethernet up to 25 Gbits/s per lane, in Server, Client, and Mini form factors. Targeted at OEMs building server-class edge and embedded computing systems.
• COM Express Family of modular, small form factor computer-on-module specifications for mid-range edge processing and networking. COM Express modules plug into custom carrier boards providing application-specific I/O, with eight types, four sizes (Mini, Compact, Basic, Extended), and three major revisions.
• AdvancedTCA (ATCA) High-performance modular standard for critical central office telecommunications applications and commercial/military systems. Supports up to 16 slots (23-inch) or 14 slots (19-inch) with capacity up to 10 terabits per second per chassis, hot-swappable blades, redundant -48 VDC power, and full management infrastructure for 'six nines' reliability.
• MicroTCA Modular platform for building smaller, less expensive systems than AdvancedTCA while retaining high availability architecture. Uses Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMCs) as basic computing and I/O building blocks, supporting up to 12 AMC slots with redundant MCH, power modules, and cooling.
• AdvancedMC (AMC) Family of small, hot swappable, fully managed mezzanine cards used to tailor I/O for AdvancedTCA systems or build MicroTCA systems. Supports single and double width modules in three height variations, compatible with Ethernet, PCI Express, Serial RapidIO, and Fibre Channel interconnects.
• CompactPCI Serial Successor to CompactPCI using CompactPCI mechanical structure with updated system interconnects including PCI Express, Ethernet, SATA, and USB. Offers 20 to 40 times the backplane bandwidth of legacy CompactPCI, with 3U and 6U Eurocard form factors, hot swap, and convection/conduction cooling.
• CompactPCI Modular general purpose computing system based on 3U and 6U Eurocard mechanical standards with hot swap capability. One of the most successful and popular modular standards in use today, with hundreds of thousands of installations worldwide.
• CPCI Serial Space Highly ruggedized, streamlined version of CompactPCI Serial optimized for space applications. Removes unused USB and SATA backplane links and adds space protocol support including SpaceWire, TTEthernet, and EtherSpace, with dual star architecture for enhanced reliability.
• ModBlox7 Open standard for interoperable box PCs designed for heavy industry. Defines modular units conforming to the 7HP footprint that can be connected and mounted without a backplane, defining CPU, PSU, and IOU units scalable up to 12 slots for harsh industrial environments.
• InterEdge Open modular architecture for process control systems (PCS) integrating PLC, IPC, and DCS functions. Defines Compute, Switch, and I/O Modules interconnected via standardized data and power buses, supports IEC 61499 and IEC 61131 standards, and enables hot-swapping and multi-vendor interoperability in process industries.
• Hardware Platform Management (HPM) Software standards defining how to build fully managed, high availability AdvancedTCA or MicroTCA systems. HPM.1 defines firmware upgrade infrastructure; HPM.2 standardizes LAN-attached management controllers; HPM.3 defines DHCP-based parameter assignment.
• IoT.x (IoT.1 and IoT.2) Family of standards providing a framework for connecting sensors, effectors, and industrial devices ensuring multi-vendor interoperability. IoT.1 defines vendor-independent firmware interface and data models; IoT.2 adds network architecture with Redfish API integration for cloud-based device management.
• SHB Express Upgrade to the PCI-ISA standard that replaces parallel PCI interconnects with serial PCI Express lanes, moving active components to a single plug-in System Host Board with a passive backplane. Supports PCI Express x1/x4/x8/x16 and optional PCI-X 32-bit slots for military, industrial, medical, and telecom applications.
• PCI-ISA PICMG's first open standard for building rugged, reliable, maintainable computers to replace desktop PCs in industrial control, communications, or data acquisition applications. Moves all active PC motherboard components to a single plug-in SBC card with a passive backplane.
• MicroSAM Compact computing module (32mm x 32mm) developed for sensor-domain control within Industrial IoT applications. Supports full industrial temperature range (-40°C to +85°C), RS422 communications, direct connectivity to analog/digital sensors, PWM output, and hardware interlock signals.

Quantifiable outcome

• AdvancedTCA systems can achieve 99.999% uptime (six nines reliability) with hot-swappable components and redundant architecture.
• +4 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature14 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2020PICMG collaborates with DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force), the organization behind the Redfish API, on the IoT.x family of standards. This partnership integrates Redfish into IoT.x for cloud-based and edge platform device management, ensuring consistent configuration and integration across industrial IoT deployments. The collaboration enables smooth communication between factory devices and cloud platforms.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• VITA (VMEbus International Trade Association): VITA is a non-profit industry standards organization that develops open specifications for critical embedded computing systems, including VME, VPX, and OpenVPX. It is the most direct comparable to PICMG in mission, structure, and ecosystem (board-level embedded standards with overlapping customer base in defense, aerospace, and industrial).
• SGeT (Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies): SGeT is a non-profit embedded computing consortium that develops open specifications for computer-on-modules and embedded platforms, including a Qseven-style standard. It directly competes with PICMG's COM Express and COM-HPC in the COM module space and shares similar membership/governance dynamics.
• PC/104 Consortium: The PC/104 Consortium defines open specifications for small, stackable embedded computer modules. It addresses a similar embedded computing market as PICMG's compact form factors and serves overlapping industrial and military customers with a comparable consortium-based open standards model.

Broad incumbents

• PCI-SIG (PCI Special Interest Group): PCI-SIG owns and develops the PCI Express specification that underpins much of PICMG's backplane and COM standards. While not a direct competitor for board-level standards, it is the upstream enabling technology and a broader incumbent in interconnect standards governance.
• JEDEC Solid State Technology Association: JEDEC is the global leader in developing open standards for the microelectronics industry. While it focuses on memory and semiconductor packaging rather than board-level systems, its non-profit consortium model and member-funded operations are structurally analogous to PICMG.

Emerging players

• PXI Systems Alliance: The PXI Systems Alliance develops the PXI standard for modular test and measurement instrumentation, built on CompactPCI. It is an emerging peer with partial overlap to PICMG's CompactPCI ecosystem, focused specifically on T&M applications.
• SFF-SIG (Small Form Factor Special Interest Group): SFF-SIG develops specifications for small form factor enterprise servers and storage. It addresses an adjacent embedded/edge computing hardware market and competes for design wins in similar industrial and edge compute use cases.
• Open Compute Project (OCP): OCP is a collaborative community that drives open hardware designs for data center and edge infrastructure. It overlaps with PICMG's mission of open modular computing and increasingly targets edge/telco use cases that compete with MicroTCA/AdvancedTCA deployments.

Others

• DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force): DMTF develops open manageability standards including Redfish, which PICMG integrates into its IoT.x family. It is a collaborating rather than competing standards organization, addressing adjacent firmware/management concerns in the same embedded ecosystems.
• SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association): SNIA is a non-profit industry association that develops standards and educational resources for storage and data infrastructure. Its consortium-driven standards model is analogous to PICMG, though it focuses on storage rather than board-level embedded computing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/picmg_org
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/picmg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PICMG