The XPand1003 system is a low-cost debug, development, and display platform for conduction-cooled 3U VPX cards. It supports up to two 3U VPX boards with direct Ethernet and serial I/O access to each slot. The XPand1003 backplane provides high-speed differential routing between the two slots. The J1 fabric slots A and B are cross-connected between the two VPX slots. Ethernet and RS-232 serial I/O are routed to RJ-45 and micro-DB-9 connectors for easy access.