Product category:
CompactPCI Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Force Computers | Subject: ATCA reference platform
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 11 February 2003
Force fast to adopt AdvancedTCA standard
Force Computers has demonstrated a working AdvancedTCA (ATCA) system just weeks after the standard's PICMG ratification.
Force Computers has demonstrated a working AdvancedTCA (ATCA) system just weeks after the standard's PICMG ratification The system contained Force ATCA Intel-processor based single board computers and a base interconnect switch performing full internal and external communication
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 12 Dec 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Embedded servers boosted by 1GHz Pentium III CPUs
Force Computers has upgraded the performance of its Flexor System 1 and System 2 embedded servers.
High availability for cPCI platform
Force Computers has released its preconfigured Centellis CO 25000-9U system.
Force has also shown its first Pentium 4 based ATCA board.
ATCA, or PICMG 3.x, is a new open standard telecom computing architecture defined to meet carrier-grade requirements of current and future communications applications.
"AdvancedTCA is the first open specification for carrier-grade equipment, and just weeks after its PICMG ratification, Force has demonstrated application failover on its ATCA development reference system", said Chris Williams, Force Vice President of Product and Strategic Marketing.
Further reading
PowerPC squeezes onto PMC board for embedded power
Force Computers has introduced the fastest member of its family of PowerPC-based PCI mezzanine card (PMC) modules - the PowerPMC-260.
Frugal PowerPC mezzanine card
Force Computers has added a low-power-dissipation member to its family of PowerPC-based PCI mezzanine card (PMC) modules.
Embedded server has 15 slots for expansion
The System 4 embedded server is the latest addition to the Flexor family of modular system solutions from Force Computers.
"This demo validates the sophistication of our High Availability Architecture - a design concept based on a set of open standards that help ensure HA-management-and-service-software compatibility of Force's CompactTCA/PICMG 2.16 and ATCA platforms".
As the logical progression from PICMG 2.16, ATCA meets the performance needs of system developers by providing architectural similarity and functionality.
With these similarities, Force keeps the architectures compatible from a software perspective to the extent that Force's Ultra Availability software concept is supported on both - enabling designers to migrate between PICMG 2.16 and ATCA systems seamlessly.
Also, the new CompactTCA (CTCA) standard complements ATCA by featuring PICMG 2.16 packet switching as the main interconnect, mandating system management and eliminating PCI for data transfer.
In coming weeks, Force and other embedded leaders will propose CTCA as the basis for an open standard to ensure interoperability.
In Force's ATCA demo, which was presented at Bus and Board/2003, two application servers (active and standby) hosted an application that kept a running count and displayed the value.
For this example, the state was the current count value, which was checkpointed to the standby application.
The platform's HA-management CPU monitored the health of the active application by heartbeating the resource.
When that failed, the standby application was told to take over service from the failed one.
The standby used checkpointed data to assume the role of the active application and continue the count.
Meanwhile, the service provided by these applications was maintained during the failure of the active server.
The application that had been hosted by the original active server then restarted, assuming the standby role.
With this ATCA reference platform, Force differentiates itself by promoting the technology and also by demonstrating working ATCA products - confirming its leadership position in the market.
Force's ATCA demo system is based on existing Force PICMG 2.16 board and Ethernet switch technology and third-party backplane/chassis.
The system consists of a single 100Mbit Ethernet switch with an integrated platform management module, a Pentium III-based HA management CPU and redundant Pentium III-based application nodes.
Other features of the reference platform include: a full mesh backplane; redundant HA manager and switches; and optional Pentium 4 processing nodes with quad PMC slots.
"By offering a product based on our ATCA reference system, we enable customers to immediately start evaluation and then prototyping of real applications based on this new architecture", said Michael Schaepers, Force Product Marketing Manager for Carrier-Grade Systems.
"Now the verification of the ATCA architecture - as a key to addressing some of the challenges the equipment manufacturers are facing - can begin".
Force ATCA development platforms will be available in March 2003.
• Force Computers: 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
