Embedded Computing: AdvancedTCA Products0 pages

1
AdvancedTCA Products
1-1 http://www.adlinktech.com/AdvancedTCA/
AdvancedTCA®
The new standards for high performance, high availability computing in next
generation telecommunication platforms
Introduction to AdvancedTCA®
In December of 2002, the PICMG® (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group) released a series of speci cations, PICMG®
3.0 and Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA®) which was amended by ECN001 in January 2004. The
PICMG® 3.0 speci cation is 460 pages long and its development consumed ve-person years.
The heart of AdvancedTCA® (ATCA) is PICMG® 3.0 which de nes the mechanical, power, cooling, interconnect, and system
management aspects of the ATCA family of speci cations. A series of subsidiary speci cations overlay a transport onto
the interconnect de ned in the PICMG® 3.0 speci cation. In essence, the PICMG® 3.0 speci cation de nes the point to
point connections used for boards to communicate and the subsidiary speci cations de ne the protocols used over those
interconnects.
AdvancedTCA® Subsidiary Specifi cations
Currently, four subsidiary speci cations have been
approved: 3.1 Ethernet and Fibre Channel Transport,
3.2 In niBand Transport, 3.3 StarFabric Transport, and
3.4 PCI-Express® and Advanced Swiching Transport.
An additional subsidiary speci cation, PICMG®
3.5 Advanced Fabric Interconnect / Serial RapidIO
Transport, is under development.
AdvancedTCA® Form Factor
AdvancedTCA® mechanical requirements are largely
derived from space utilization studies performed
with 600m ETSI and 19” EIA standard cabinets.
AdvancedTCA® Front Boards are 8U high and 280mm
deep; optional Rear Boards are 8U high and 70mm
deep. The board to board spacing is 1.2”. A 19” EIA
cabinet can support 14 slots and a 600mm ETSI
cabinet can support 16 slots.