CSDB Intro
CSDB Intro
CSDB Intro
1 Introduction
The Commercial Standard Digital Bus (CSDB) is one of three digital serial integration data buses that
currently predominate in civilian aircraft. The CSBD finds its primary implementations in the smaller
business and private General Aviation (GA) aircraft, but has also been used in retrofits of some commercial
transport aircraft.
CSDB, a unidirectional data bus, was developed by the Collins General Aviation Division of Rockwell
International. The bus used in a particular aircraft is determined by which company the airframe manufacturer
chooses to supply the avionics. Collins is one of only a handful of major contributors to avionics today.
CSDB is an
asynchronous linear
broadcast bus, specifying the use of a twisted, shielded pair cable for
device interconnection. Two bus speeds are defined in the CSDB specification. A low-speed bus operates
at 12,500 bits per second (bps) and a high-speed bus operates at 50,000 bps. The bus uses twisted,
unterminated, shielded pair cable and has been tested to lengths of 50 m.
The CSDB standard also defines other physical characteristics such as modulation technique, voltage
levels, load capacitance, and signal rise and fall times. Fault protection for short-circuits of the bus
conductors to both 28 VDC and 115 VAC is defined by the standard.