Backplanes boast full ATCA applications coverage

A new series of ATCA backplanes ranges from a four-slot design for development use through to a 16-slot unit for ETSI or 600mm rack systems.

A new series of AdvancedTCA (ATCA) backplanes ranges from a four-slot design for development use or horizontally mounted systems with triple full mesh interconnectivity, through to a 16-slot unit for ETSI or 600mm rack systems.

In recent testing by Xilinx, a Rittal ATCA 18-layer Nelco4000 based full mesh backplane achieved 5Gbit/s performance unaided (PICMG 3 calls for 3.125Gbit/s) and with enhancement by Xilinx Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs, it reached 10Gbit/s.

Individual backplane designs are affected by the type of shelf management controller (ShMC) used, and the peripheral controller is also dependant on the ShMC.

The new range supports ShMCs from Pigeon Point, Intel and Force Computers.

The Rittal ATCA backplanes have dual Intelligent Platform Management Interfaces (IPMI), which may be configured as either radial or bused, again depending on the ShMC used.

The range includes full mesh architecture, dual star, dual-dual star and dual-dual star with 1x mesh overlay.

All backplanes in the range are designed to meet the PICMG 3 series of specifications, and Rittal can develop individual solutions based on customer applications.

Back to top