Product category:
PC-Compatible Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing | Subject: KosaiPM
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 24 February 2004
Mezzanine card lends Pentium power to
telecomms
The hot-swappable KosaiPM gives telecomms OEMs an easy way to add processing power to AdvancedTCA or proprietary systems equipped with Advanced Mezzanine Card expansion bays.
Artesyn Communication Products has developed the industry's first Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) The hot-swappable Pentium M-based AMC module, dubbed the KosaiPM, gives telecomms OEMs an easy way to add processing power to AdvancedTCA (Advanced Telecom Compute Architecture or ATCA) or proprietary systems equipped with AMC expansion bays
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 15 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Mezzanine card gains Carrier Grade Linux
Artesyn Communication Products has revealed that MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) will be available for its KosaiPM AdvancedMC modules.
AdvancedMC card keeps its head down
A new half-height module makes it easy to add control and packet processing performance to small-form-factor MicroTCA systems and low-profile custom carrier blades equipped with AdvancedMC sites.
Artesyn will demo the new board at the 3GSM show in Cannes, France from 23rd to 26th February in Booth H26 at the Scottish Development International Pavilion (Hall 3).
KosaiPM makes an ideal control plane processor for optical and wireless infrastructure.
It is also ideal for augmenting packet processing and routing performance in voice gateways, and for enhancing protocol processing performance in SS7 and Sigtran signalling control points and gateways.
Further reading
Mid-size mezzanine eases system expansion
Mid-size KosaiPM module makes it easy to add reliable, high-performance control and packet processing capability to MicroTCA systems, AdvancedTCA blades and custom carrier blades
Processors combine to boost infrastructure power
A new dual-processor PowerPC PCI Mezzanine Card is aimed at telecomms infrastructure applications.
Flexible interfacing for telecomms blade
The Katana 750v CompactPCI packet switching backplane telecomms blade is based on IBM's PowerPC 750FX processor.
KosaiPM complies fully with the draft AMC specification, and will comply fully with the final AMC specification on ratification.
KosaiPM, a Japanese term for "greatness and smallness", is the first of a family of Artesyn Kosai AMC modules.
The name KosaiPM signifies the family's ability to deliver superior performance and functionality in a compact form factor that enhances telecomms modularity and scaleability while reducing cost and time to market.
Artesyn will provide a roadmap for future AMC modules in a subsequent announcement".
"Artesyn has been at the forefront of the AMC standardisation effort and is the first company to make AMC a reality", said Todd Wynia, Vice President of Marketing at Artesyn.
"Our modules make it easy for telecomms OEMs utilising ATCA platforms to significantly boost control and packet processing performance for applications ranging from soft switches and signalling control points to base station controllers and voice gateways".
"AMC isn't the first mezzanine architecture to target the telecom industry", added Michael Franco, Hardware Engineering Manager at Artesyn, and chair of several AMC working groups.
"But it is the first to provide hot swappability and integrated system management, which enable individual AMC modules to be remotely monitored, controlled, and replaced in the field.
This, along with AMC's high-bandwidth I/O interface, high-power handling capability, and versatile form factor, makes it ideal for building highly modular telecomms systems that can be scaled, upgraded, serviced and provisioned with a high degree of granularity and minimal disruption to overall system operation".
The KosaiPM is a single-wide, full-height AMC card that can be used with an ATCA or proprietary carrier card providing AMC bays.
Optimised for embedded control, KosaiPM features a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor with a 400MHz, 3.2Gbyte/s front side bus, 1Mbyte of Level 2 cache, and SIMD extensions for compute-intensive applications like multimedia and packet processing.
KosaiPM also features a server-class E7501 North Bridge, which gives the Pentium processor high-speed access to local ECC SDRAM (up to 2Gbyte).
The North Bridge also connects to a 64bit PCI-X bridge, which provides high-speed access to two Gigabit Ethernet channels, up to 128Mbyte of Flash memory, a USB interface, an I2C system management interface, and a front panel 10/100Base-T management interface.
The KosaiPM communicates with ATCA carrier cards via its two Gigabit Ethernet channels, which are routed to the module's AMC connector.
Also routed to the AMC connector is the module's I2C-based intelligent platform management interface (IPMI), which enables it to be monitored and controlled through the ATCA carrier card by remote shelf management controllers.
The KosaiPM also provides an optional onboard storage interface, which gives it access (through the AMC connector) to hard drives that may reside in other AMC bays on the ATCA carrier.
ATCA (Advanced Telecom Compute Architecture, or AdvancedTCA) is a standard (PICMG 3.0) platform specification defined by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group for a telecomms shelf.
The spec defines the mechanical and electrical interfaces for the ATCA card cage (shelf), as well as the ATCA cards (blades) that plug into that shelf.
Key features include a high-bandwidth switched fabric interconnect, integrated system management, hot swappability, higher power handling capability (up to 200W per blade), a larger form factor (8U), and multiprotocol support (ie Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, StarFabic, PCI Express and RapidIO).
AMC (AdvancedMC) is a proposed PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group specification (PICMG AMC.0) for hot-swappable, field-replaceable mezzanine cards.
Optimised for packet-based, high-availability telecomms systems, AMC cards can be attached to a variety of ATCA and proprietary carrier blades.
AMCs communicate with the carrier card via a packet-based serial interface, which features up to 21 lanes of high-speed I/O (12.5Gbit/s each).
AMC is slated to support a variety of protocols, including Ethernet, PCI Express, and Serial Rapid I/O.
AMC also features integrated I2C- and Ethernet-based system management.
Operating system support for KosaiPM includes Carrier Grade Linux.
The KosaiPM costs $1500 in OEM quantities and will be available as part of Artesyn's early customer involvement program in the second quarter of 2004.
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