With its origins dating back to the early 1970s, the DIN 41 612 connector family has become established as a versatile and robust range of board level interconnect solutions. The first standard was published in 1976, with a concept to create a connector family with a series of common characteristics for installation in a 19” sub-rack. The family is based on a contact spacing  grid of 0.1” (2.54mm). Over time the range has expanded to include versions for VME64x, and also the inclusion of complementary types, for which no standard is written, but which follow the DIN 41 612 specifications. Today the original DIN 41 612 specifications have been superseded by IEC 60 603-2  and IEC 61 076-104-113  for the VME extension versions. Once used extensively in telecom applications, DIN 41 612 connectivity has increasingly been adopted in other markets such as medical, rail transportation, and broadcast, providing two-piece connectivity solutions for signal and power.