The little box that can

It seems like everything is speeding up. I’m not referring to processor clock rates, although they are getting faster and with multicore architectures, those clocks do more than ever. Instead I’m referring to the increased rate of adoption of new platform standards. VME and CompactPCI took five years to hit full stride. AdvancedTCA got there in about four, and MicroTCA appears to be popping up everywhere less than two years since the standard was ratified.

One of the promises of MicroTCA was a smaller footprint and lower cost than AdvancedTCA, making it attractive for both lower end telecom and non-telecom applications. MicroTCA has attracted significant interest in the military, industrial, and medical markets. In response to market demands, PICMG is augmenting the original standard with air-cooled as well as conduction-cooled ruggedized versions. The integral concepts of management and high availability, which MicroTCA comes by honestly from AdvancedTCA, are causing a lightbulb to go on in the minds of many potential users, and the future looks very bright.

The payload cards in MicroTCA systems are standard Advanced Mezzanine Cards, and they require some overhead hardware and software to work properly. This overhead resulted in higher costs and therefore higher prices for early systems, and some worried that MicroTCA might simply cost too much. Serious investment and design work is starting to drop those costs dramatically, and this will further the range of applications suitable for MicroTCA and accelerate the rate of adoption.

Two articles in this issue address the maturing of MicroTCA and dropping costs. Nigel Forrester of Emerson Network Power (formerly Motorola ECC) describes an exciting new low-cost MicroTCA platform that utilizes an injection molded enclosure and incorporates high-volume manufacturing techniques. Interestingly, their first major customer is in the enterprise space, with applications in the secure financial transactions arena.

In a related article, Mike Franco from MicroBlade gives us a high-level view of the development of the MicroTCA ecosystem, defining some useful dimensions and reporting on progress, which he views to be moving nicely along. He brings up some of the early concerns about costs, so I hope he sees the Emerson system soon!

Steve Davis from Ulticom describes living on the edge – the edge of the network, that is. Steve explains the way telcos are deploying new applications quickly and efficiently by working at the edge of today’s sophisticated and extremely complex networks rather than in the core network because doing anything at the core can take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition to sophisticated system management and high availability features, live hot swap of boards in a functioning system is an integral part of both AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA. Orchestrating the complex interactions of application software, high availability middleware, management hardware and software, cooling, and board hardware, including power supply sequencing, can be difficult, but new products coming into the market are making the tasks easier. Shyam Chandra from Lattice Semiconductor gives us an excellent tutorial on what the power management subsystem must do and then goes on to explain how to do it. This is a must read for any board designer developing AdvancedTCA boards and systems.

In this month’s Software Corner, our colleague Curt Schwaderer gives us an in-depth look at the use of embedded databases in AdvancedTCA systems. With networks becoming ever more distributed, database structures must adapt. Features like load balancing and active/standby failover for high availability add yet more requirements. Curt describes the technology and products of the company Solid Information Technology and how they can be incorporated into AdvancedTCA products.

CompactPCI TIDE-ies up

Hermann Strass brings us up to speed on recent happenings in Europe in his Global Technology column. The Really Cool Technology award this month goes to the application of CompactPCI systems to control large undersea tide driven turbines for commercial power production. These turbines and ones like them can simplify the generation of renewable energy by eliminating the need for expensive dams and the environmental issues that sometimes come with them. Another item that caught my eye was Hermann’s observation that China had more exhibitors at the high-tech CeBIT show this year in Hannover, Germany, than any other country, and that’s a first.

To round out this month’s editorial features Hermann interviewed Kontron’s Norbert Hauser, inquiring about his view of the market’s trends and Kontron’s plans. Kontron is an interesting company due to the breadth of markets they serve and their steady growth, both internally and through acquisition. They are consistent innovators in CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, and MicroTCA.

Joe Pavlat, Editorial Director