Product category:
PC-Compatible Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing | Subject: CompactTCA
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 10 January 2003
New telecomms architecture to free up
PCIbus
Motorola Computer Group is one of a group of industry-leading communications platform and component providers behind the Compact Telecommunications Computing Architecture initiative, or "CompactTCA".
Motorola Computer Group is one of a group of industry-leading communications platform and component providers behind the Compact Telecommunications Computing Architecture initiative, or "CompactTCA" The objective of the proposal is to clearly define an embedded system platform specification, which combines several existing CompactPCI specifications from the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) into a single standard
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 16 Jan 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Processors combine to boost infrastructure power
A new dual-processor PowerPC PCI Mezzanine Card is aimed at telecomms infrastructure applications.
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.
Sponsor companies for the CompactTCA initiative include Force Computers, Motorola Computer Group, Performance Technologies, Pigeon Point Systems, StarGen and ZNYX Networks.
The group expects to propose CompactTCA as a formal PICMG activity in early Q1 2003.
The key element of the CompactTCA specification is that it retains compatibility with most existing CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 products.
Further reading
Flexible interfacing for telecomms blade
The Katana 750v CompactPCI packet switching backplane telecomms blade is based on IBM's PowerPC 750FX processor.
Mezzanine card boosts telecomms processing power
A new PowerPC-based PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) adds processing power to telecomms infrastructure applications.
Top performance claims for telecomms blade
The KatanaT3752 is billed as the industry's highest performance cPSB (CompactPCI Packet Switching Backplane) telecomms blade.
CompactTCA ultimately combines several CompactPCI specifications into a single standard, ensuring interoperability and the high availability and scalability attributes of packet-switched technology in the proven, lower cost CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 form factor.
The proposed CompactTCA architecture complements AdvancedTCA by featuring PICMG 2.16 packet switching as the primary interconnect, mandatory system management, and elimination of the PCIbus for data transfer.
The group will propose several enhancements that maintain backward compatibility with existing CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 products.
Developers will choose CompactTCA or AdvancedTCA based on application requirements, and leverage common features to migrate applications between the two platform standards.
In addition, the CompactTCA specification will permit the use of optional auxiliary data interconnects compliant with PICMG 2.5, PICMG 2.17 and PICMG 2.20.
Concurrent use of PICMG 2.15-compliant PMCs and PMC carriers will also be supported as an option.
"With the similarities between CompactTCA and AdvancedTCA, the two system architectures in principal are software compatible, which allows designers to use either for future systems", said Chris Williams, Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Strategic/Product Marketing and Engineering of Force Computers.
"With CompactTCA focusing on Ethernet as the backplane communication instead of the PCIbus, provisioning of high availability systems is greatly facilitated with respect to hot-swap, signal integrity and corresponding software support".
"Backward compatibility to CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 is key to the success of CompactTCA", said Jeff Rhodes, Business Manager of Motorola Computer Group.
"The telecommunication industry has already adopted these standards and a wide variety of compatible products exist from multiple vendors".
"CompactTCA is based on existing CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 specifications, so products exist now", said Jim Medeiros, General Manager of the Computing Products Group of Performance Technologies, and PICMG 2.0 and 3.0 cochair.
"We expect both CompactTCA and AdvancedTCA products to support a wide spectrum of standards-based compute and server applications for years to come".
"The mandatory system management features of CompactTCA are a critical part of ensuring a solid, compatible base for high availability systems based on this architecture", said Mark Overgaard, President of Pigeon Point Systems.
"The CompactTCA management architecture aims for compatibility with both the management framework for AdvancedTCA and the key management facilities already defined in the PICMG 2.x family of specifications".
"Support for optional auxiliary data interconnects is a fundamental strength of the CompactTCA specification", said Tim Miller, Vice President of Marketing and Sales of StarGen.
"We are experiencing tremendous demand for StarFabric as a data plane interconnect in communication access platforms.
Through compatibility with the PICMG 2.17 StarFabric CompactPCI specification customers can access the benefits of a StarFabric data plane while adopting the standardised system management features of CompactTCA".
"CompactTCA gives us a way to provide a solution even more robust than our existing PICMG 2.16 offerings", said Alan Deikman, Chief Technical Officer for ZNYX Networks.
"Customers need time-to-market and open standards, but cannot compromise on carrier-class features.
CompactTCA allows our products to fill that need".
(This was Electronicstalk's Top Story on 9 January 2003).
• Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
