The magazine of record for the embedded computing

An RTC Group Publication

TECHNOLOGIESTECHNOLOGIES The magazine of record for the embedded computing industry

www.rtcmagazine.com

MicroTCA:NOT JuST FOR TELECOm ANymORE

May 2008

IMS Rides 10 Gig Bandwidth into the Future

SUMIT Interface Brings New Life to PC/104

ATCA Crams in the Performance

NOT JuST FOR TELECOm ANymORE

www.rtcmagazine.com

www.rtcgroup.com

Phone: 585.256.0200 www.pt.com/mtc5070 E-mail: [email protected]

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May 2008 �

TABLEOFCONTENTSMay 2008

Digital Subscriptions Avaliable at http://rtcmagazine.com/home/subscribe.php

69

12

50

Departments

EditorialLet a Thousand Flowers Bloom

Industry InsiderLatest Developments in the Embedded Marketplace

Small Form Factor ForumAtom and Eden Have No Place in ARM’s Garden

Products & TechnologyNewest Embedded Technology Used by Industry Leaders

News, Views & CommentRoHS–Is it Worth the Chaos it Can Cause?

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technology in contextMICROTCA

MicroTCA: Destined for Greatness Across the BoardGene Juknevicius, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms

MicroTCA on the Road to StardomDavid Pursley and Sven Freudenfeld, Kontron

Tougher MicroTCA Tackles Applications Beyond Telecom Clayton Tucker, Emerson Network Power and Bob Sullivan, Hybricon

solutions engineeringHigh-Density ATCA

Designing Very High Performance ATCA SystemsThomas Roberts, Mercury Computer Systems

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inDustry insightIMS Brings Data, Voice, Video

10 Gigabit Ethernet Enables Broadband Multimedia ApplicationsJack Staub, Critical I/O

system integrationSmall Form Factors

Express104 Modules Upgrade PC/104 Installed Base with SUMIT InterfaceJohn McKown, Octagon Systems and Tom Barnum, VersaLogic

FeatureD proDuctsGraphics-Class SHB Supports the Latest Multicore Intel ProcessorsTrenton Technology

Highly Integrated 1U MicroTCA Platform with Innovative ChassisPerformance Technologies

UDE 2.4 for Freescale MPC5510 32-bit MCUs with Unlimited Multicore Debugging

Critical I/O’s XGE4120 XMC provides two independent 10GbE ports with an 8-lane PCI host interface

Hybricon Air Transport Rack provides a ruggedized MicroTCA Framework

26 39 51

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MicroTCA: Not Just for Telecom Anymore

MicroTCA: Not Just for Telecom Anymore

www.rtcmagazine.com

� May 2008

Publisher PRESIDENT John Reardon, [email protected]

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MAY 2008

Published by The RTC GroupCopyright 2008, The RTC Group. Printed in the United States. All rights reserved. All related graphics are trademarks of The RTC Group. All other brand and product names are the property of their holders.

The magazine of record for the embedded computing

industry

An RTC Group Publication

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MAY 2008

EDIT

OR

IAL

“Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom”by Tom Williams, Editor-in-Chief

The title above is an unfortunate quote from Mao Tse Tung that unleashed the Cultural Revolution in 1960’s China. Mao got so frightened by what he had set loose that im-

mediate horrid repression was brought to bear in the form of the Red Guards to reign in what people had mistakenly believed was a call for freedom. Silly them. Here we have no need for the Red Guard; we have the market.

This year’s Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose in-deed saw the introduction of a surge of new ideas and products on two fronts—small form factor boards and wireless sensor net-works. A couple of weeks before the conference, Intel had taken the wraps off its new low-power x86 processor line, unleashing a flood of small boards based on the Atom Z500, which looks to be the first in a continuing line of 45nm devices. The day after Intel released the processor, I was flooded with press releases from companies that had developed boards based on the chip but were sitting on releasing their products until Intel released the chip.

Getting that many press releases on the same day—all of which were announcing Atom-based COM Express boards—caused me to wonder how companies plan to significantly dif-ferentiate small form factor products that are basically based on the same processor from the same semiconductor vendor. What we are seeing is a variety of small form factors that differentiate in terms of size, shape and type of connector even though they carry the same processor. Still, this variety, while it may prolif-erate some more over the short term, cannot last. The industry will settle on a relatively small number of forms and connectors appropriate for different classes of applications and the rest will eventually go away.

As you can see from the news section in this and several previous issues of RTC, there is currently no poverty of new ideas. We’ve seen innovative designs from Lippert, congatec, and in this issue, Diamond, VIA, The PC/104 Consortium and the newly formed Small Form Factor SIG. In addition, there are less known and less well-defined innovations out there, all of which we will be covering and sorting out in these pages. What does seem certain is that these newer low-power processors and the modules they populate will unlock new uses for wearable, mobile and unobtrusive applications.

Add to this a new wave of small wireless connectivity and the possibilities become truly enormous. There has also been recent growth in the number of companies offering what may generally be called wireless sensor networks (WSNs). But sen-sors are only part of the picture. If you can receive data from sen-sors, you can also issue commands to actuators. So these small, low-power redundant network schemes also have a huge amount of unlocked potential. Perhaps they were originally conceived as sensor networks and thus designed as meshes of low-cost, low-power nodes. Thus if one node fails, the signals from other nodes can still get back to the server by alternate routes.

Here again, the applications are moving from things like en-vironmental and military sensing to building control for green energy conservation to reading of electrical meters to other data acquisition and control applications. There are a number of ap-proaches to the networking technology. The Zigbee Alliance, for example, has a set of mesh protocols and categories for product definition to help OEMs position their products in the market and aid interoperability. There are also approaches that advocate the use of IP addressing all the way down to the individual sensor or actuator even if it is only the size of a quarter. Another ap-proach concentrates completely on the well-established 802.11 standard(s). The range of applications targeted by these different approaches varies accordingly.

Another wireless technology that shows great promise is what might be called small-scale roaming. Thus an instrument in a hospital, for example, could be carried throughout the build-ing or campus and automatically connect to the nearest node to maintain connection while being moved rapidly, much as cellular phones switch from base station to base station. Powering these tiny wireless networks is also leading to innovation in such areas as power management, battery technology and energy harvesting.

There is definitely a new wave of innovation a-rising. It may be attributable to the availability of truly low-power processing that is unleashing ideas that had been held in check by things like current and heat dissipation. Whatever the root cause, the effects will be tremendous and cannot yet be clearly predicted.

©2008 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 2008-9264-104-101-D

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Small Form Factor SIG Rolls Out Two New Specs

Defining a new electrome-chanical connection specifica-tion along with a new form fac-tor specification, the Small Form Factor SIG has taken on the needs of next-generation embedded systems to integrate common high-speed and low-speed se-rial and legacy expansion buses independent of form factor and processor architecture. It has also defined a stackable 90 mm x 96 mm size board—the same size as PC/104—that uses the new con-nection specification yet retains the ability to incorporate a large number of legacy PC/104 I/O modules.SUMIT

The connection specifica-tion is called Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technol-

PC/104 Embedded Consortium Introduces PC/104 Express Spec

Building on the vener-able PC/104 form factor, the PC/104 Embedded Con-sortium has approved a new specification called PC/104 Express, which incorporates a high-speed PCI Express bus on the 90 mm x 96 mm form factor. The PC/104 Express replaces the ISA connector with a stackable connector that in-cludes four x1 PCIe links and one x16 PCIe link that can also be configured as two x8 links, two x4 links or two SVDO interfaces. It also supports the SMBus and +3.3V, +5V, +12V and ATX power and control signals plus +5V standby and indicator signals.

While PC/104 Express has replaced the ISA bus, it retains the place for the PCI bus that was a part of the earlier PC/104 Plus specification. A configuration that includes the PCI bus connector is known as PC/104 Express while a configuration that uses only the stackable PCIe connector is called PCIe/104. Modules can be stacked up or stacked down using up to four x1 and one x16 lane. As noted, the latter can be configured in a variety of ways. The specification includes link shifting, which allows universal add-in card and automatic PCI Express link assignment.

In terms of backward compatibility, the design supports automatic detection of up or down stacking and provides a consistent, interchangeable path for the stackable PC architecture across PC/104, EPIC and EBX form factors. Copies of the full PC/104 Express specification are available at the Consortium’s Web site at www.pc104.org.

INduSTRyINSIdERMAY 2008

ogy (SUMIT) and defines two high-speed connectors and their respective signal assignments. The connector pair used is the Samtec QFS/QMS double-row, high-speed, 15.24 mm Q-strip connector pair. Each connector has 52 pins plus ground on the center blade. The standard part numbers are ASP-129637-01 and ASP-129646-01 (Figure 1).

The first connector, the A connector, supports one x1 PCI Express lane, three high-speed uSB 2.0 interfaces, Low Pin Count (LPC) Bus, SPI/uWire, SMBus/I²C Bus and Express-Card signals on a single, tiny, high-speed connector. A second identical connector, the B con-nector, supports one additional x1 PCI Express lane, one x4 PCI Ex-press lane plus additional power, ground and control signals. The B

PC/104 PC/104-Plus PCI/104-Express PCIe/104

ISA Bus ISA and PCI Bus PCI Bus PCI and PCIe Bus PCIe Bus

PCI Connector PCI Connector PCI Connector

ISA Connector ISA Connector Stackable PCIe Connector Stackable PCIe Connector

PC/104 Bus Evolution

PCI-104

connector is for applications re-quiring more channels and higher bandwidth. The connectors are capable of supporting 5 Gbit/s data rates, which will accommo-date PCI Express Generation 2. Boards and systems can be de-signed using only the A connector, only the B connector, or both the A and B con-nectors depending on the cost/performance goals of the design.

One of the key considerations is cost. The ability to use only a single, one-bank con-nector can save PCB board space plus the cost of an additional connector. By using two smaller, separate connec-tors instead of one large connector, an expansion

or add-in board built with only a single connector can plug directly into other processor or expansion cards populated with both con-nectors, further reducing overall system cost. It is also possible for just the second connector to be used for applications only need-ing one PCIe x1 and/or one PCIe x4 lane.Express104

Express104 is a stackable, I/O-centric, multi-board solution for compact embedded systems. unlike slot-based cards, COM modules or mezzanine cards, Express104 provides a stackable multi-board solution that is nei-ther processor architecture nor chipset dependent. It supports the use of all SuMIT connector con-figurations I/O connectivity tech-nologies, depending on which combination of the A and/or B connectors is used.

Express104 as defined only needs SuMIT connectors, but a special configuration has been de-fined to support PC/104 modules. Express104 can then maintain legacy support for the vast num-ber of PC/104 stacking expansion I/O modules and enclosures. This is done by defining the location and use of the legacy PC/104 con-nector, which maintains its same placement, module physical di-mensions and mounting holes. Express104 offers an

10 May 2008

INduSTRy INSIdER

upward performance migration path for this widely used, legacy form factor.

Express104 modules can work with EPIC and EBX boards because Express104 is defined as a 90 mm x 96 mm module with SuMIT stacking connec-tors on the board. Therefore, an Express104 module can func-tion as either a base single board computer (SBC) or I/O expan-sion module. Consequently, Ex-press104 expansion modules can also serve as stackable, rugged, I/O expansion modules for EBX, EPIC, and other custom-sized boards if SuMIT connectors are added.

The Express104 specifica-tion includes mechanical con-nector placement for both EPIC and EBX boards for use with Express104-based I/O expansion modules both with and without the PC/104 legacy option. None of the dimensions, I/O zones, or mounting holes of an EPIC or EBX board change—only the replacement of the 120-pin PCI connector with a 104-pin SUMIT Type AB connector pair.

Both the SuMIT and Ex-press104 specifications are being offered as open standards. How-ever, the use of the SuMIT and Express104 logos is prohibited for companies that are not members of the Small Form Factor SIG. For full copies of both specifica-tions, go to www.sff-sig.org.

diamond Systems Launches Modular Computing Scheme For Stackable SBCs

A new design methodology is aimed at reducing costs, reduc-ing risk and simplifying designs for traditional users of stackable single board computers (SBCs). Introduced by diamond Systems in what appears to be an inno-vative yet proprietary approach, the new paradigm consists of off-the-shelf application-specific I/O-intensive computer-on-mod-ule (COM) carrier baseboards to be used with industry-standard

off-the-shelf ETX CPus. using this approach, a two-board “sand-wich” (ETX CPu plus baseboard) will provide a complete applica-tion solution, which may have previously required three, four, five or more stackable I/O mod-ules in addition to a CPu card. By using off-the-shelf industry-stan-dard ETX CPu modules, each baseboard supports a wide perfor-mance range of solutions—effec-tively an instant product line. The new approach offers advantages over traditional stacked solutions in addition to greatly reducing overall system size and costs. The approach enables a more reliable, rugged and easier to assemble solution with reduced and simpli-fied cabling.

diamond Systems’ initial standard product offering in this new arena is Neptune, a rugged, I/O-rich high integration EPIC single board computer. Neptune’s baseboard integrates the capabili-ties of five traditional PC/104 I/O modules into a single EPIC-sized board. unlike baseboards offered by COM suppliers, Neptune is an off-the-shelf standard product in-tended for production deployment. Neptune’s baseboard serves as a reference design that diamond Systems can use to create appli-cation-specific solutions meeting exact customers’ requirements. Based on diamond Systems’ en-gineering building blocks, dia-mond Systems will modify the baseboard design or design and manufacture a full custom base-board for the OEM. Furthermore, diamond Systems will integrate the baseboards with a wide per-formance range of ETX CPus to deliver integrated solutions to the customer.

Kontron Publishes “nano” Spec for Computer-on-Modules

Kontron has published the complete specification and design guidelines for the “nano” Com-puter-on-Module format. The nano module format (84 mm x 55

mm), for which Kontron already offers products under the name “nanoETXexpress,” is presented as an extension to the PICMG COM Express specification that currently specifies the “Basic” (95 mm x 125 mm) and “Extended” (155 mm x 110 mm) form factors. Kontron also supports the “micro” (95 mm x 95 mm) form factor, which they intend to offer to the PICMG as an exten-sion to the existing COM Express specification.

According to Kontron, the of-ficial standardization of the nano format will have an important market impact since the smaller and more highly integrated proces-sors that are enabling increasingly smaller, energy-saving system de-signs, require an official Computer-on-Modules standard as soon as possible. Kontron believes this will safeguard against an array of Com-puter-on-Module designs based on these processors and therefore en-sure maximum design security for integrators.

This extension to the PICMG COM Express specification is in-tended to offer a platform for these processors. Kontron is already developing two modules based on this intended extension to the COM Express industry standard and will have samples available for evaluation by the end of Q2 of this year. The nano module follows the COM Express pin-out Type 1 with respect to connector location and pin definition. Different size Com-puter-on-Modules are therefore interchangeable and carrier board designs are reusable. This enables developers to draw upon their ex-isting experience with COM Ex-press-conforming ETXexpress modules and COM Express-com-patible microETXexpress modules. Only the dimensions are reduced to a minimum. Kontron intends to work with other PICMG members to officially incorporate the nano form factor into the COM Express specification.

The specification for the “nano” module can be downloaded from http://www.Kontron.com/COM-Express-Nano-Specification.

Via Moves into COM Express Embedded Module Market

Via Technologies, the Tai-wanese company known as a de-veloper of low-power embedded silicon and platform technolo-gies, has announced the extension of its embedded board portfolio to include COM Express modules that will harness the power and thermal advantages of Via’s pro-cessor platforms.

Measuring 95 mm x 125 mm, COM Express is an indus-try-standard embedded form fac-tor developed by the PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufactur-ers Group) to provide greater connectivity and data transfer bandwidth than the original COM (Computer-on-Module) standard. The COM Express specification integrates core CPu, chipset and memory on the module, providing support for extensive connectivity options, including uSB, audio, graphics and Ethernet, through board-to-board connectors to an I/O baseboard.

Leveraging Via’s signature low-heat, power-efficient platform silicon, the new fanless Via COM Express modules will be powered by Via Eden or Via C7 processors ranging from 500 MHz right up to 2 GHz. Support for a compre-hensive feature set of I/O imple-mentations isprovided through Via’s versatile digital media IGP chipsets, while the option of on-board system memory provides vibration resistance for in-vehicle or heavy plant environments.

Via COM Express modules are targeted at industrial PC and large OEM customers focused on dynamic application segments, including gaming, healthcare and industrial automation. Cus-tomers can take advantage of a proprietary multi-I/O baseboard for evaluation purposes, or can utilize Via’s extensive technical support in developing a custom baseboard.

MOST Cooperation Provides New Physical Layer Specification

The MOST Cooperation—the organization through which the leading automotive multi-media network Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) is standardized—has overhauled the Physical Layer Specifica-tion. Based on lessons learned from today’s MOST25 network-ing generation, a working group consisting of car, device and com-ponent makers has developed a new Physical Layer Specification for MOST150. The specification is available to members of the MOST Cooperation as part of the MOST Rev. 3.0 specification set and can be used for implementa-tion into products.

An integral approach was used to define the electrical and optical signal parameters for MOST150 as well as cost-opti-mized standardized packages to-

gether with pin-out descriptions for optoelectronic converters. The specification addresses the challenges of soldering process-es, changeability of fiber-optic elements with alternative replace-ments, as well as new opportuni-ties to organize supply chains of components. unambiguous signal definitions for operational states, power supply ramp-up and ramp-down scenarios, together with the use of established eye diagram testing methods, well known from the data and telecom indus-try, safeguard an easy and robust development process.

MOST150 uses the well-known and established MOST25 1 mm step index POF polymer fiber. The mechanical interface at the wire harness connector stays the same, only the optoelectron-ics are adapted to the new speed grade. By design, most of the ele-ments of this new MOST150 spec-ification can be carried over to

future, cost-optimized MOST25 generations. Later in 2008, the working group will define the up-dated compliance process to test products for conformance to these

requirements. This process will be carried over from MOST25 and will be enhanced with reli-ability testing methods.

May 2008 11

INduSTRy INSIdER

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12 May 2008

Colin McCracken& Paul Rosenfeld

SMAL

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RM FA

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As we complete the embedded trade show trifecta with Com-putex in early June in Taiwan (along with ESC Silicon Val-ley in April and Embedded World Germany in February),

it’s time for board vendors to begin the mad scramble to position their new Eden-Isaiah or Atom-based small form factor SBCs and COM modules. With all of the hubbub over ultra mobility and the strange comparisons we’ve already seen to RISC archi-tectures, it’s time to set the record straight.

Last month, we discussed the mobility initiatives of Intel and VIA, and the outstanding benefits (except the lack of leg-acy buses) for the small form factor embedded community. The x86 domain is now entitled to be on the same playing field as RISC architectures. But the x86 architecture is like an expansion team—full of former and yet-to-be stars—much potential and a long road to travel. And whoever decided to compare Atom to ARM has been living in x86 fairyland too long. The notion that someone using an ARM-based SoC would suddenly start using Atom or Eden-Isaiah might be absurd even to dilbert’s pointy-haired boss.

RISC processors and cores such as ARM achieve small die sizes, low cost and low power consumption (dMIPS/Watt) by re-ducing and simplifying the instruction set and addressing modes compared to CISC (complex instruction set computers) machines such as x86. Small RISC cores mean that more functions can be included in the processor silicon, reducing chip count and perhaps even pin count as I/O devices are connected internally. Hence the processor chip itself can be smaller and the “chipset” device eliminated entirely. This approach yields the smallest pos-sible PCB size as proven by dozens of PdAs, MP3 players and cell phones.

Make no mistake. A two-chip solution is quite an accom-plishment for high-performance x86 offerings, and a standing ovation is well earned. But x86 devices are application processors and exist to run a large installed base of legacy applications and operating systems such as Windows and Linux with significant user interface/display requirements. While some x86 boards are used in headless 32-bit control applications, they generally con-sume much more power and cost more than RISC solutions.

The ARM architecture is commonly associated with mil-lions of cell phones. Besides basic boot and control functions, ARM SoCs have evolved to take on more of the heavy lifting of user interface, color LCd and streaming functions, and a wealth of software and middleware libraries now exist. But this should not be confused with application processor glory like PC-derived x86 processors.

In addition, RISC chips are rightfully used widely in de-terministic and hard-real-time (deadline-driven) applications, including automotive, robotics and telecom/datacom. These control applications have minimal uI/display requirements but urgent needs for prompt, efficient I/O processing. Packets dropped (information lost) by desktop-style processors/operating systems that take milliseconds or seconds to service high-prior-ity system tasks can send the application off into the weeds. And Ctrl-Alt-del is not available under a car seat or in an Internet backbone router.

Here’s the punch line. “Atom versus ARM” gives us enter-taining reading, but most folks in our business are savvy enough to know that desktop/notebook/mobility processors and RISC processors get used in different types of devices, each where they are best suited. Requirements are driven by OS or application compatibility, real-time performance, cost and/or power. That said, the darwin Award is available to the poor misguided engi-neer who falls for the marketing hype and puts an MId/uMPC processor/chipset in his or her router or robot design.

So opportunities exist for small form factor boards with both RISC and x86 CPus. For RISC processors, this is old hat. For x86 CPus, this is truly a new world. Next, we’ll delve into some options on how a small form factor CPu is implemented, either as a single board computer or Computer On Module—an issue that applies regardless of whether a RISC or x86 processor is on board. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future topics at [email protected].

Atom and Eden Have No Place in ARM’s Garden

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MicroTCA: Destined for Greatness Across the Board

No longer just a telecommunications architecture, MicroTCA possesses the flexibility, connectivity and advanced features that make it attractive for a very broad range of demanding applications.

by Gene Juknevicius GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms

In the period leading up to 2005, when the AdvancedMC—a mezzanine mod-ule for AdvancedTCA blades—was

finally defined and standardized, engi-neers quickly realized that if they took a few of these modules and connected them together, they could build small, compact but highly capable systems. Thus Mi-croTCA was born. Despite the commonly held belief to the contrary, MicroTCA was envisioned from the beginning as a speci-fication that would serve not only the tele-communications market, but would also be well suited for commercial, industrial and even military applications.

Built into the MicroTCA specification is substantial flexibility to be compatible with a variety of chassis form factors, from small 4-module pico chassis to full-blown 19-inch rack-mountable redundant sys-tems. The MicroTCA specification defines flexible and high throughput interconnect options and it benefits from the extensive platform management infrastructure that is already present in AdvancedMC modules.

All these benefits are obviously much more broadly attractive than to the telecommuni-cations market only, and they position Mi-croTCA as being highly suitable for wide multi-market adoption.

The Key Role of the AdvancedMC

MicroTCA is based on Advanced-MCs, which themselves come in multiple form factors. In general, AdvancedMCs are roughly the same size as PMCs. To be precise, they are slightly narrower, but longer: 73.5 mm x 180.6 mm (single AdvancedMC). In terms of width, Ad-vancedMCs can be single or double. A double module simply doubles the PCB

real estate. In terms of height, Advanced-MCs come in three sizes: compact, mid-size and full-size. Compact modules are 13.88 mm high; mid-size modules, 18.96 mm; and full-size modules, 28.95 mm.

Even the compact Advanced MC module has a significantly higher com-ponent envelope when compared with a PMC module, allowing more and higher performance circuitry to be designed into the available space. AdvancedMCs can be provided with as much as 80 watts of power, assuming the host carrier can handle it. Practically speaking, compact AdvancedMCs are targeted for 24 watts of power, with mid-size modules targeted for 30 watts and full-size modules for 48 watts. Maximum power dissipation is ob-viously a function not only of the module but also the chassis that it plugs into—and from this perspective, MicroTCA opens

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AMC

AMC

AMC

AMC

AMC

AMC

FANS

FANS

Air F

low

Figure 1 Parallel Air Flow Concept

AMC AMC AMC

AMC AMC AMCFANS

FANS

Air Flow

Figure 2 Serial Air Flow Concept


May 2008 15

Technology InContext

up a number of options for optimization. If the application calls for high-power AdvancedMC modules, a parallel cooling approach works best, as shown in Figure 1. On the other hand, when the required modules are not as power-hungry, but the overall chassis needs to be compact, series cooling can be employed (Figure 2).

The MicroTCA specification does not dictate what the overall chassis size and organization has to be; it merely defines a maximum of twelve AdvancedMCs that can comprise a single carrier platform. There is nothing that would prohibit design-ing two, three or four AdvancedMC carrier platforms into a MicroTCA shelf. Examples of the variety of possible AdvancedMC sys-tems are shown in Figures 3 and 4.

MicroTCA’s flexibility extends into the realm of fully redundant systems. If the application requires high reliability and redundancy, a MicroTCA platform can be built with two redundant MicroTCA Carrier Hubs, up to four power modules and up to two cooling units. All building blocks within the MicroTCA chassis are hot-swappable. At the other extreme, ap-plications that are driven by low cost and compact enclosures can use a system with a single power module (actually built into the chassis, for example) and a single set of fans that are not hot swappable.

It’s not just the range of system sizes or the configuration flexibility that is help-ing the growing acceptance of MicroTCA. MicroTCA’s form factor flexibility is an-other key element that makes it attractive for multiple markets. Whether the require-ment is to design an MRI machine, a lo-comotive, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, a remote solar power farm or an unmanned aerial vehicle, MicroTCA can be adapted to suit each application’s specific packaging needs. Furthermore, MicroTCA will soon be appropriate for even more environmentally demanding environments, with the rugged MicroTCA specification currently being worked on to further broaden its appeal.

Leveraging the Power of Switched Fabrics

When it comes to interconnect, Mi-croTCA can truly claim to be a “next-generation” platform. AdvancedMC, and consequently MicroTCA, are based on high-speed serial connectivity. This in-

cludes interconnects such as PCI Express, Ethernet, Serial RapidIO and SATA/SAS. Each AdvancedMC module has a number of interconnect options, ranging from a single Gigabit Ethernet port all the way to multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports or x8 PCI Express pipes, coupled with ad-ditional SATA/SAS interfaces. Serial connectivity brings a number of benefits beyond higher throughput. It reduces the required number of pins on the connec-tor, reduces power dissipation and reduces silicon size. In addition, serial intercon-nects simplify the circuitry required for hot-swap functionality. Beyond this, Eth-ernet interfaces no longer require magnet-ics, saving precious PCB real estate on the AdvancedMC module.

The heart of inter-AdvancedMC communication is a switch fabric, which resides in the MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH). Some claim that the MCH—which supports high throughput interconnects—is a fairly expensive component, driving up the overall cost of the system. This is a valid concern, but it must be balanced against MicroTCA’s inherent flexibility. MicroTCA platforms can be optimized for any point on the price/performance curve, depending on the application re-quirements on the one hand and available budget on the other. MicroTCA does, in fact, allow point-to-point connectivity between AdvancedMCs, bypassing the MCH. A good example might be a pro-

cessor AdvancedMC connected to a high-end graphic card using a point-to-point x8 PCI Express interconnect. Furthermore, a processor AdvancedMC can have two SATA storage AdvancedMCs—again, in-terconnected point-to-point—with the rest of the AdvancedMCs in the chassis com-municating with the processor via Giga-bit Ethernet. The resulting implementa-tion would require an MCH that has only Gigabit Ethernet switching fabric, and as such is significantly simpler than one with PCI Express switching.

In addition to data interconnects, MicroTCA also supports multiple clock fabrics. Three are defined, and each can be shared between AdvancedMCs. One of the three clocks is designated by the spec-ification as the clock for the PCI Express interface. However, the other two—typi-cally the 8 KHz and 19.44 MHz clock sig-nals—while widely used in telecommuni-cations applications, are much less useful for commercial and industrial markets. The MicroTCA specification, however, does not preclude the designer from put-ting other frequencies on those two clock lines and thus the flexibility is provided that would, for example, enable a low-fre-quency “heartbeat” signal to be used that synchronizes all the modules in a chassis

MicroTCA Chassis ManagementBesides providing switched fabrics

for AdvancedMC interconnects, the MCH plays another important role—the man-agement of the whole MicroTCA chassis. MicroTCA carrier management, together with AdvancedMC management and Ad-vancedTCA management, is based on the Intelligent Platform Management Inter-face (IPMI). Although IPMI software is fairly complex and is often a source of in-teroperability issues, it does provide sig-nificant benefits to the user. Through the IPMI infrastructure, each AdvancedMC module in the system identifies itself and describes what connectivity options it possesses and what amount of power it re-quires. Given this information, the MCH is able to make decisions about whether or not a specific module can be powered up, following the so-called electronic keying (e-keying) process. Driven by the AMC 0 specification, each AdvancedMC module has multiple temperature sensors. Fur-thermore, each module defines tempera-

Figure 3 GE Fanuc MP3000: example of MicroTCA Cube Chassis

16 May 2008


ture thresholds and sends a warning to the MCH if those thresholds are exceeded. As a result, the MCH can, for example, adjust fan speed down to the minimum, extend-ing fan life and saving overall power.

One other benefit the IPMI infrastruc-ture provides is the self-test status and remote reset capability. Typically, each AdvancedMC monitors its own health, frequently by measuring voltage on its power rails, checking error counters and connectivity to various components. This information can be queried via the MCH and, if failure occurs, the AdvancedMC can be remotely reset.

The IPMI software interoperability issues that affected early development have, to a large extent, now been resolved. Platform management functionality is one of the key strengths that MicroTCA brings to the table and positions MicroTCA for remote installations that are targeted to be monitored and managed over long dis-tance without on-site human interaction. Furthermore, MicroTCA vendors are of-fering pre-validated MicroTCA platforms in order to get customers up and running quickly and painlessly, reducing the risk, time and effort in evaluating the technol-ogy and minimizing time-to-market.

MicroTCA and I/OCommercial and industrial applica-

tions are notorious for requiring large numbers of specific, and often times highly obscure, I/Os. If widespread ac-ceptance of MicroTCA is to be achieved in the minimum possible time, waiting until an appropriate ecosystem of inter-faces becomes available is not practical. To alleviate this, Industry Pack (IP)—Ad-vancedMC and PMC—AdvancedMC car-riers are stepping up to the challenge. An Industry Pack is a module small enough

to fit easily onto a single AdvancedMC module. A PMC, on the other hand, being slightly wider than a single AdvancedMC, requires a double AdvancedMC carrier.

For I/O-intensive modules, front panel real estate is of the utmost importance, and from this perspective AdvancedMCs have a clear lead. A double full-size AdvancedMC has approximately 4255 mm² of real estate, and a single full-size AdvancedMC has approximately: 2127 mm². Compare that to the standard PMC, which has only 998 mm² of front panel real estate. The winner is clear. Also of note is that a MicroTCA chassis typically supports both single and double AdvancedMC modules; hence, mix-ing and matching them is not an issue.

The fundamental technologies that comprise MicroTCA allow it to be ex-tremely versatile. Chassis form factors can be molded for a specific application. Flex-ible and very high performance intercon-nects enable small form factors, and support hot-swap functionality. The sophisticated IPMI-based board and carrier management infrastructure provides control and visibil-ity of the system, even when it is located on the other side of the world, while support for a wide range of I/O interfaces enables con-nectivity to an enormous range of devices from high-speed digital cameras to stepper motors. The result is high reliability, high availability, high performance systems that are characterized by significant versatility and cost-effectiveness. All these advantages position MicroTCA to become a platform of choice for multiple markets well beyond the telecommunications market with which it is most commonly associated.

GE Fanuc Intelligent PlatformsCharlottesville, VA.(800) 368-2738.[www.gefanuc.com].

Figure 4 GE Fanuc MP2000: example of MicroTCA 2U Chassis

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www.birdstep.com/database

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18 May 2008

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MicroTCA on the Road to Stardom

MicroTCA offers increased computing power, very high communication bandwidth and high availability—all in an affordable, small form factor to meet a wide range of demanding application requirements today and into the future.

by David Pursley and Sven Freudenfeld Kontron

The Micro Telecommunications Ar-chitecture (MicroTCA) is a com-plementary, smaller scale platform

to the Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA). Rati-fied in July 2006 as PICMG MTCA.0, MicroTCA can offer embedded system designers significantly reduced develop-ment cost and time-to-market. Although originally developed as a telecommunica-tions standard, MicroTCA is generating interest among system designers beyond the telecommunications arena for a wide range of applications, including defense, government, aerospace, industrial auto-mation and medical.

Applications in these spaces have very similar requirements—such as very high communication bandwidth and/or very high availability in a small form fac-tor. MicroTCA offers a number of fea-tures that can meet these requirements. However, MicroTCA also has its design trade-offs. As with any engineering proj-ect, developing a system based on the Mi-croTCA architecture is an iterative opti-mization process.

There continues to be a migration to open standards-based embedded comput-

ing architectures, driven by the need to reduce costs and development time and improve interoperability. Table 1 provides a high-level overview of some of the more prevalent embedded computing form fac-tors and their advantages and disadvan-tages. VME and CompactPCI architec-

tures, while still viable for many applica-tions, do not support the processing and communication bandwidth required for more advanced applications. Switched-fabric extensions—such as VITA 31, VITA 41 and PICMG 2.16—offer more bandwidth, but still do not meet the com-

MCH’1 FA11 connected to MCH’2 FA11

MCH’1 FA12 connected to MCH’2 FA12

AMC Port 1

Fat P

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Fabr

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Fat Pipe Region Ports 4 to 11

MCH’1 FB12 connected to MCH’2 FB12

MCH’1 FB11 connected to MCH’2 FB11

8 8 8 8 8

PM#1

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AMC#9

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MCH#2

PM#2

Figure 1 Example of a MicroTCA backplane.

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munication demands inherent in next-gen-eration applications.

Some of the biggest advantages of MicroTCA are its small form factor, high bandwidth and high availability. Despite its small size, MicroTCA offers high band-width, both in terms of compute band-width and communication bandwidth. Up to twelve compute blades on a single backplane give MicroTCA a tremendous amount of computing resources, especially when each blade could be using a multi-core processor. Communication bandwidth capabilities range from 40 Gbits/s to over 1 Terabit/s—both numbers are theoretically correct because the actual bandwidth is im-plementation-dependent. With this amount of compute and communication power, Mi-croTCA has more than enough bandwidth for most demanding applications.

AdvancedMC modules used within the MicroTCA system, measuring 2U in height by 3-6HP in width by 183.5 mm in depth, are a smaller form factor than even 3U VME and CompactPCI cards. AMCs use a relatively small amount of power (up to 60 watts) yet can still offer a high level of reliability, supporting up to five nines (0.99999) availability through a combina-tion of IPMI-based health monitoring, hot swap capability and support for full redun-dancy. Redundancy is implementation-specific, so any given system may have full redundancy, partial redundancy—re-dundant power and cooling subsystems is a common configuration—or no redun-dancy, depending on the system’s cost and availability requirements.

MicroTCA also offers a great deal of flexibility with several packaging options for different environments and support for various interconnect technologies, includ-

ing Ethernet, PCIe and RapidIO. Figure 1 illustrates a MicroTCA Backplane example. There are 21 serial lanes on the backplane:

• Two “common options” (0-3)• 0,1: GbE is typical• 2,3: Storage (SATA, SAS)

• “Fat pipes” (4-11)• Fast, high throughput

• “Extended options” (12-20)

• Other connections• System management and control

(IPMB)• Power• Clocks• JTAG

While using MicroTCA does not eliminate software integration testing, it does make the testing as simple as pos-sible by not adding additional complex-ity to the equation. To the application, a MicroTCA node and a Linux box on the designer’s desk are essentially the same. Since general software debugging can be done outside the system, software system testing can actually focus on integration and system issues. By minimizing the im-pact on software development, MicroTCA adds usability to its list of advantages. Based on these benefits and options, Mi-croTCA can provide a suitable platform for a wide range of applications spaces, as detailed in Table 2.

Next-Generation Telecom and Networking

MicroTCA re-uses many of the com-ponents and technologies developed for ATCA. This lowers the cost of entry for both component vendors and equipment manufacturers designing new systems.

Because MicroTCA targets smaller, less expensive telecom equipment, it is ex-pected to be even more widely deployed than ATCA. Potential applications are as varied as WiMax and cellular base stations, data centers and the enterprise, along with VoIP and IMS applications.

MicroTCA leverages AdvancedMC modules (AMCs) to meet the needs of compact, low-cost systems by connect-ing AMCs directly to a backplane, with-out the need for a carrier card. Eliminat-ing the ATCA carrier allows MicroTCA to offer a wide variety of form factors. AMCs can act as building-block com-ponents that bridge the gap between ATCA’s network core applications and MicroTCA’s Internet access and telecom box functionality. This building-block component comprises a work-around to ATCA in the form of carrier blades with AMC modules, providing the potential to replace ATCA carrier blades for storage and networking applications.

One area of potential growth for MicroTCA within the telecom market is IPTV-based services. The challenge is deploying an end-to-end IP-managed net-work that can deliver superior quality of service and quality of experience for the consumer. Since it offers high availabil-ity, low-power, ultra dense processing and lower operating costs, designers can use MicroTCA for residential media gateways. The smaller form factor and lower entry cost of MicroTCA communications serv-ers supports a “pay-as-you-grow” busi-ness model, allowing service providers to enter a market with less initial capital ex-penditure and to expand their computing platform capabilities in small, low-cost increments as demand for the new service increases.

MicroTCA for Rugged Applications

Besides moving toward open stan-dards, there is also a transition to a net-work-centric paradigm in many markets, particularly in the military. As a result, it is not surprising that the system archi-tectures of yesterday struggle to meet the demanding communication bandwidth re-quirements of newer applications.

Within the military arena, a num-ber of high-profile programs are aimed at improving communications. One such

Where MicroTCA Fits In

cPCI/VME VITA 31 VITA 41 PICMG 2.16 ATCA MicroTCA

Compute Bandwidth (system)

Low High High High Very High High

Comm. Bandwidth Low Med Med Med Very High High

High Availability No No No Yes Yes Yes

Form Factor 3U 6U 6U 6U 8U 2U

Rugged Yes Yes Yes Yes No Under Way

Table 1 MicroTCA meets the architectural requirements of high bandwidth, high mobility and small form factor, with standardized ruggedization on the way.

May 2008 21


program is Future Combat Systems (FCS), an Army initiative designed to link soldiers to a wide range of weap-ons, sensors and information systems to enable unprecedented levels of joint in-teroperability, shared situational aware-ness and the ability to execute highly synchronized mission operations. Other initiatives, such as the Joint Tactical Ra-dio System (JTRS) and Warfighter Infor-mation Network – Tactical (WIN-T), are also heavily communication-centric. In fact, significant portions of the WIN-T network-centric program are already us-ing the MicroTCA architecture.

Perhaps the biggest concern for Mi-croTCA in military, aerospace and indus-trial automation applications is rugged-ization. The PICMG standards body has a subcommittee investigating standardizing rugged implementations of MicroTCA, and ruggedized MicroTCA options are already available. For example, an ATR chassis is commercially available, and MicroTCA is being used or considered for use in conduction-cooled implemen-tations. Also, it is important to note that concerns about the MicroTCA edge con-nector become less of an issue in conduc-tion-cooled deployment, because each card is physically bound to the chassis. For this reason, it is possible that conduction-cooled MicroTCA will become common before “soft rugged” implementations that do not require conduction-cooling.

Developing a MicroTCA SystemBandwidth, storage and I/O require-

ments define the basic system, and the need for high availability also has a major impact on the system design. Selecting a complete MicroTCA system involves op-timizing six subsystems. As shown in Fig-ure 2, these include power delivery, cool-ing, line cards (AMCs), backplane, system management and chassis. Power delivery in MicroTCA is controlled with the power module (PM), which supplies 12V and 3.3V to the system. The designer must de-termine which power inputs are required, as this may force other decisions for other subsystems. PMs supporting common military, telecom and commercial line voltages are available, including 12 VDC, 24 VDC, -48 VDC, -60 VDC, 120 VAC and 230 VAC. Designers also need to decide if redundant power supplies are a

requirement, as this will also drive deci-sions in some other subsystems.

In convection-cooled applications, one or more cooling units (CU) can be placed in the MicroTCA chassis, each consisting of air movers (fans) and asso-ciated electronics. The main decision the designer must make up front is whether redundant cooling systems are required. Airflow requirements and other thermal

issues will generally be addressed during chassis selection.

The number and types of AMC boards are often two of the easier decisions when designing a MicroTCA system. Because there are no mezzanine cards in MicroTCA, the designer simply selects cards to do each purpose in the system. For example, if the system needs storage, it will need to have one (or more) SAS or SATA storage AMCs.

AMC#1

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MicroTCA Carrier

MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) #2

MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) #1Cooling Unit #2

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PayloadPower

Converter

Mgm’tPower

ConverterJSM

PowerControl

Cloc

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CommonOptionsFabric

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Backplane Interconnect

Figure 2 Setting up a MicroTCA system involves optimizing—in addition to the AMC line cards—five additional subsystems.

Communications Industrial MedicalMilitary/Aerospace/Government

MicroTCA offers TEMs/NEPs high bandwidth and five nines (0.99999)availability and fulfills the requirements to design full systems deployed at the telecom edge and customer premise communications applications.

Ideal applications include WiFi and Wimax base stations, fiber nodes, optical network connections, IP-based multi-server access nodes and other applications at the network edge.

• Dual star Gigabit Ethernet connectivity

• Modular and serviceable – hot swap

Cost-sensitive automation applications require network connectivity in MicroTCA’s small inexpensive form factor.

• Highly reliable architecture reduces Total Cost of Ownership

• Minimal cost overhead via integrated MCH and Power Module functionality

The ability to use a MicroTCA system as a small from factor supercomputer with up to 12 multi-core processing blades makes it an ideal architecture for medical imaging applications.

• Twelve AdvancedMC (AMC) boards on a single backplane

• Variety of form factors eases system integration

Systems supporting the next-generation warfighter demand an architecture with high processing power connected to a high throughput IP-based network. MicroTCA is uniquely targeted to meet these needs in a small from factor that can be widely deployed.

• Small form factor with 2U AdvancedMCs (AMCs)

• Scalable size and redundancy allows a single architecture to support multiple deployment targets

Table 2 In addition to communications, MicroTCA offers advantages for a number of other application areas.

22 May 2008


If high-end graphics is a requirement, the system will need a graphics AMC. If more network uplinks are required, a GbE mod-ule is needed. Of course, the system will also need an appropriate number of proces-sor AMCs (PrAMC) to run the software, keeping in mind that dual-core PrAMCs can be used to further increase compute power. As with the other subsystems, the designer must determine if full redundancy is required, and if so, it is important to plan for the appropriate number of AMCs.

Once the rough number and types of boards are chosen, the designer must select a backplane architecture that sup-ports the communication bandwidth be-tween the boards. The main decisions in choosing a backplane are topology and speed. A star topology will offer switched communication over the back-plane. A dual-star is similar, but supports redundant switches to increase availabil-ity. Full mesh offers the highest possible bandwidth, but is more expensive. Back-

planes supporting 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s speeds are commercially available. Faster speeds offer more bandwidth, but cost more and require that the AMCs support those communication speeds.

System management is done through the MicroTCA Controller Hub (MCH), which performs electronic keying and en-ables and monitors power delivery to all the subsystems. It also functions as the network switch for the system, if one is needed. The MCH must be compatible with the com-munication architecture that was chosen, including communication topology (star, dual-star, full mesh) and communication type(s) such as GbE, 10GbE, SRIO, PCIe, SATA and SAS. The MCH must also ex-plicitly support PM and CU redundancy, if that is required in the system. If the system requires redundant MCHs, the de-signer will need to choose an MCH that supports redundant MCHs (and purchase two of them). In theory, a fully compliant MCH will be able to seamlessly handle any redundancy configuration presented to it. However, a cost reduction may be avail-able by using an MCH that only supports the redundancy required.

Finally, with tentative decisions on all of the above subsystems, the actual chas-sis and size and shape can be chosen since a wide variety of designs is available. Mi-croTCA’s small form factor also makes it amenable to customized chassis developed for specific deployed installations. The de-signer must choose a chassis that will sup-port current and future needs of the system. Usually, a chassis will exist that meets all of the requirements, but it may be too large for the required form factor. If this hap-pens, redundancy or the number of AMCs will need to be reduced and/or the desired form factor will have to be increased.

Usability, compute power, communi-cation bandwidth, high availability and a small footprint—all combine to make Mi-croTCA a compelling choice for demand-ing applications across a range of markets. MicroTCA is already well on its way to stardom, and its attractiveness will only continue to grow as more solutions are added to the ecosystem.

KontronPoway, CA.(888) 294-4558.[www.kontron.com].

Untitled-16 1 5/6/08 4:48:51 PM

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Tougher MicroTCA Tackles Applications Beyond TelecomMicroTCA is already breaking out of the telecom mold for which it was originally conceived and moving into applications like medical devices, factory automation and robotics. Soon, with new ruggedized specs on the way, it will branch out into even more challenging applications.

by Clayton Tucker, Emerson network Power and Bob Sullivan, Hybricon

O riginally targeting small to mid-size telecom systems, the MicroT-CA architecture is generating inter-

est for other applications that utilize a net-work-centric structure, including military, medical and industrial systems. These and other diverse applications now seek to leverage the performance, management functions and high-availability features of MicroTCA while reducing cost and de-sign time. To better address this broader range of market requirements, including the need to operate in harsh environments, MicroTCA has begun embracing rugge-dized construction so that its designs can thrive outside of the central office.

The ability to connect to a network for control and data exchange is a key at-tribute for a growing number of system designs. Medical systems, for example, are evolving to support decentralized diag-nostic activity that allows a doctor in one location to utilize a diagnostic tool such as an MRI on a patient in another location. Imaging, fluid analysis, bio-signal moni-

toring and a host of other medical equip-ment types are beginning to incorporate wireless and wired network interfaces to become part of an entire medical system that links doctors to remote patients.

Industrial systems are also adopting such a network-centric approach. Au-tomated factory equipment and robotic

systems utilize network architectures for communications and control both within a factory and between locations. The avail-ability of wide area networking interfaces even allows equipment in diverse loca-tions to exchange information to create a virtual factory that functions as an inte-grated system.




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The need for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelli-gence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) activity to function across a wide operational front is prompting develop-ment of network-centric systems in mili-tary applications. Network interfaces al-low the images and data from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to flow directly to the field operatives that can benefit most from the information. Networking is also at the core of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) under development that would al-low coordination of military activity in the field down to the level of a single in-dividual.

Other network-centric applications abound in commercial activity. Point-of-sale terminals use networks to support retail sales by providing financial transac-tions and inventory updates for the retailer. Information kiosks provide consumers with up-to-date and interactively custom-ized price and availability information.

On top of this trend toward network-

centric system design in other application areas, telecommunications is seeing a move away from traditional equipment in-stallations. Network edge functions such as cellular access points are moving out of the central office and into field settings such as pole-mounted installations. Other edge equipment is moving into enterprise settings such as equipment closets.

Appeal Outside TelecomFor all these diverse applications, the

MicroTCA architecture holds tremendous appeal because of its many useful attri-butes. For one, MicroTCA provides fine-grained modularity and scalability that simplifies the evolution of system func-tion and growth in system capacity. De-signers assembling a system can mix and match Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) modules, the architecture’s functional building blocks, at will. Because AMC modules have a standard backplane inter-face, users can upgrade system functions or increase capacity simply by changing

or adding modules as needed. This ability is particularly valuable in medical system design because it preserves the system’s overall FDA certification, reducing the re-certification effort for a design upgrade to address only the new module.

Another useful attribute of the Mi-croTCA architecture is its support for compact system design. The mezzanine-card heritage of AMC modules means they are reasonably small while still of-fering a high compute density in terms of MIPS per watt per square inch (Figure 1). The chassis design targets back-to-back installations, giving MicroTCA systems a shallower depth than classic thin servers or other system platforms. The specifica-tion is open as to configuration, however, allowing from two to twelve modules in a chassis to support a range of trade-offs between size and capacity.

System management functions form a part of the MicroTCA specification, so the monitoring and control of system elements down to the module level is a built-in attribute. This control includes support for hot-swap and remote disabling of modules and other system elements so that redundancy for load-sharing and fail-over fault responses is easy to implement. MicroTCA systems thus offer built-in high availability and short repair time at-tributes that have been cost-prohibitive for system developers building systems from scratch.

All the elements needed for a Mi-croTCA-based system are available as commercial off-the-shelf items. Base sys-tem hardware elements, including card cages, fans, power supplies and full sys-tem enclosures, are available from a num-ber of vendors. Stock AMC modules in-clude a range of processors, a wide variety of I/O interfaces, and many other func-tions. Developers can thus create entire MicroTCA system prototypes from tested and validated components, providing an out-of-the-box experience to immediately begin software and system development. Foundation system software is also avail-able off-the-shelf for MicroTCA systems. Such software includes a real-time Linux operating system, full system management software, and high-availability system middleware through the Open Software Availability Forum. The wide variety of applications, customers and vendors for

Figure 2 The Hybricon Air Transport Rack provides a ruggedized MicroTCA framework that mil-aero developers can use off-the-shelf to meet many harsh environmental conditions.

May 2008 27


each individual element in a MicroTCA system ensures ready availability and low cost due to economies of scale.

Full-System COTSThese many useful attributes mean

that developers utilizing the MicroTCA architecture have most of their work al-ready done. Hardware design is reduced to selecting an appropriate combination of stock system elements and occasion-ally designing an AMC module to address unique requirements. Even then, the spec-ifications cover most of the design details, freeing developers to concentrate on their specific needs. Software design is also significantly reduced, requiring only ap-plications programming within the over-all system software. For a growing num-ber of network-centric applications, then, MicroTCA represents an opportunity to develop compact, high-performance, high-reliability designs quickly and inex-pensively.

The one area where MicroTCA spec-ifications may not adequately address a wide diversity of application needs, how-ever, is in the operating environment.

The current specification, PICMG Mi-croTCA.0, provides a baseline for com-mercial and telecom applications based on the NEBS and ETS Class 3.1 standard. This calls for an operating environment with a temperature between +5°C and +40°C, allowing for short-term excur-sions as low as -5°C or as high as +55°C. The specification also calls for designs to be resistant to earthquake (NEBS GR-63 Zone 4), to 0.5g vibration from 2 to 200 Hz, and to sinusoidal shock at 7g for 11 msec (IEC 61587-1 Class DL1). These specifications reflect the need to survive normal shipping and handling and rack-mounted installation in a small, closed, climate-controlled concrete building: the central office. The many applications now considering the MicroTCA architec-

ture, however, have different needs for mechanical ruggedness and operating environment.

Military and aerospace applications, which have the strictest mechanical and environmental requirements, can illus-trate the correspondence and divergence between MicroTCA specifications and application needs. Military systems to-day need to rapidly move from design to deployment in order to address continual changes in theaters of operation. The MicroTCA architecture addresses that need in several ways. The availability of complete off-the-shelf systems supports an early start to software development, typically the pacing item in system de-sign. Wide stock availability also sup-ports rapid production and deployment of

Parameter MicroTCA.0 MicroTCA.1Operating Temperature +5° to +40°C -40° to 70°C

Vibration Resistance 2-9 Hz/9-200 Hz, 0.5g 2-9 Hz/9-200 Hz, 3g

Vibration Resistance 7g, 11 msec 25g, 18 msec

Table 1 Environmental standards for MicroTCA specifications.

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28 May 2008


finished systems. Because all system ele-ments are based on standards, including custom module designs, design re-use be-comes virtually automatic and can speed the development of follow-on projects.

Military and aerospace systems also have a need for rapid and simple field maintenance so that systems can be quickly repaired or upgraded and returned to operation. The module-level hot-swap feature inherent in MicroTCA systems re-duces system repair or upgrade to a quick

module exchange, possibly even while the system continues functioning uninter-rupted. The same feature allows rapid ex-pansion of system capability if needed.

Addressing Harsh Environments

Where MicroTCA does not meet mil-aero requirements is in system tolerance to harsh operating conditions. Depending on the category of equipment, require-ments (MIL-STD-810-F) for operating

temperature go from a baseline of 0° to +55°C to as extreme as -40° to +125°C. Shock immunity requirements range from 20g to 40g and random vibration immu-nity specifications can range from about 2g to 12g.

The existing MicroTCA specifica-tions thus fall far short of addressing even the baseline environmental requirements for military systems. Similarly, though to a lesser extent, MicroTCA environmental standards don’t quite reflect the needs of desktop office equipment that might get dropped, machinery that must operate in a hot, vibrating factory space, or outdoor, pole-mounted systems. But that is about to change.

Recognizing the growing interest in MicroTCA outside of the telecom indus-try, a MicroTCA Ruggedization Special Interest Group (SIG) arose within PICMG to stimulate development of additional standards that address non-telecom appli-cation requirements. As a result, PICMG is in the midst of creating two new speci-fications for rugged MicroTCA systems. The specification for an air-cooled rugged MicroTCA system, PICMG MicroTCA.1, is scheduled for release to the industry in late 2008. A conduction-cooled rugged MicroTCA specification, PICMG Mi-croTCA.2, is under active development.

The air-cooled rugged MicroTCA.1 standard targets systems that need an ex-tended temperature range for outdoor and uncontrolled environments and high levels of shock and vibration resistance for oper-ation in mobile applications such as ships and around heavy rotating machinery. The standard is based on the IEC specifi-cation IEC 61587-1 and calls for operation in an ambient temperature range of -40° to +70°C (Class C3) with vibration resis-tance to 3g and shock resistance to 25g (Class DL3), as shown in Table 1. The Mi-croTCA.1 standard also foresees growth potential for future increases in shock and vibration resistance.

Maximizing Baseline Compatibility

One of the goals in developing the standard was to meet ruggedization re-quirements with minimal modifications to existing designs that followed the baseline standard. To address increased shock and vibration resistance, for in-

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stance, the new standard calls for sup-plementing the baseline AMC module connector system with a locking device that prevents modules from disengaging. PICMG has conducted extensive envi-ronmental testing to establish that the augmented connector system will meet or exceed the target shock and vibration resistance. Designers can address the in-creased temperature ranges by using ex-tended temperature components or chas-sis-level heaters.

The rugged MicroTCA.2 standard under development aims to address the extended temperature range and higher levels of vibration and shock resistance needed in many military applications, focused primarily on conduction-cooled applications. PICMG is basing its shock and vibration resistance targets on the standards of ANSI/VITA 47, itself de-rived from MIL-STD-810-F. It is seeking to address as many environmental classes as possible consistent with maintaining maximum compatibility of baseline and ruggedized designs. One approach under consideration is the addition of a conduc-tion frame to baseline AMC module de-

signs to add rigidity and provide a con-duction path to side walls of the sub-rack using wedge locks. As with the air-cooled standard, PICMG will conduct environ-mental testing to establish the perfor-mance of designs based on the standard before its release.

With the imminent release of the air-cooled MicroTCA.1 and the devel-opment of the conduction-cooled Mi-croTCA.2 specifications, application developers outside of telecom now have even more motivation to embrace the MicroTCA architecture, and they can begin right away. Suitable MicroTCA platforms have already begun to emerge that developers can use to get started. Emerson Network Power, for instance, has proven the applicability of Mi-croTCA to outside applications with its Centellis 1000 platform’s design win for Hypercom’s point-of-sale transac-tion network products. For more rug-ged applications, Hybricon has created the Air Transport Rack chassis (Figure 2) that employs locking bars and frame isolation to address military-type shock and vibration requirements along with

airflow designs to support operation to +55°C at altitudes to 10,000 feet using telco-grade AMC modules.

These examples help demonstrate that the MicroTCA architecture has applicability well beyond its first tar-get. By providing a full off-the-shelf system design, the architecture prom-ises to shorten design cycles and lower development costs in systems ranging from medical diagnostic equipment to field military gear. Economies gained by widespread market adoption will undoubtedly make MicroTCA a sig-nificant and true Commercial Off-the-Shelf embedded technology with tremendous impact. The emergence of ruggedized specifications is now removing the last impediment to tack-ling tough applications beyond telecom using MicroTCA.

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Designing Very High Performance ATCA Systems

The demand for compute power in today’s high-performance applications brings a variety of technical issues, but a standards-based approach can achieve successful solutions.

by Thomas Roberts Mercury Computer Systems

In today’s data-stream processing pa-rameters, bandwidths reaching 10 Gigabits per second (Gbits/s) are con-

sidered to be high-bandwidth. For voice-processing applications, 10 Gbits/s is equivalent to more than 150,000 standard voice channels under the G.711 standard, although data compression techniques can further increase system capacity. Vid-eo-processing applications require even more.

With sensor data, such as radar, or visual camera data, the incoming data stream can be unrelenting. For example, when a camera scans an area, the data must be processed in real time, because there is too much of it to be stored. If 10 Gbits/s of data is coming in and there is even a minimal delay in processing it, storage (buffering) capacity runs out very quickly.

Latency and determinism are critical characteristics of data-stream processing requirements as well. Processing latency—where latency is units of time measured

from ingress port to egress port—must be very low. The parameters that define a low-latency response depend on the ap-plication. For example, voice-processing applications must control the signal pro-cessing delay across the entire network, including both satellite transmission de-lays and intra- and inter-system processing delays, to make a phone call understand-able. The goal is 200 to 250 milliseconds of maximum delay end-to-end. For indus-

trial control-loop applications, existing in a smaller physical environment, latencies are measured in microseconds rather than milliseconds.

These very low latencies must also be reliable. For the application to perform properly, each data processing step must be performed within a well-known, ex-tremely small window of time, and this window must be the same each time the step is performed. This characteristic is referred to as determinism.

Computational density—the process-ing power these applications need to man-age their high-bandwidth, low-latency re-quirements—depends on how much pro-cessing must be performed on the data. In general, an application that has a lot of data coming in, most likely needs a lot of processing power. However, the amount of processing power it requires can vary by multiple orders of magnitude, depending on what the application needs to do to the data.

Several design components are re-quired when building systems to meet the high-bandwidth, low-latency and deterministic requirements of high-end data-stream processing applications. A




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soluTions Engineering

successful system architecture does the following:

• Partitions the application across mul-tiple processors, so each processing step is handled by the right type of processor.

• Uses a switch fabric to move the pro-cessing stream from processor to pro-cessor at high speeds with great effi-ciency.

• Builds on a physical system infrastruc-ture that can support efficient power and thermal management to densely packed multiprocessor systems.

Partitioning Processing Deciding upon the optimal multipro-

cessor architecture for a specific applica-tion’s processing requires considering the type of processing needed and amount of data to be processed. Different processing elements, such as FPGAs, DSPs and net-work processors, are designed to handle different processing requirements.

FPGAs are most effective for simple mathematical operations like add/multi-ply, because they perform the operations at the gate level as the data moves through,

rather than moving the data from memory to a computational unit and back, as other types of processing elements must do. For beamforming applications, which require an enormous number of simultaneous mathematical calculations, FPGAs are far superior to other processor types. Opera-tions that can be performed with Boolean logic are best done on FPGAs. FPGAs are also good for filtering operations, which extract desirable data from an incoming data stream or remove unwanted data. For example, in applications that process an-tenna-generated data, an FPGA can effi-

ciently filter out carrier information from incoming data channels.

DSPs, on the other hand, are effective for data compression and decompression, known as codec operations. In addition, compression and decompression of data is often combined with echo cancella-tion operations, another strength of DSPs. Echo cancellation is a critical component of Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Network processors, which are spe-cialized programmable ASICs, are best for in-depth packet inspection. The format of

a packet is clearly defined, so the desired information can be extracted efficiently. A network processor in a router, for ex-ample, can decide, in real time, where to send an incoming packet, what its priority is, and, therefore, how promptly it must be processed. These and many other similar functions of network processors are based on in-depth analysis of the packet con-tent.

When different types of processing must be applied to a data stream, it makes sense to match processing elements to specific processing needs. For example, in voice and video applications, the DSP engine compresses the data, while the network processor on the router identifies packets as voice or data-only, assigns a higher priority to voice packets, and sends them out on the network. Or, in a voice-processing application, an FPGA does waveform processing of the input signal from the antennae, while a network pro-cessor behind the FPGA performs packet-level processing.

Using Switched FabricsTo make a partitioned processing job

run at optimal speed, the data stream must move between processors with maximum efficiency. The application must be able to rely on data transfers that occur with very low latency in a very deterministic manner. Switch fabrics are superior to bus architectures for this purpose in several ways (Figure 1).

Since they are fundamentally point-to-point, they avoid bus contention and the current generation is well suited to high-bandwidth applications. At 10 Gbit/s bandwidth, a serial switched fabric has substantially better performance than a bus. Switched fabrics are easier to imple-ment, which simplifies backplane routing, and they are significantly better in terms of implementing fault detection and re-dundancy.

Very low latency is a hallmark of switched fabrics. For example, using serial RapidIO, latency is under 1 microsecond for a one-way trip across the backplane between any two endpoints in the system. In comparison, using Gigabit Ethernet, la-tency is in the 1 millisecond range and up. This helps make them deterministic. La-tencies are reliable, so the arrival of data

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Figure 2 AdvancedTCA is a telecom standard built around switch fabrics; it supports RapidIO, and is conducive to many other applications.

May 2008 35


from point to point is predictable. A bus is undeterministic, unless a sophisticated set of priority control algorithms is built in. And reliability is high as well because switched fabrics consist of many point-to-point links. A single failing node does not bring down the entire system.

If needed, switched fabrics can also support parallel transactions between two elements. With 10 elements, for example, a switch can have five simultaneous trans-actions, while a bus can have only one. A switch itself has potential blocking issues, but they are fewer than those of a full bus, and certain architectures allow for the creation of non-blocking switches.

In addition to all that, they are also less costly. For a bus, the connector cost—the number of pins on the con-nector and how to create a backplane with that many lines—is expensive. Multicast is also easy to implement since nearly all switching silicon sup-ports this functionality.

Multicast is particularly useful when data is processed in parallel. The application can use multicast to send the same data simultaneously to several dif-ferent processing elements. For example, an application that performs different types of filtering on data arriving from an antenna, can multicast the data to

the multiple filter processors in the sys-tem. A router can use multicast to send a block of packets out for parallel pro-cessing. Multicast can also be used in a control plane for system-wide shutdown in the face of heat-related problems or other type of errors, because all affected processing elements simultaneously re-ceive the shutdown message.

Using an ATCA-Based Framework

A logical approach to designing a system that meets high-performance re-quirements is to build on an appropriate industry standard. The Advanced Telecom

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Computing Architecture (Advanced TCA or ATCA) was conceived to specify a car-rier-grade-based system infrastructure. It was built from the ground up to support a range of processors.

The form factor and architecture of ATCA boards enable an unprecedented amount of I/O connections for front and rear panels. The carrier blades at the front panel allow optical or other types of I/O connections to bring data in and out, while the rear transition module (RTM) form factor provides a large amount of physical space for I/O connections from the rear.

The ATCA carrier blade form fac-tor supports well-balanced systems de-livering teraOPS of processing power in a single sub-rack, and the architecture is flexible as to the types of processors that can co-exist in the system. An ad-vanced mezzanine card (AMC), which connects to a carrier blade, can contain processing elements of very different na-tures. Processor types can include stan-dard processors—for example, Freescale 8641D PowerPC or Intel single or dual-core processors—DSP engines, FPGAs, or digital-to-analog (DA)/analog-to-digital (AD) converters, if the applica-tion needs to handle incoming analog signals or signals that come from some type of measuring equipment. The AMC concept even allows for the creation of highly specialized compute engines for particular applications.

If application requirements change over time, as they often do, a previously deployed AMC can be removed from the carrier blade and a new AMC connected that has a different processing element to best match the new requirements more ef-fectively. AMCs provide the flexibility to process the data and to match it to what the application really needs to do with that data.

ATCA specifies a very sophisticated intelligent platform management inter-face (IPMI)-based infrastructure that al-lows for the construction of a consistent system management environment for alarms, configuration and diagnostics that can be run on a completely differ-ent medium from the application’s data and control planes. Based on multiple I2C

connections, IPMI can be described as a system-management fabric.

The ATCA standard defines a power maximum of 200 watts per slot, exceed-ing the 120 watts per slot of legacy VME, and 174 watts per slot of VME64x. More significantly, the IPMI infrastructure provides a standards-based mechanism for monitoring internal system tempera-tures and implementing adaptive cooling techniques, such as adjusting fan speeds based on those internal temperatures (Figure 2).

Serial RapidIO and GbE Both Have a Place

In addition to IPMI, the ATCA sys-tem defines two distinct fabrics: the data plane and the control plane. ATCA sup-ports a fabric interface for the data plane, and 1 Gigabit BaseT Ethernet for the con-trol plane. ATCA’s data-plane fabric inter-face can support many different fabrics, including 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet and serial RapidIO, among others.

Serial RapidIO, running at 3.125 GHz, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet are very competitive with respect to high band-width. However, while their capabilities overlap in some areas, serial RapidIO and Ethernet were developed to solve different problems, and their underlying architec-tures differ in many respects.

Serial RapidIO was designed for embedded applications, supporting chip-to-chip and board-to-board com-munications. Because most of its pro-tocol is implemented in the hardware of its endpoints, serial RapidIO offers extremely low latency and determin-istic performance, and it does not re-quire software management to move the data. The latency of serial RapidIO switches is highly deterministic: 112 ns for unicast packets and 163 ns for multicast packets. For endpoints, the latency depends on endpoint design, but is likely to be under 40 ns. With serial RapidIO, an increase in latency occurs only when there is an enormous amount of traffic or when an endpoint in the network is too slow to process its incoming traffic.

Ethernet was originally designed as a way for multiple computers to

communicate over a shared coaxial cable. The physical layer has evolved to point-to-point, but each endpoint is assumed to have a processor that is both available and capable of running software that implements the Ethernet (TCP/IP) protocol stack. Because its protocol is implemented in software, Ethernet implies higher latency, non-deterministic performance, and the need for software management. Ether-net is a “best-effort” transmission, un-less quality of service (QoS) is built in. There is no guarantee data will arrive at any particular time, and packets can be dropped (and lost). With serial Rapi-dIO, latency is in the hundreds of nano-seconds range. With Ethernet, it could be one microsecond or much more de-pending on the amount of traffic on the network. Although the Ethernet stack can be implemented in hardware, this approach locks in a particular version of the stack, losing the flexibility that is one of its main advantages.

On the other hand, Ethernet has be-come the unchallenged communications interconnect for wide area networks, be-cause its stack is highly flexible and sup-ports essentially unlimited numbers of endpoints. Ethernet is also off-the-shelf technology. Nearly everyone knows how to deploy it, whereas serial RapidIO is less well known.

Mercury Computer SystemsChelmsford, MA.(866) 627-6951.[www.mc.com].

Untitled-4 1 1/8/08 4:12:38 PM

www.onestopsystems.com

38 May 2008

inD

usT

Ry

in

si

gH

tiMs Brings DAtA, VoiCe, ViDeo

10 Gigabit Ethernet Enables Broadband Multimedia ApplicationsIncreased bandwidth delivers improved capability and opens the door for entirely new services.

by Jack Staub Critical I/O

As network bandwidth increases, new and more powerful capabilities and applications are made possible.

This has been particularly apparent in the case of IP Multimedia Systems (IMS) where, over the last 10 years, IP-enabled cell phones have moved from delivering simple text messaging to e-mail, to digi-tal photo transfer and—more recently—to low-fidelity Web browsing and video sharing.

Clearly, desk-top quality Web brows-ing is nearly at hand (e.g., the iPhone). But it is the pursuit of higher quality video, and ultimately HD video, which will drive the future of IMS and the Internet as a whole. These advances will be made pos-sible through increased data bandwidth and processing power in the wireless cell phone networks and in their associated hardwired infrastructure. And as more bandwidth is made available to support video, new capabilities and services will certainly take root.

Ethernet has played a critical role in progression of these systems, and it is certain to continue to remain the network

of choice for the hardwired networks that make up the enormous infrastructure sup-porting cellular, wireless computing and the Internet as a whole.

10GbE technologies are now being deployed to build out this next-generation infrastructure, making it more capable and extending its reach to new applica-tions that rely on the real-time distribution of wide-band data such as security sys-

tems, data backup, medical sensors and even military applications.

Bandwidth = CapabilityYour cell phone is not likely to come

equipped with a 10GbE link anytime soon. However, the infrastructure that supports cell phone networks is already deploying 10GbE for backbone communications and is starting to use it to provide local con-nectivity between co-located equipment.

These local systems must handle hun-dreds or even thousands of simultaneous streams of cell phone IP traffic. As those data streams become more bandwidth-intensive (moving from text to audio to video to high-definition video) the infra-structure must be continually upgraded. Today it is necessary for each cell site to process hundreds to thousands of times the data that it did only ten years ago. And now, as video distribution becomes more common and consumer demand pushes that video to higher quality requirements, the required system bandwidth will accel-erate and the need for a 10GbE infrastruc-ture will surely grow for some time.

It is the proliferation of video that will drive the need for more bandwidth and force improvements in system archi-tecture. But once that bandwidth is avail-




Ad Index









IMS Capability is a Function of Bandwidth

Wide-band Sensors

Data Storage/Backup

Video HD

HD

Voice Over IP

Music

Photos

Text

Kbps Mbps Gbps

2002 2008 2012

Figure 1 The type of service and capability supplied by an IMS is a function of the client connection bandwidth. Eventually, the bandwidth necessary to support HD video will enable new bandwidth-intensive applications.


May 2008 39

inDusTRy Insight

able for video, other bandwidth-intensive applications will quickly make use of it. After all, from a system perspective, transferring high-quality video is not much different from transferring secu-rity camera video, wireless UAV video, archived computer data (data backup), high-resolution satellite imaging data and radar images. It’s all wide-band video that suppliers want to make available to their consumers who are willing to pay to access, archive and process that data in real time. Bandwidth made available to support video will lay the foundation for new services in the areas of data storage, security, medical and military applica-tions that have been, by their nature, too bandwidth-intensive to leverage the IMS network (Figure 1).

10GbE OverviewEthernet comes in many flavors of

which 10GbE currently represents the cut-ting edge and where 40GbE and 100GbE are now being defined and represent the not-too-distant future. The 1GbE standard was defined in 1999 and while its adop-tion rate was slow at first, it now repre-sents the most common form available and it has nearly replaced all prior vari-ants. The 10GbE standard was ratified in 2002 and, likewise, its adoption has been slow. But early-stage/specialized products have been available since about 2005 and more mature products have been available since 2007. The 40GbE and 100GbE stan-dards are in their definition phase and are expected to be finalized in 2010.

The 10GbE standard includes a num-ber of physical layer standards, including both copper and optical variants. As of today, the CX4 copper standard (known as 10GBASE-CX4) that uses InfiniBand-type copper cabling is the most popular for local connections of less than 15 me-ters. This is also the most popular stan-dard for the so-called “Backplane Ether-net,” but is known as 10GBASE-KX4 in that application. The similarity of CX4 and KX4 greatly simplifies equipment design—at least for local connectivity—since the same CX4/KX4 signals can be routed over cable, backplane and mez-zanine connections without expensive or complicated translation hardware. An ex-ample of a CX4 board in XMC form fac-tor is shown in Figure 2.

Each CX4 connection uses four lanes of 3.125 Gbaud to achieve an aggregate bandwidth of 12.5 Gbaud in each direc-tion. In practice, it is possible to achieve near theoretical sustained payload-data rates of 10.0 Gbits/sec, which equates to 80% of the total signaling bandwidth—or 1250 Mbytes/sec in each direction.

Optical connections, such as SFP+, achieve the same data rates but use only a single fiber in each direction. These for-mats are more expensive but can be used to transfer data over much greater distances. 10GbE only supports point-to-point and switched topologies. It eliminates the problematic CSMA/CD standards of ear-lier versions. It has excellent flow control methods implemented at the link level.

The strength of Ethernet has always been the use of solid, widely adopted in-terface standards and protocols, includ-ing UDP, TCP, IP, the Sockets API, and a host of other higher level protocols. While the physical interface technology has pro-gressed through several generations, the interface protocol standards have remained relatively unchanged. These standards have ensured interoperability, straightforward development and integration, and protec-tion against obsolescence—things that are as important today as they were 30 years ago. And today, new Ethernet-based stan-dards continue to emerge, such as recent efforts in Ethernet audio/video bridging (AVB) that strive to provide bandwidth and latency guarantees for multimedia applica-tions that utilize Ethernet.

Ethernet for MultimediaAV applications can be quite stress-

ing in terms of data communications, particularly with respect to data rates, de-terminism and quality of service (QoS); areas in which early versions of Ethernet were lacking. And while the Ethernet per-formance picture improved dramatically with the introduction of fully switched 1 and 10GbE, a new problem soon surfaced: excessive host CPU loading from the use of software-based networking stacks. With high data rate AV applications, the software stack implementations have be-come a critical performance bottleneck, a bottleneck now being addressed to vary-ing degrees by the many (and often mis-named) implementations of TCP Offload Engine (TOE) technology.

Efficient TOE technology is impor-tant for efficient 1GbE, and it is essential for 10GbE and beyond. However, there are a variety of different technologies that are commonly referred to as “TOE” that confuse the picture. For example, “partial TOE” implementations essen-tially mean a standard Ethernet NIC that has been augmented with some degree of offload hardware, such as checksum capability, or TCP segmentation capa-bility. Partial TOE implementations are designed to work with existing desktop and server-type operating systems and network stacks. These stacks (the Micro-soft Windows stack, for example) have the capability in certain situations to “offload” some time-consuming func-

Figure 2 Critical I/O’s XGE4120 XMC provides two independent 10GbE ports with an 8-lane PCIe host interface. The XGE4120 provides two CX4 connections or two SFP+ optical connections.

40 May 2008

inDusTRy Insight

tions to partial TOE NICs, to improve network efficiency (as measured by re-duced host CPU load) by perhaps a fac-tor of 2 as compared to traditional all-software implementations.

Partial TOE can be effective in office or commercial data center applications where moderate network performance needs are coupled with the availability of high-power multicore, multi-GHz host processors. But data-intensive multimedia applications generally require more that

the 2x improvement in efficiency that a partial TOE implementation can provide. And partial TOE implementations are still largely software stack-based, so they suf-fer from many of the other problems of traditional Ethernet, including high and non-deterministic latencies, and suscepti-bility to data loss under high network load conditions. While these problems can be occasionally tolerated in data centers, they are clearly not acceptable in multi-media applications.

An alternative approach, full hard-ware TOE, is a hardware-based protocol offload technology that addresses the prob-lems associated with traditional Ethernet software stack implementations. With full hardware TOE, the network stack is moved to dedicated hardware, essen-tially connecting TOE offload hardware directly into the user-level socket APIs. The problems associated with a software protocol stack are eliminated, because the protocol stack is instead implemented as a pipelined hardware data path. With full hardware TOE it takes no more host CPU cycles to send 100 Mbytes of data than it does to send a single byte, as every trans-fer is handled fully by hardware. This translates to large blocks of multimedia data being transferred very quickly and efficiently. Current hardware-based TOE implementations can now provide over a 1000 to 1 efficiency advantage over non-TOE Ethernet, with determinism, latency and performance levels that are not attain-able with any other Ethernet implementa-tions. Clearly, Ethernet and its associated protocols are here to stay. Its standards will continue to evolve and higher per-formance versions will arrive every 4 to 8 years.

The value of protocol offload depends very much on the application and its use of Ethernet. But for bandwidth-intensive applications like video distribution, where many high-bandwidth streams must be managed and delivered in real time, hard-ware TOE has substantial benefits. In ad-dition to improved system performance, this can also result in substantial system cost savings by reducing the protocol stack processing demands placed on the host processing system, with correspond-ing reductions in power and cooling re-quirements.

The challenge to system design-ers—and especially IMS designers—is to be able to upgrade to higher performance versions of Ethernet with minimum dis-ruption to their software investment and ensure that new bandwidth-intensive ap-plications will be able to leverage these higher performance networks.

Critical I/OIrvine, CA.(949) 553-2200.[www.criticalio.com].

Visit www.a-tca.comfor more information

© 2008 Pentair Electronic Packaging | [email protected]

■ Effortless Integration

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Untitled-7 1 5/6/08 4:28:41 PM

www.criticalio.com

Mark your calendars for the 45th Design Automation Conference (DAC) at the Anaheim Convention Center, June 8-13, 2008, in Anaheim, California, USA.

• A robust technical program covering the latest research developments and trends for the design of SoCs, FPGAs, ASICs, digital ICs and more.

• Worldwide attendance from leading electronics companies and universities.• Over 250 companies displaying electronic design technologies and services.Highlights Include:• Wireless Theme sessions• Management Day on Tuesday, June 10 • Paper sessions featuring leading technical research• New “iDesign” and WACI sessions• Dynamic Panels Sessions

• 19 collocated events and workshops• Full-day and Hands-on Tutorials

2008 Keynotes:• Justin R. Rattner, Intel Senior Fellow, Vice President, Director, Corporate

EDA for Digital, Programmable, Multi-RadiosTuesday, June 10

• Sanjay K. Jha, COO and president of Qualcomm CDMA TechnologiesChallenges on Design Complexities for Advanced Wireless Silicon SystemsWednesday, June 11

• Jack Little, President, CEO, and a Co-founder ofThe MathWorks, Inc.

Thursday, June 12

Where electronic design meets...

REGISTERON-LINE: www.dac.com©2008 Design Automation Conference

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Untitled-7 1 5/14/08 2:36:09 PM

www.dac.com

42 May 2008

sMAll ForM FACtors

Express104 Modules Upgrade PC/104 Installed Base with SUMIT InterfaceThe new SUMIT interface is a highly flexible, modular, well-engineered approach that is independent of form factor or processor architecture. A first example of its utility is in the new Express104 specification.

by John McKown, Octagon Systems and Tom Barnum, VersaLogic

Change. This appears to be the opera-tive word for 2008. While most of us think of this word in a political

context this year, this is also the year of change for embedded design engineers us-ing small form factor boards. We’ve had it pretty good in this community—the tech-nology has been highly stable for over 20 years. Sure we’ve seen evolution in pro-cessors, increasing performance dramati-cally, accessing much greater amounts of memory and using less power. But the fundamental elements in the construction of off-the-shelf board-based embedded ap-plications have really changed very little.

This stability is derived from the out-standing longevity of underlying bus archi-tectures. The venerable ISA bus, dating to 1982 and updated only once, to PCI, in the mid-1990s, still provides an effective, sim-ple, easy-to-implement interconnect archi-tecture for I/O expansion. Sadly, in desktop and industrial motherboards, ISA is finally reaching the end of the line because it simply uses too many pins. And PCI may quickly follow ISA to its demise.

Popular board form factors associated with the ISA and PCI interfaces have also achieved incredible stability and longevity. The popular desktop PC motherboard form factors based on the initial ATX standard and PC plug in expansion cards have re-mained virtually unchanged for years, al-

though reduced size versions have become available. The implementations for embed-ded applications through PC/104, EBX and more recently EPIC form factors, have achieved equal or even greater stability and longevity. However, with the changes ram-pant on the bus side of the equation, new

looks also need to be taken at the associ-ated form factors and standards that drive this portion of the embedded community.

All in Favor Say “Aye”As we approach the middle of 2008,

the community of board suppliers has

Voting Members

Ampro

Congatec

Octagon Systems

VersaLogic

Via

WinSystems

General MembersArbor

Diamond Systems

General Standards

Portwell

Samtec

Seco

Silicon Systems

Figure 1 Current Small Form Factor SIG membership.

sysT

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ion

Untitled-4 1 5/12/08 5:44:23 PM

www.nxtcommshow.com

44 May 2008

sysTeMIntegration

been working to address the issues of evo-lution of their technologies for more than two years. The complexity of the issues, the strong desire for investment protection and easy migration from legacy solutions, and the sheer number of people with ideas about how to proceed, have made this a much more protracted and complicated process than ever before. It appears that multiple approaches will reach the mar-ket, placing the burden on OEM design engineers to understand the different ap-proaches and to make their own indepen-dent decisions regarding the appropriate technology to incorporate in their new product designs.

This decision is critical, as this mar-ket may not be able to sustain two differ-ent technology approaches over the long term. Dual approaches place an incredible burden on I/O module vendors to have to offer two different versions of each and every product offering. One of these new

technologies based on older 3-chip chip-set technology is probably going to drop by the wayside, resulting in a stunted life-time and leaving OEMs who chose that approach high and dry in the middle of their product lifecycle.

EPIC Inventors ReuniteJust like in the political situation in

this year of change, there is an upstart entrant in the technology race for new embedded designs. This is one that you may not have heard of before, but one that merits your close attention and con-sideration when defining a technology approach to your next embedded design. This article will help explain the design philosophy behind the SUMIT interface, how it helps you migrate gracefully from existing PC/104, EBX and EPIC designs, and why it provides you with the very best solution for continued stability and long lifecycle products.

Climb the Mountain, Avoid Crevasses

To fully understand SUMIT, you should obtain a copy of the specification from the Small Form Factor Special Inter-est Group (SFF-SIG). Compare SUMIT to other board evolutionary approaches and make your own decisions regarding which technology will stand the tests of time and market pressure. And just like the political situation, beware of selecting the technology with the famous name, just because you have heard of it before. This choice impacts your product’s success and longevity, so even more than your choice of a candidate, this choice merits your careful study.

The Stackable Unified Module Inter-connect Technology (SUMIT) intercon-nect standard is the output of a relatively new standards organization, the Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF-SIG), officially formed in late 2007 and supported today by leading embedded suppliers including board, connector and component manufacturers. Among the SFF-SIG leaders are the companies that brought the original PC/104, EBX and EPIC standards to the industry. The cur-rent membership of the SFF-SIG is shown in Figure 1.

The fundamental goals established to guide the creation of the SUMIT standard were:

1. Support the implementation of a stack-able architecture that could effectively replace a homogeneous PC/104 stack as well as PC/104 expansion on a larger form factor single board com-puter, such as EBX and EPIC.

2. Separate the interconnect standard (connector and pin definitions) from the board mechanical / form factor standard (size, mounting holes) to ease the evolution of the interface standard to multiple form factor standards.

3. Enable a graceful migration from ISA and PCI-based PC/104 stacks without the burden of multiple bridge devices and potential issues of software com-patibility.

4. Support multiple high-speed and low-speed bus technologies, including PCI Express, USB 2.0, LPC, SPI and I2C, with a path to PCI Express Gen-eration 2 and USB 3.0 in the future.

SUMIT Connector A Pin Assignments

Pin 1 +5VSB +12V Pin 2

Pin 3 3.3V SMB/I2C_DATA Pin 4

Pin 5 3.3V SMB/I2C_CLK Pin 6

Pin 7 EXPCD_REQ# SMB/I2C_ALERT# Pin 8

Pin 9 EXPCD_PRSNT# SPI/uWire_DO Pin 10

Pin 11 USB_OC# SPI/uWire_DI Pin 12

Pin 13 Reserved SPI/uWire_CLK Pin 14

Pin 15 Reserved SPI/uWire_CS0# Pin 16

Pin 17 Reserved SPI/uWire_CS1# Pin 18

Pin 19 Reserved Reserved Pin 20

Pin 21 +5V G Reserved Pin 22

Pin 23 USB2+ N LPC_AD0 Pin 24

Pin 25 USB2- D LPC_AD1 Pin 26

Pin 27 +5V LPC_AD2 Pin 28

Pin 29 USB1+ LPC_AD3 Pin 30

Pin 31 USB1- LPC_FRAME# Pin 32

Pin 33 +5V SERIRQ# Pin 34

Pin 35 USB0+ LPC_PRSNT#/GND Pin 36

Pin 37 USB0- CLK_33MHz Pin 38

Pin 39 GND GND Pin 40

Pin 41 A_PETp0 A_PERp0 Pin 42

Pin 43 A_PETn0 A_PERn0 Pin 44

Pin 45 GND APRSNT#/GND Pin 46

Pin 47 PERST# A_CLKp Pin 48

Pin 49 WAKE# A_CLKn Pin 50

Pin 51 +5V GND Pin 52

Figure 2a Detailed pin definitions for SUMIT connector A.

May 2008 45

sysTeMIntegration

5. Provide a flexible, modular solution with a simple, easy-to-implement entry point that consumes little board space, along with a “full boat” implementa-tion for high-performance systems

6. Take board layout and routing issues into account to ensure that products built to the specification can achieve the necessary performance levels without resorting to special tricks, shortcuts or other dubious engineer-ing practices that can reduce product reliability and increase costs.

The resulting interface specification is the result of several man-years of effort by some of the best and most creative en-gineering talent in our industry. The con-cepts embodied in the specification have been tested and vetted through a broad set of reviews and implementation of multiple test beds. The standard defines a connec-tor type and pin definition. It incorporates two high-density (0.025” pin pitch) 52-pin connectors that may be implemented sepa-rately or together depending on the feature content required in the resulting product.

Latest Low-Power TechnologyConnector A incorporates one x1 PCI

Express lane, three USB 2.0 “lanes,” the LPC bus, an I2C / SMB interface and an SPI interface as well as control, power and ground signals. Connector B incorporates one x1 PCI Express lane and one x4 PCI Express lane along with additional control, power and ground signals. A system may be implemented with Connector A only, Connector B only, or both Connectors A and B. These configurations are known as SUMIT-A, SUMIT-B and SUMIT-AB re-spectively. The pin definitions for connec-tors A and B are shown in Figure 2.

The connectors chosen for the SUMIT interface are a key element to meet the goals set for the specification. Using the Samtec Q2 family, these connectors of-fer a unified internal ground interface to improve routing characteristics while pro-viding for efficient use of the 52 pins. The SUMIT interface incorporates connectors placed on both the top and bottom surface of the PCB, enabling the stacking archi-tecture familiar from the PC/104 world.

The flexibility and broad applicabil-ity of the SUMIT interface should now become clear. A simple PCI Express ex-

pansion system can be easily implemented with a SUMIT A configuration. This con-figuration also enables easy migration for existing PC/104 (ISA!) applications by pro-viding the LPC bus (and Serial IRQ – SIRQ signal) on the connector. It also enables simple, low-cost expansion through the use of LPC Super I/O devices for adding com-mon legacy system elements such as serial ports or PS/2 keyboard / mouse interfaces. Finally, SUMIT A also enables a unique USB expansion scheme, allowing USB tar-get devices to be placed on the stack. For more complex, higher performance PCI Express requirements, the SUMIT B inter-face includes both a x1 lane and a x4 lane.

The SUMIT interface is optimized for the latest 2-chip (CPU plus single chip “chipset”), x86 silicon from Intel and VIA, rather than earlier PCI Express chipsets such as the Intel 915 family, introduced over three years ago, which requires three chips for similar functionality. In technology “dog

years,” 3.5 years is more than half of a typi-cal 5-year processor and chipset lifecycle commitment, and is the difference between performance / power efficiency and ineffi-ciency. In the world of small form factors, there just isn’t room for an extra large IC.

Note that SUMIT does not incorpo-rate x16 PCI Express video expansion ca-pability. There are three reasons for this. First, there is a high pin cost and cooling solution cost for this very specialized usage that has limited applicability in embedded applications. Second, the video capability integrated into modern chipsets continues to improve with each generation, meeting the needs of an increasing number of ap-plications and eliminating the need for an external graphics chip. Finally, for those desktop-style applications like digital sig-nage, imaging and gaming, x16 connector standards are already established, such as the vertical desktop slot, Nvidia’s MXM low-profile connector for notebook comput-

SUMIT Connector B Pin Assignments

Pin 1 GND GND Pin 2

Pin 3 B_PETp0 B_PERp0 Pin 4

Pin 5 B_PETn0 B_PERn0 Pin 6

Pin 7 GND BPRSNT#/GND Pin 8

Pin 9 C_CLKp B_CLKp Pin 10

Pin 11 C_CLKn B_CLKn Pin 12

Pin 13 CPRSNT#/GND GND Pin 14

Pin 15 C_PETp0 C_PERp0 Pin 16

Pin 17 C_PETn0 C_PERn0 Pin 18


Pin 21 C_PETp1 G C_PERp1 Pin 22

Pin 23 C_PETn1 N C_PERn1 Pin 24

Pin 25 GND D GND Pin 26







Pin 39 PERST# WAKE# Pin 40

Pin 41 Reserved Reserved Pin 42

Pin 43 +5V Reserved Pin 44

Pin 45 +5V 3.3V Pin 46

Pin 47 +5V 3.3V Pin 48

Pin 49 +5V 3.3V Pin 50

Pin 51 +5V +5VSB Pin 52

Figure 2b Detailed pin definitions for SUMIT connector B.

46 May 2008

sysTeMIntegration

ers and PICMG’s COM Express standard. There is no justification and no ecosystem of boards for a fourth solution.

Unified I/O Across Form Factors

As mentioned, SUMIT is an inter-face specification that is form factor and board independent. To speed the initial adoption of the SUMIT specification, the SFF-SIG has simultaneously announced a “new” form factor standard called Ex-

press104. This form factor is mechani-cally identical to PC/104 in overall size and mounting holes. It specifies locations for both SUMIT A and SUMIT B connec-tors, enabling all three configurations to be constructed. The connectors are placed in such a way that the PC/104 ISA con-nector can also be placed on the board, enabling direct and immediate migration from an existing PC/104 ISA stack. The Express104 form factor standard is shown in Figure 3.

The time for change is upon us in this election year. As PCI Express has grown in pervasiveness over the past few years, many embedded designers have played the “if-I-don’t-look-it-may-go-away” game, hoping not to have to deal with the com-plex migration to PCI Express-based sys-tems. But PCI Express won’t go away. And embedded OEMs need to start to deal with the realities of how systems will be built in the future. There are choices. It is impor-tant that you understand the choices so that you can make an informed decision on the future designs of your medical, military, instrumentation or control applications.

Small Form Factor SIG[www.sff-sig.org].

Octagon SystemsWestminster, CO.(303) 430-1500.[www.octagonsystems.com].

VersaLogicEugene, OR.(541) 485-8675.[www.VersaLogic.com].

Express104 Module

2.90

0 [7

3.66

]

1.69

3 [4

3.01

]

0.65

0 [1

6.51

]

0.00

0 [0

.00]

0.200 [5.08]0.000 [0.00]0.185 [4.70]

Inch [mm]

3.375 [85.73]3.575 [90.80]

3.25

0 [8

2.55

]3.

050

[77.

47]

0.10

0 [2

.54]

0.30

0 [7

.62]

Figure 3 The new Express104 specification defines placement of the SUMIT connectors while leaving room to include the ISA connector in order to include legacy PC/104 modules.

Untitled-7 1 5/12/08 5:59:36 PM

www.elma.com

TECHNOLOGYINTO

COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOUrtecc.com

RTECC_Dive_Into.indd 1 8/24/07 2:31:54 PM

www.rtecc.com

48 May 2008

A graphics-class system host board (SHB) coupled with a PICMG 1.3 industry standard backplane can support multiple system designs that use the latest PCI Express, PCI-X and PCI option cards. The TQ9 from Trenton Technology and a Trenton BPG6544 backplane sup-ports PCI Express, PCI-X, PCI and legacy ISA option cards. Trenton’s TQ9 and PICMG 1.3 backplane technology enables Trenton customers to take advantage of today’s dual- and quad-core processors and PCI Express technology while maximizing system ROI by extending the use of legacy option cards.

The TQ9’s x16 PCI Express link provides 3.5 times more band-width than an AGP8X interface and may be used to support PCI Express graphics and video cards, including the latest ADD2 cards. Other types of PCI Express cards, as well as 32-bit/33 MHz PCI option cards, are supported directly by the TQ9 on a PICMG 1.3-compatible backplane. The TQ9 also supports 64-bit PCI and PCI-X cards on backplanes with the appropriate PCI Express-to-PCI-X bridge chip technology.

The latest dual- and quad-core Intel Core 2 processors are featured on the TQ9. These processors are produced using a 45nm manufactur-ing process and offer key features such as a 1333 MHz front side bus and up to 12 Mbytes of L2 cache. Pairing these latest Intel processors with the Intel Q35 Express Chipset and the Intel ICH9DO I/O Controller Hub produces an SHB with an impressive feature set to tackle today’s demanding computing applications. This component combination en-ables dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, 12 USB 2.0 interfaces, a built-in audio interface and an 8 Gbyte, dual-channel DDR2-800 memory interface. Dual SATA2/300 drive interface capability is supported on the TQ9 to enable RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10 storage array implementations.

The TQ9’s LGA775 socket supports a wide variety of additional In-tel processor options. The front side bus on the TQ9 supports 800 MHz, 1066 MHz and 1333 MHz processor options. Processors supported on the TQ9 also include the quad-core Intel Core 2 Q9550 and dual-core

Intel Core 2 and Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Pentium Dual Core and the Intel Celeron processors. The four DDR2 DIMM sockets

on the TQ9 have a maximum capacity of 8 Gbytes. The dual-channel memory interface supports non-ECC PC2-5300, or PC2-6400 DIMMs.

The TQ9 supports a variety of PICMG 1.3 standard backplane I/O interfaces including a 10/100Base-T

Ethernet LAN, and four USB 2.0 and two eSATA interfaces on edge connector C of the SHB. It also supports the optional edge connector D defined in the PICMG 1.3 industry standard. Edge connector D provides a 32-bit/33 MHz PCI interface to the back-plane to support legacy 32-bit/33 MHz PCI option card slots and PCI-to-ISA bridge chips. This capability is useful when it is cost-prohibitive to design out an older or purpose-built ISA option card. The TQ9 is priced at $1,283 including processor and heat sink. Pricing discounts and processor speed availability varies. Trenton Technology. Atlanta, GA. (770) 287-3100. [www.TrentonTechnology.com].

FeaturedProducts

Graphics-Class SHB Supports the Latest Multicore Intel Processors

May 2008 49

Designed for equipment manufac-turers and application developers, a highly integrated system pro-vides a cost-efficient 1U MicroTCA offer-ing at a price-point of under $2,000 for volume purchases. The MTC5070 from Performance Technologies eliminates high overhead costs associated with more traditional modular approaches to building MicroTCA-based products by incorporating vital platform infrastructure functions of Gigabit Ethernet switching, PCI Express switching, MicroTCA-compliant carrier and shelf management, storage interconnect, as well as power supplies into the system. The result is one of the highest payload slot counts per 1U rack height in the industry and a substantially lower overall cost structure. This gives system architects of telecom, datacom, and aerospace and defense applications the ability to vastly reduce product costs.

Key Features of the MTC5070 include a scalable 1U steel enclo-sure designed to meet Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) standards with six configurable AdvancedMC (AMC) payload slots and 40W per slot power and cooling with a removable 300W AC or DC power supply. Using front-to-back cooling, the MTC5070 brings in air via a bank of fans in from the front through a filter situated to one side and distributes it to the power supply in the rear and laterally across the modules. A second bank of fans in the rear pulls the air over the mod-ules and the carrier board and out the back.

It also has built-in MCH and power functions with MicroTCA-com-pliant carrier and shelf management. The main board supports Gigabit Ethernet and PCI Express fabric along with Telco clock and SATA and SAS storage interconnect between AMC modules.

The MTC5070 supports the Performance Technology’s family of modules that include a variety of x86 and PowerPC-based single-board compute modules, and the company’s recently announced AMC590 video/storage module. These embedded product offerings provide foun-

dations for new prod-uct applications such as WiMAX gateways, security gateways, wireless infrastructure

equipment, media gate-ways and military communi-cations systems.

Embedded engineers seeking to more quickly develop new products based on the MTC5070 can also utilize NexusWare, Performance Technologies’ Carrier Grade Linux operating system and development environment that is pre-inte-grated throughout the company’s embedded hardware product lineup. This software distribution enables design teams to save time and re-sources by utilizing a carrier-grade kernel and an application develop-ment environment that is fully integrated with Performance Technolo-gies’ MicroTCA and AMC products.Performance Technologies. Rochester, NY. (585) 256-0200. [www.pt.com].

Highly Integrated 1U MicroTCA Platform with Innovative Chassis

50 May 2008

VXI Card Provides up to 0.005-Degree Accuracy

VXI remains the proven choice for VME-compatible instrumentation work. Supporting that area, North Atlantic Industries (NAI) of-fers a high-density, DSP-based, single-slot VXI card whose modular design provides up to four synchro/resolver instrument-grade measure-ment channels and up to four synchro/resolver instrument-grade stimulus channels; or up to eight synchro/resolver embedded-grade stim-ulus channels; and up to six programmable reference supplies. All functions of the 65CS4 are independent, user-programmable for either synchro or resolver format, and may be for-matted for single-speed or multi-speed appli-cations. The unit also incorporates an internal wrap-around self-test function that does not require external hardware or software.

Synchro/resolver instrument-grade mea-surement and stimulus accuracy is to within 0.005 degrees. Embedded-grade stimulus ac-curacy is to 0.015 degrees. Instrument stimulus and reference outputs provide 2.2 VA of drive and are programmable from 47 Hz to 10,000 Hz. The 65CS4 is available with an operating temperature range of 0° to +50°C. Pricing for 100 pieces starts at $10,000 each.North Atlantic Industries, Bohemia, NY. (631) 567-1100. [www.naii.com].

PXI Controller Combines Mobile Intel GME956 Chipset with Core 2 Duo T7500

A PXI controller combines the latest Intel Core2 Duo T7500 2.2 GHz processor Mobile Intel GME965 chipset and 4 Gbyte 667 MHz DDR2 memory to provide performance for high-end test and mea-surement applications, including RF testing, sound/vibration analysis

and automatic optical inspection. The PXI-3950 from Adlink Technol-ogy is also designed with the combination of Mobile Intel GME965 chipset,

which supports the latest Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor. It provides an overall 10 to 15 percent performance improvement over the GM945/T7400 configuration through faster CPU and memory clocks and greater front-side bus bandwidth.

In addition, the PXI-3950 incorporates a dual Gigabit Ethernet port configuration, which allows the use of one GbE port for LAN connectivity and the other port for a determinative bandwidth and latency connection with LXI instruments. The PXI-3950 is an ideal controller for Adlink’s PXIS-2558T 8-slot 3U PXI chassis, which includes an embedded 8.4” LCD touch panel screen and features smart chassis status monitoring and control, an operating temperature of 32-131°F, a quiet 41.6 dBA operating noise level and a lightweight 13-lb rigid construction for both bench-top and portable test and measurement applications. The PXI-3950 system controller has a list price of $3,650. The PXI-2558T portable chassis is also available at a list price of $2,495.Adlink Technology, Irvine, CA. (949) 727-2099. [www.adlinktech.com].

Products&TECHNOLOGY

5.7-Inch TFT Touchscreens Offer Sunlight Readability

Displays used by those deployed in rugged environ-ments need more than the ordinary display technology. Feeding such needs, Phoenix Display International (PDI) has introduced a new line of sunlight-read-able 5.7-inch TFTs with QVGA (320 x 240) reso-lution. The sunlight-readable 5.7 QVTA TFT mod-ule offers improved contrast, color saturation and response time over CSTN products. PDI also offers the 5.7 QVGA as a standard transmissive module with or without a touchscreen.

PDI achieves sunlight-readable performance by manufacturing the TFT cell using high-aperture panel technology, high-transmittance color filters and a unique anti-reflective polar-izer scheme. The result is a clear and extremely bright display that is ideal for high ambient light or outdoor, high-brightness applications.

PDI’s sunlight-readable model of the 5.7-inch QVGA TFT (model no. PDI-T320240SR-5.7) is illuminated with high-intensity white LEDs and offers brightness of 300 cd/m2 (typi-cal). The unit features a contrast ratio is 400:1 and a response time of 15 ms. This model also utilizes the HX8218A (Source) and HX8615A (Gate) drivers from Himax. In 1,000 quantities, Phoenix Display offers the 5.7-inch QVGA transmissive at $62.50 each, the transmissive with touch model at $71.85 each and the sunlight-readable model at $87.25 each.Phoenix Display International, Tempe, AZ., (630) 359-5700. [www.phoenixdisplay.com].

May 2008 51

DC/DC Modules Provide 28V Input, Up to 225W

Applications deployed in the field and in industry increasingly call for unique and highly reliable converters with multiple independent outputs. Martek Power Abbott has announced the addition of two high-power, multi-channel models to the 28V Input DC/DC converter family. The new models, CB150D and CB225T, are available at 2 VDC, 3.3 VDC, 5 VDC, 5.2 VDC, 12 VDC, 15 VDC, 24 VDC and 28 VDC outputs, ex-panding the choice of output power of the CB series DC to DC power converter to a range of 5 to 225W.

Measuring 2.28 x 2.90 x .0.50 inch (57.9 x 73.7 x 12.7 mm) in size, the CB150D is a 150W device with two independent 75W output chan-nels. The CB225T, measuring 2.28 x 4.35 x 0.50 inch (57.9 x 110.5 x 12.7 mm) in size, is a triple output module with three independent 75W output channels. Both DC/DC converters feature a wide input range of 16 to 40 VDC and a power density of 45W/in3. These together with full specified performance over an operating temperature range of 55° to +100°C from no load to full load make the two new models unique in the mission-critical market segment. Pricing of the CB150D and CB225T in the quantity of 50 to 99 are $495 and $675 respectively.Martek Power Abbott, Torrance, CA. (310) 202-8820. [www.martekpowerabbott.com].

Rugged, Fanless PC/104 Card Sports Pentium M

A PC/104 module tackles space-constrained, power-constrained applica-tions. MPL has rolled out its MIP10, a fanless PC/104 solution with a standard wide temperature range from -20° to +60°C as well as in extended temperature. The solution is also available with conformal coating. The MIP10 is a complete Industrial PC on a footprint smaller than two credit cards. The design is based on the Intel Centrino Mobile Technology. The Board incorporates the low-power embedded Pentium M 1.4 GHz with 2 Mbyte L2 cache. The MIP10 comes with a full set of PC features including Gbit Ethernet.

The board provides soldered-on CPU and ECC protected SDRAM, Compact Flash slot and SATA interface. Also included are two serial ports integrated next to four USB ports. The MIP10 can be expanded for all requirements over PC/104 as well as PC/104-Plus. All interfaces are available on lockable headers to ensure a safe connection even in areas where vibrations cannot be avoided. The MIP10 is designed from scratch to operate under extreme and normal conditions without the need of fans or without de-rating or throttling. The MIP10 is rugged enough to be used in any application.MPL, Dättwil, Switzerland. +41 56 483 34 34. [www.mpl.ch].

UDE 2.4 for Freescale MPC5510 32-bit MCUs with Unlimited Multicore

DebuggingA Universal Debug Engine (UDE) supports Freescale’s

MPC5510 Power Architecture 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) family. The high-performance automotive MCUs, with an oper-ating frequency of up to 80 MHz, are—depending on the device type—provided with: one or two Power e200z cores, up to 1 Mbyte of flash with error correction coding (ECC) and up to 64 Kbytes of SRAM. Moreover, the MPC5510 family of devices—designed specifically for use in body electronics—provides extensive com-munication interfaces (FlexRay, MultiCAN, LIN), DMA, low-power mode and additional typical peripheral units such as timer, analog-digital converter, etc.

One of the important aspects is the modular construction of the UDE from PLS Development Tools, which allows real mul-ticore debugging within one user interface. This is particularly useful with the dual-core versions of MPC5516 and MPC5514. For example, the four code breakpoints and two watch points per core, which are supported via on-chip hardware, can be used by the developer diretly in the program and watch window of the corre-sponding core. All further on-chip trigger options of the MP5516 are also fully supported by the Universal Debug Engine 2.4 (UDE 2.4). In the process, the debugger automatically allocates the nec-essary on-chip debug resources.

The connection to dual-core devices, such as the MPC5516, typically takes place via a single JTAG interface. In combination with PLS’ Universal Access Device 2+ (UAD2+), download rates of up to 1 Mbyte/s can be achieved with the UDE 2.4. This guar-antees users of the MPC5510 family a fast flash programming and also a short turnaround time during development. The existing Nexus unit on all devices of the MPC5510 family enables memory access by the debugger during run-time. For example, this feature can be used for real-time visualization of variables and expres-sions of them to represent measured values. Furthermore, in this way, a virtual input/output interface is implemented via the JTAG debug channel.

The core architectures Power e200z1 and Power e200z0 sup-port variable length encoding (VLE). This alternative instruction set consists of 16-bit and 32-bit wide instructions and enables a high code density. The Universal Debug Engine provides trans-parent use of VLE. An additional feature is the support of the most important compilers. Freescale’s CodeWarrior for MPC55xx devices as well as Wind River’s PowerPC Compiler and the GNU implementation can be used together with PLS’ UDE 2.4.PLS Development Tools, San Jose, CA. (408) 451-8408. [www.pls-mc.com].

52 May 2008

NVIDIA G73M Graphics Climb Aboard XMC

Graphics processing silicon developed for the gaming realm are used extensively in graphics implementations for industrial, com-munications and public information applica-tions. Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has announced its first NVIDIA G73M-based graphics display control card, the XMC-710 XMC mezzanine module. This new COTS graphics card is the company’s first de-signed to the new advanced XMC (VITA 42.3) open standard architecture, and is designed for use in VME, VPX and CompactPCI systems.

The XMC-710 graphics accelerator pro-vides dual output and video capture capability. The card is powered by the NVIDIA G73M supported with a 128-bit local frame buffer interface with up to 512 Mbyte DDR2 frame buffer. To support customers with unique re-quirements, the XMC-710 was designed to adapt to and interoperate easily with different systems. An example of this built-in flexibility is the card’s I/O mapping architecture, which simplifies adaptation to a specific host card’s unique pinout configuration to ensure optimal I/O routing and video signal integrity. This flexibility enables system integrators to cost-effectively deploy the XMC-710 on third-party basecards. Pricing for the XMC-710 starts at $4,580. Evaluation units are available now, with production unit availability scheduled for Q2 2008. Both air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions, according to CWCEC rug-gedization guidelines, are available.Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Leesburg, VA. (703) 779-7800. [www.cwcembedded.com].

COM Express Module Enables Ultra Mobile, Internet-Connected, Battery-Powered Apps

A low-power COM Express type 2-compatible design is based on the Intel Atom processor Z500 series with the new Intel System Controller Hub (SCH) US15W. The Express-MLC COM Express module from Adlink Technology is a highly integrated off-the-shelf building block based on PCI Express bus architecture that plugs into custom-made, application-specific carrier boards. Express-MLC allows for innovative designs in the area of mobile and “light” computing needs, including: portable and mobile equipment for the automotive and test and measurement industries; visual communication in the medical field, such as home care and video conferencing; entry level public gaming devices; and public points of communications. Using the Intel Atom processor and Intel SCH US15W chipset, developers can rely on a wide variety of mainstream software applications and middleware that will run unmodified and full function on this platform and that end users are familiar with already.

Although much smaller, Intel’s Atom processor shares the same architecture as the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors and additionally supports Hyper-Threading Technology, a feature earlier introduced with the Intel Pentium 4 processor, allowing more than one code thread to be executed simultaneously on a single core processor. The Intel SCH US15W, the single chip chipset accom-panying the Intel Atom processor, offers an integrated 3D graphics core with dual independent display support on either the integrated 24-bit LVDS or through dual SDVO extension. The true power of the US15W’s graphic core, however, resides in the built-in video hardware decoding that offers acceleration for MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, WMV9 and VC1. The integrated hardware decoding enables the system to achieve high transfer rates under very modest CPU loading.

The Express-MLC will be available in a “basic” version that simply supports the feature set Intel Atom processor with the new Intel System Controller Hub US15W. The basic version supports two PCI Express x1, LVDS, SDVO, 8x USB2.0, SDIO, Audio and LPC-bus. The same module is also available with as an “Extended” feature set and offers in addition to the basic fea-tures: PCI bus, PCIe-based Gbe LAN and PCIe-based SATA. Adlink Technology, Irvine, CA. (949) 727-2099. [www.adlinktech.com].

Products&TECHNOLOGY

RadHard Transceiver Supports Multipoint RS-485

A high-reliability, radiation-hardened, general-purpose, high-speed, balanced interface is targeted for multipoint applica-tions. The RadHard ACT4485 monolithic dual transceiver from Aero-flex addresses multipoint data transmission in RS-485 applications. The ACT4485 meets the requirements of the TIA/EIA-485 Standard, which specifies low-voltage differential sig-naling drivers and receivers for data interchange across half-duplex or multipoint data bus structures.

The ACT4485 has several features that support the high-reliability application. The receiver has a fail-safe condition that guarantees a high output state when the bus is open or shorted. The driver maintains high impedance in tri-state or with power off supporting up to 32 bus transceivers connected to the bus. Manufactured in Aeroflex Plainview’s Mil-PRF-38534-certified manufacturing facility, the transceiver is built with Dielectrically Isolated Bipolar technology, operates at -55° to +125°C and is screened in accordance with MIL-PRF-38534, Class K. The ACT4485 is $599 in lots of 100. Prototypes and production units are currently available.Aeroflex, Colorado Springs, CO. (719) 594-8035. [www.aeroflex.com].

May 2008 53

XMC Blends Four Channels of 24-bit A/D Conversion

A mix of fast, pre-cise analog-to-digital conversion is key in ap-plications where vibration, acoustic and high dynamic range measure-ments are required. A new XMC I/O module from Innovative Integra-tion features four simultaneously sampling, sigma delta A/D channels. The X3-SDF device has programmable output rates up to 24 bits at 2.5 Msamples/s and 16 bits at 20 Msamples/s using the programmable filter in the ADC. The X3-SDF module was developed in response to requests for DC-accurate measurements with very wide dynamic range at sample rates up to 5 MHz.

A precision, low-jitter time base or external clock is used for sam-ple rate generation. Sample rates up to 20 Msamples/s, with less than 10 kHz programmable resolution, are supported as well as external clock-ing. Trigger methods include counted frames, software and external triggering. Data acquisition control, signal processing, buffering and system interface functions are implemented in a Xilinx Spartan-3 1-million-gate FPGA. Two 1Mx16 memory devices are used for data buff-ering and FPGA computing memory. Quantity one pricing is $2,125.Innovative Integration, Simi Valley, CA. (805) 578-4260. [www.innovative-dsp.com].

PMC Pair Targets Graphics and Comm Applications

PMC remains the most popular mezzanine module standard used in the board-level computing industry. Because of this continued popular-ity, Cornet Technology is offering the CPMC-722 and CPMC-DSCC, the first of the company’s PMC offerings. The CPMC-722 (shown) of-fers a variety of graph-ics display options for CRTs and LCDs. The board’s 8 Mbytes of in-ternal SGRAM video memory improves the graphics controller per-formance by making the read/write process more efficient. It supports up to 1280 x 1024 x 24-bit color resolution, which is ideal for viewing on 19-inch monitors. For those requiring advanced graphical display applications, the CPMC-722 comes with a 128-bit 2D/3D floating-point rendering engine for enhanced precision display. The CPMC-722 is available now. Price starts at $600. An extended temperature version is also available.

The CPMC-DSCC provides up to 10 Mbits/s for synchronous and 2 Mbits/s for asynchronous communication transfers. The board supports a full range of protocols including HDLC, SDLC, LAPB, LAPD, PPP, ASYNC and BISYNC. The CPMC-DSCC is available now at a starting price of $800.Cornet Technology, Springfield, VA. (703) 658-3400. [www.cornet.com].

Rugged High-Speed, Dual-Channel 16-Bit Digital Receiver Sports Virtex-5 FPGAs

A rugged and compact high-speed, dual-channel 16-bit digital receiver XMC/PMC mezza-nine card supports analog sampling rates of 160 Msps and speeds the integration of high-performance signal acquisition into rugged deployed COTS VPX, VME and CompactPCI subsystems. De-signed for demanding signal acquisition applications, the XMC-E2201 from Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is suitable for use in radar, software defined radio (SDR) and signal intelligence (SIGINT) platforms.

Based on twin Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs, the XMC-E2201 combines input bandwidth in excess of 700 MHz, industry lead-ing signal-to-noise ratio rated at >77 db, and high spectral purity. This small form factor mezzanine card delivers high dynamic range for sophisticated digital signal processing. Its twin FPGA architecture dedicates one “DSP” Virtex-5 FPGA for high-speed acquisition of the dual analog channel inputs. This FPGA also features 16 Mbytes of ZBT RAM memory and may be option-ally configured with dual GC4016 Graychip co-processors to en-hance its built-in DSP capabilities. The card’s second “Command & Control” FPGA provides high-speed I/O, including 64-bit/133 MHz PCI-X. An eight-lane PCI Express (PCIe) interconnect pro-vides direct high-speed off-board data throughput rates up to 2.5 Gbytes/s. The board, which currently supports FPGAs rated at 160 Msps, is designed to support 180 Msps devices when they become available in the second half of 2008.

To ease the integration and development of signal acquisition applications, the XMC-E2201 is supported with a Firmware De-velopment Kit (FDK) that includes VHDL modules for interfacing the card’s ADCs, DDC, control FPGA and local bus to the user FPGA. Additional software support includes device drivers that are available for VxWorks and Linux operating environments.The XMC-E2201 is designed to operate in rugged environments and is available in a range of air- and conduction-cooled formats. Pricing starts at $9,620.Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Leesburg, VA. (703) 779-7800. [www.cwcembedded.com].

54 May 2008

Dual-Core PrAMC Configured for ATCA and MicroTCA

ATCA and MicroTCA are slowly but surely gaining traction in markets beyond the NEBS environment. Emerson Network Power has announced the PrAMC-6210, a next-gen-eration AMC available for a volume price of under $2,000. Available in both full and mid-size versions for AdvancedTCA (ATCA), MicroTCA and proprietary architecture sys-tems, the PrAMC-6210 is based on Freescale’s MPC8641D PowerPC dual-core processor.

Developed by the Embedded Comput-ing business of Emerson Network Power, the PrAMC-6210 is designed to provide modular, upgradeable, computing power. OEMs can use the PrAMC-6210 to boost the performance of their existing Power Architecture applications, such as protocol processing, packet process-ing, data management and I/O management, while lowering their total cost of ownership by consolidating hardware. To support high-speed packet data transfers on and off the card, the PrAMC-6210 features Gbit Ethernet and PCI Express interfaces to the carrier or backplane. With ever-increasing application and data transfer requirements, this combina-tion of more traditional GbE interfaces and the emerging PCIe interface allows developers to easily migrate existing applications. Emerson expects PrAMC-6210 modules to be available in the second quarter of 2008.Emerson Network Power. Tempe, AZ. (800) 759-1107. [www.emersonnetworkpower.com].

1553 PC/104-Plus Card Boasts IRIG-106 Chapter 10 Support

1553 has graced just about every flavor of embed-ded form factor, and PC/104 is no exception. Exem-plifying that trend, Data Device Corp. (DDC) has introduced newly enhanced Software Development Kits (SDK) for MIL-STD-1553 PC/104-Plus and PCI-104 cards. The SDK allows users to develop source code to simulate, monitor, or troubleshoot 1553 data buses with support for the latest versions of operating systems including VxWorks 6, Linux 2.6 and Windows 2000/XP. This SDK allows users to quickly integrate DDC’s 1553 cards into their “C” source code applications. A common SDK exists across all operating systems allowing the programmer portability across different platforms. The easy-to-use high-level functions abstract all low-level hardware accesses and memory allocation such that specific hardware knowledge is not required.

The BU-65578C PC/104-Plus card provides up to four dual redundant MIL-STD-1553 chan-nels, five user-programmable digital discrete I/Os, selectable external or internal time-tag clock, and an IRIG-B time synchronization input. The card has an intelligent hardware offload engine that dramatically reduces PCI bus and host CPU utilization, while storing 1553 Monitor data in a convenient and portable IRIG-106 Chapter 10 file format.Data Device Corp., Bohemia, NY. (631) 567-5600. [www.ddc-web.com].

Products&TECHNOLOGYBoundary Scan Platform Extends Analog/Mixed-Signal Test Capabilities

A new JTAG/boundary scan I/O Module (SFX-Module) features eight independent analog I/O channels with additional digital resources and supports applica-tion-specific in-system reconfiguration. The SFX-6308

module is a new addition to the hardware platform Scanflex from Goepel Electronic. The SFX-6308 provides

four output channels with extended current yield of up to 200mA at ± 10V and four bipolar input channels with a range of ± 10V. All channels have a 12-bit resolution and can be disconnected from the UUT via relays. The module can be combined with any Scanflex controller (available for PCI, PCI Express, PXI, PXI Express, FireWire, USB and LAN). Standard features such as programmable range selection, external triggering and Vario-Core technology make the SFX-6308 a versatile tool to test a variety of circuit functions, such as analog/digital converters, DC/DC transformers, digital/analog converters, digital potentiometers and extremely low-resistance input stages in interaction with boundary scan operations. The reconfiguration of the integrated module resources additionally allows the programming of complex dynamic I/O functions that can be run autonomously, further ex-tending the achievable fault coverage.

SFX-6308 is fully supported in the industry-leading boundary scan software system Cas-con from version 4.x on. Module configuration and handling of analog/digital test data are based on user-friendly CASLAN instructions. CASLAN is a powerful boundary scan pro-gramming language with several hundred commands supporting IEEE1149.1, IEEE1149.4, IEEE1149.6, IEEE1532 and JESD71 as well as mixed signal operations. By simultaneously using multiple SFX-6308 modules, the channel count can be extended as needed. The modules are automatically identified in System Cascon by the AutoDetect feature. Furthermore, System Cascon executes application-specific VarioCore module configurations based on user input. Goepel Electronic, Jena, Germany. +49-3641-6896-739. [www.goepel.com].

May 2008 55

Gigabit Managed Switch Delivers Redundant Ethernet

A compact and industrially hardened switch offers advanced traffic control for optimum net-work performance and security, along with rapid self-healing fiber-optic ring capabilities to ensure network uptime in adverse environments. The EKI-7656C 16+2 combo port industrial managed redundant Gigabit Ethernet switch from the In-dustrial Automation Group of Advantech features 16 Fast Ethernet (10/100Base-TX) and two combo gigabit (1000Base-T) ports, which support both copper (RJ-45) con-nections and optional industry-standard Small Form factor Pluggable (SFP) modules. This gives users the power and flexibility to configure the switch for their unique application requirements.

About the size of an “AA” battery, SFPs are available in single-mode and multi-mode fiber models, for fiber connections ranging from 500M to 110 km (1,800 feet to 68 miles). To meet the real-time, fault-tolerant needs of embedded networking, Advantech developed the ultra fast X-Ring, which in the event of a fiber cable fault or similar problem, switches to the backup connection in less than 10 ms, ensuring solid and reliable network communications. Ideal for demanding environments, the EKI-7656C features industrial-grade components, is designed to withstand extreme shock and vibration, and includes redundant 12 to 48 VDC power inputs.Advantech Corporation, eAutomation Group. Cincinnati, OH. [www.advantech.com].

Portable Interface Tool Links 1553 to USB

With over three decades under its belt, the venerable MIL-STD-1553 bus still dominates as an internationally ac-cepted data bus standard for many mili-tary and aerospace platforms. For ap-plications where data integrity and low latency are the priorities, MIL-STD-1553 is likely to remain the interface of choice. Meanwhile Fibre Channel, Ethernet and Extended 1553 top the list of possible upward migration paths from 1553. Although fundamentally an avionics bus, a wide variety of sys-tems such as tanks, ships, missiles, satellites and even the International Space Station, rely on 1553.

National Hybrid Inc. (NHi), a division API Nanotronics, has de-veloped an affordable, portable 1553 to USB interface. NHi’s 1553/USB Pocket Pal is a redundant 1553 BC/MT/RT Terminal with 64K words of internal ram. It interfaces to a 2.0-compliant USB port, enabling a lap-top computer to function as an autonomous 1553 Work Station. Weigh-ing less than 7 oz., and small enough to fit within a shirt pocket, allows the user to take this 1553 USB anywhere. NHi’s 1553/USB Pocket Pal features include: Hardware and Software development, Bus Exercisor, Bus Evaluation and Troubleshooting. Bus management and bus integrity analysis are also key applications for the Pocket Pal.API Nanotronics, Hauppauge, NY. (631) 582-6767. [www.apinanotronics.com].

Low-Cost ATCA Blade Features Two Quad-Core Xeon Processors and Dual AMC Bays

A next-generation AdvancedTCA CPU blade features the latest Intel 5100 chipset, two quad-core LV-Xeon processors, and two AMC bays for enhanced performance, integration and flexibility. By incorporating Intel 64-bit extended memory technology, aTCA-6900 from Adlink Technology provides telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMs) with a cost-effective solution that offers increased memory capabili-ties, storage and connectivity options.

The aTCA-6900 series of CPU blades supports up to eight CPU cores. The series also supports a flexible Fabric Interface that includes dual 10GbE Fabric Interfaces, dual PCI Express Fabric Interfaces, dual Fibre Channel Fabric Interfaces, two mid-size AMC bays for I/O and/or storage expansion and an onboard 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch for flexible traffic routing. Through these features, aTCA-6900 series CPU blades offer both increased density and performance, while providing flexible I/O and storage options.

The aTCA-6900 features the latest Intel 5100/ICH9R chipset, with dual 64-bit dual dual-core 2.33 GHz LV-Xeon pro-cessors with 1.33 GHz FSB and up to 32 Gbytes of DDR2-667 REG/ECC. In addition to supporting the latest generation of Intel processors, the design also supports next-generation 45nm processors. A flexible riser card supports a variety of Fabric Interfaces including PICMG 3.1 option 1/2/4/7/9 or PICMG 3.4. The two single-width AMC.0 Mid-size AdvancedMC bays are compliant with AMC.1 P1, AMC.2 E2/Type4, AMC.3 S2. On-board storage options include 4 Gbyte USB flash, 2.5” SATA/SAS HDD, AMC-mounted HDD and RTM-mounted HDD. Front panel I/O includes video, 3x USB 2.0, 2 x RJ-45 Ethernet, RJ-45 serial port.Adlink Technology, Irvine, CA. (949) 727-2099. [www.adlinktech.com].

56 May 2008

GPS Receiver Works off Single Satellite

GPS receiver technology is becoming an increasingly popular feature in a wide range of mobile embedded applications. A high-perfor-mance, precision timing GPS module from U-blox is capable of a (compensated) time pulse accuracy of up to 15 ns and needs just one satellite to operate. The LEA-5T is a cost-ef-ficient, compact and easy-to-integrate solution suited for telecom network synchronization such as UMTS, CDMA or the Chinese TD-CDMA, as well as for applications that need time-accurate data communication between geographically dispersed systems and devices such as NTP servers.

The LEA-5T features a time mode func-tion whereby the GPS receiver assumes a sta-tionary position, which can be programmed manually or be determined by an initial self-survey. Stationary operation enables GPS tim-ing with only one visible satellite and elimi-nates timing errors that otherwise result in positioning errors. A built-in time mark and counter unit provides a globally synchronized time-stamping and time-measuring function-ality useful in applications such as seismic sensors or other applications with wide-area synchronization needs.

The module is powered by the 50-chan-nel, U-blox 5 positioning engine. With Super-Sense KickStart weak signal acquisition tech-nologies, U-blox 5 GPS chips and modules offer an acquisition and tracking sensitivity of -160 dBm that enables fast, uninterrupted operation, even in challenging, weak signal environments like indoor locations.U-blox, Reston, VA. (703) 483-3180. [www.u-blox.com].

Products&TECHNOLOGYZ500 Module Hikes Performance, Lowers Cost Down for Small, Low-Power Devices

A smaller, pin-out compatible variation of COM Express delivers manufacturing and size efficiency with the energy-efficient performance of the tiny but mighty new Intel Atom Z500 processor. The Procelerant Z500 from RadiSys is an 85 mm x 70 mm module compatible with the Type 2 COM Express pin-out. Manufacturers of handheld and mobile equipment for industrial auto-mation, gaming, test & measurement and military applications now have an ultra-low-power module, based on the high-performance Intel Atom processor Z500 series. This new module enables equipment manufacturers to shrink devices, stretch battery life and increase process-ing performance while also cutting manufacturing costs.

The Procelerant Z500 module offers feature support specifically for handheld and mobile applications, such as 1 Gbyte memory, a MicroSD socket, a slim line profile and an extended input voltage range for battery power. In addition, the module incorporates General Software Embedded BIOS with accompanying design tools that supports fast and effective implementa-tion of a smart battery subsystem and thermal management, further enhancing flexibility for mobile designs. The Procelerant Z500 module also adds capabilities to the highly integrated processor and chipset, such as SATA storage support and Gigabit Ethernet network connec-tivity. The size and price point of the Procelerant Z500 module also provides an attractive crossover point for customers looking for alternatives to legacy ETX designs. RadiSys, Hillsboro, OR. (503) 615-1100. [www.radisys.com].

Low-Cost Evaluation Kits for PowerPC 460EX and 460GT Processors

Two low-cost, easy-to-use evaluation kits for its Power Architecture 460EX and 460GT processors accelerate custom-ers’ system development time. The new evaluation kits from Applied Micro Circuits provide users with a comprehensive set of resources including custom-designed evaluation boards, industry-standard software development tools, sample applica-tions, system-level benchmarks and hardware design files.

The “Canyonlands” 460EX evaluation board, with a 7” x 7” form factor, includes an AMCC 460EX processor operating at a clock frequency of 1.0 GHz. Other hardware features include 256 Mbytes of DDR2 SDRAM, 64 Mbytes of NOR flash, 32 Mbytes of NAND flash, two 10/100/1G Ethernet ports, a USB 2.0 host port, a USB 2.0 OTG port, two PCI Express connectors, a PCI connector, a SATA connector, two serial ports, a JTAG connector and a trace connector. The NOR flash image includes Linux (2.6 kernel) and U-Boot boot firmware, both provided by Denx, along with a file system that incorporates a range of AMCC-developed sample applications, benchmarks and utilities.

The “Glacier” 460GT evaluation board has a similar feature-set, adding two additional 10/100/1G Ethernet ports in place of the SATA and USB ports that are present on the 460EX Canyonlands board.

The Resource CD included in the kits contains industry-standard benchmarks for use in processor performance analysis, such as TTCP, DBench, HINT, STREAM and MPEG-4. Once customers progress to the software development phase and before their own target hardware (prototype board) is available, the Resource CD offers a wide range of sample applications that can be used as a starting point for customers’ software applications, as well as various utilities to aid in system configuration. The 460EX and 460GT evaluation kits are configured with the Linux 2.6 kernel along with U-Boot boot firmware, both provided by Denx. The suggested distributor resale price for each kit is $995.Applied Micro Circuits, Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 542-8600. [www.amcc.com].

May 2008 57

Smart Network Triaxial Piezoelectric Accelerometer Includes Programmability

A 3-axis piezoelectric accelerometer with a fully digital communication interface in-cludes all electronics for analog signal condition-ing, analog-to-digital conversion, digital signal pro-cessing and RS-485 network communications. The full scale range, filter corner frequencies and sample rates for the accelerometer are all pro-grammable. The accelerometer from Vip Sensors provides data in engi-neering units, corrected over the operating temperature range to improve accuracy, and stores TEDS (transducer electronic data sheet) informa-tion for complete identification of each sensor connected to the network. The Smart Network is a multi-drop transducer communication bus with a high data throughput that supports high-frequency measurements and a high level of synchronization for all channels connected to the network. A Smart Network controller card and PC software is used to communi-cate with all sensors channels connected to the network, for sending com-mands to each sensor and receiving and storing sensor data.

Vip Sensors offers a range of Smart Network Sensors products and accessories in addition to the standard piezoelectric and voltage mode accelerometers, signal conditioners and cable assemblies. Shock and vibration calibration services are also available for all types of ac-celerometers. Vip Sensors, San Clemente, CA. (949) 429-3558. [www.vipsensors.com].

Integrated Fibre Channel over Ethernet Adapter with Hardware Offload

An integrated single-chip solution delivers Fibre Channel over lossless Eth-ernet (FCoE) functionality and can reduce the number of adapters, cables and switches while improving the total bandwidth avail-

able with the potential to consolidate all of the traffic types over the same Ethernet link. The ConnectX

dual-port 10GigE “converged” NIC from Mellanox includes support for both TCP/IP stateless offload and Fibre Channel transport in hard-ware.

The FCoE hardware offload includes processing of all CPU-in-tensive FC and SCSI processing tasks as currently available in high-performance FC HBAs, avoiding per-packet processing in software. This improves performance across the entire fabric (Ethernet and Fibre Channel) delivering significantly higher IOPs, throughput with better CPU utilization and reduced latency for networking, storage and clus-tering applications. ConnectX EN dual-port FCoE adapters, with sup-port for PCI Express 2.0, are available today with various media inter-connect support including XFP, SFP+, CX4 and 10GBaseT.Mellanox Technologies, Santa Clara, CA. (408) 970-3400. [www.mellanox.com].

Compact Module Based on Intel Atom Processor Z500

An extremely low-power-consuming COM Express mod-ule features the brand new Intel Atom processor Z500 series and the Intel System Controller Hub US15W. The Conga-CA module is a 95 x 95 mm (3¾ x 3¾”)-sized COM Express module from Congatec that has a typical power requirement of less than 5 watts. Combining this with ACPI 3.0 battery management, ultra mobile embedded applications are now possible.

The Conga-CA supports up to two PCI Express Lanes, eight USB 2.0, two Serial ATA, one IDE Interface and Intel High Defi-nition Audio. Two onboard SDIO sockets allow for flexible expan-sion. Additionally, it features PCI bus, multi master I²C bus, LPC bus, fan control and Gigabit Ethernet. The Conga-CA is available in two different CPU variants. The Conga-CA eco version is pow-ered by the Intel Atom processor Z510 with 1.1 GHz and 400 MHz front side and memory bus. The high-end version is powered by the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor Z530 with 533 MHz front side and memory bus. Both versions are equipped with 512k L2 cache and can access up to 1 Gbyte onboard DDR2 memory.

The Intel System Controller Hub US15W features the Intel GMA500 graphics engine. This 3D-capable onboard graphics uti-lizes up to 256 Mbytes frame buffer and supports DirectX 9.0E and OpenGL 2.0. It also enhances video playback applications with the use of MPEG2 and MPEG4 hardware decoding. Graphic output provides either a 1x24 Bit LVDS channel or a single SDVO port. The Conga-CA implements the EPI (Embedded Panel Inter-face) standard allowing for automatic recognition of the attached flat panel display. Support for the new VESA standard named “DisplayID” will also be provided.

All Congatec modules are equipped with an embedded BIOS and a board controller that enhance embedded features such as sys-tem monitoring, watchdog timer and the I²C bus. With the ability to be isolated from the main x86 processor, these features are also available in stand-by mode, hence promoting further power sav-ing functionality. In addition to enhanced power management, the Congatec Embedded BIOS supports ACPI 3.0 with battery man-agement. The Conga-CA will be available starting in July 2008. The single-unit price based on the Intel Atom processor Z510 with 1.1 GHz is $320 U.S.Congatec Deggendorf, Germany, +49 991-2700-0. [www.congatec.com].

58 May 2008

Low-Power ARM Processor Board with StackableUSB

A network-ready controller on the 104 form factor comes with seven USB ports: five host ports through a StackableUSB con-nector and two separate client USB ports. The RCB1626 from Micro/sys is based on an ARM core and has dual network processing engines to drive the 10/100 BaseT Ethernet allowing embedded system users to offload networking tasks from a server, such as Eth-ernet filtering, which enables higher through-puts. The RCB1626 board is suited for remote, low-power applications since it consumes only 385 mA typical in its basic configuration. Ap-plications ranging from industrial controllers to protocol converters to gateways can all be implemented on this ARM single board com-puter (SBC).

In addition to its networking features, the RCB1626 also features 24 digital I/O lines, eight readable DIP switches, eight LEDs for application use and four RS-232 serial ports, one RS-485 configurable. With 128 Mbytes of SDRAM and a 64 Mbyte resident flash array, high-performance control or data communica-tions systems can be implemented with fea-ture-rich operating systems without the need for external storage devices. There are board support packages available for Linux, Win-dows CE and VxWorks. The RCB1626’s Com-pact Flash socket supports storage devices as well as I/O devices, such as Wi-Fi cards. The basic RCB1626 starts at $450 in single quan-tity. An extended temperature (-40° to +85°C) version is also available. Micro/sys, Montrose, CA, (818) 244-4600. [www.embeddedsys.com].

New LED Lightpipes from Elma Prevent Color MixingA new line of lightpipes from Elma Electronic provides distinct

color output. The Elma lightpipes have optional barriers that prevent color mixing from adjacent rows. Each pipe in the LED array can block interfering light

from other pipes. Sometimes these pipes are too close together and the colors can blend. The lightpipes have thin polycarbonate barriers, which not only block intruding light from

other tube lanes, but also add strength. This is particularly important for lightpipes that are espe-cially long. The result is clear, segregated color definition and a more rugged LED solution.

The barriers for the light-up protected LEDs are configurable. Customers have the flexibility to have barriers between some or all of the pipes, allowing the ability to mix and match. Slide covers that completely enclose the shaft of a lightpipe tube are also available. A slide cover al-lows only the end of the lightpipe tube to be seen and prevents light interference in all directions. Elma’s Lightpipes are approximately priced at $0.30/ea. in volume, depending on configuration. Elma Electronic, Fremont, CA. (510) 656-3400. [www.elma.com].

Products&TECHNOLOGYReal-Time Java VM Pico Provides Support for Wind River VxWorks

PERC Pico, a virtual machine for real-time Java, is now available for use with Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) and Wind River Workbench development suite. The joint offerings provide developers with the resources to design complex mission- and safety-critical software within large teams where modular de-sign is essential. With PERC Pico, the same Java language advantages of por-tability, scalability and modularity can be designed into applications from top to bottom, thereby streamlining application develop-ment, debugging and ongoing program maintenance.

The PERC Pico development environment is geared toward the creation of resource-constrained and deeply embedded hard real-time applications and components, and is based on the emerging Java Specification Request (JSR-302) for development of hard real-time safety-critical code. PERC Pico allows Java developers to write low-level Java code such as device drivers and interrupt handlers, telecommunications control plane, and signal pro-cessing for multimedia. It offers a memory footprint measured in hundreds of kilobytes in comparison to the tens of megabytes required for other Java solutions as well as boasting performance, latency and determinism comparable to C.

PERC Pico 1.1, with Eclipse plug-ins, offers Java application developers plug-and-play access to the power and real-time characteristics of the VxWorks RTOS and Workbench Eclipse-based development toolset. PERC Pico analyzer, a new memory-use analysis tool, enables developers of real-time Java systems for the first time to statically analyze memory requirements and memory footprint implications associated with source-code changes with-out resorting to traditional test and debug activities. PERC Pico tools enforce programming disciplines that enable the PERC Pico analyzer to calculate the stack memory requirements for running threads. This kind of analysis and enforcement is extremely beneficial to devel-opment of deeply embedded, real-time systems where memory allocation and predictability are essential. Aonix, San Diego, CA. (858) 824-0212. [www.aonix.com].

May 2008 59

Low-Power, Large-Memory 16-bit USB MCU Family with OTG

A 12-member, 16-bit USB microcontroller (MCU) family comes with 2.6 µA standby current, large memory (up to 256 Kbyte Flash and 16 Kbyte RAM), and is the only 16-bit microcontroller family with integrated USB 2.0 device, embedded-host, dual-role and On-the-Go (OTG) functionality. The PIC24FJ256GB1 fam-ily from Microchip Technology makes it cost-effective and easy to add advanced USB features to embedded designs. Additionally, the integrated Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU) periph-eral—along with the royalty-free mTouch Sensing Solution soft-ware development kit—enables designers to add a capacitive-touch user interface without any external components. When combined with Microchip’s free Graphics Software Library, engineers have access to a complete, USB-enabled and cost-effective user inter-face solution.

USB embedded host functionality and capacitive-touch inter-faces have become critical elements for a large number of embed-ded designs, driven by the demand for increased user friendliness, upgradeability and expandability. Now, applications that previously required a high-end chip can utilize the cost-effective, low-power 16-bit PIC24FJ256GB1 family to easily incorporate both advanced USB OTG and capacitive-touch functionality. Additionally, Mi-crochip provides complete software support, via free USB class drivers and USB applications. And, the PIC24FJ256GB1 has ample code space for these advanced applications, while providing up to four UARTs, three SPI ports and thee I2C ports to expand control capabilities and eliminate the space and cost of support chips.

The MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC24F comes with the USB-pow-ered MCU board, the MPLAB IDE and MPLAB C30 C complier, documentation, sample projects with tutorials, schematics and 16-bit compatible peripheral libraries. Microchip also provides free source code for USB software stacks and class drivers to enable de-signers to get a head start on the development of their USB applica-tions. Microchip’s free USB Host Stack, Device Stack, USB OTG Stack, Class Drivers (HID, MSD, CDC, Custom) and File Manage-ment software are available now. The 12-member PIC24FJ256GB1 family is offered in 64-, 80-, or 100-pin TQFP package options. Pricing starts at $3.47 each in 10,000 unit quantities. Microchip Technology, Chandler, AZ. (480) 792-7200. [www.microchip.com].

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60 May 2008

PMC Modules Interface I/O to Virtex-5 FPGA Optimized for Ultra-High-Performance DSP

A set of new PMC-VSX modules features a DSP-optimized Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA that is reconfigurable for high-performance I/O processing and user-developed algorithmic computation. For fast data transfer in and out of the FPGA, the PMC-VSX from Acromag provides large banks of DDR2 DRAM and dual-port SRAM for high-speed DMA trans-fer to the PCI bus. A PCI-X interface ensures plenty of bandwidth to rapidly move data. An assortment of plug-in I/O extension modules offers flexibility to interface various analog and digital I/O signal types.

The PMC base card provides 64 LVDS I/O channels accessible via P4 rear connectors. Inserting optional front-connecting AXM I/O extension modules augments I/O processing capabilities with an efficient interface for 16-bit 105 MHz A/D conversion, CMOS digital I/O, RS-485 differential signals, or extra LVDS I/O lines. Typical uses include video, imaging, radar/sonar, electronic warfare, signal intelli-gence and communication processing.

This PMC module employs Xilinx’s VSX95T Virtex-5 FPGA with 95,000 logic cells and 640 dedicated 18 x 25 DSP48E slices. The DSP48E slice simplifies implementation of high-performance filters and complex math functions. These performance-tuned DSP en-gines perform up to 352 GMACs at 550 MHz for execution of the most compute-intensive algorithms.

For connectivity with real-time applica-tion programs, Acromag offers C libraries for VxWorks, QNX and other operating systems. The libraries provide generic routines (source code included) to handle reads, writes, inter-rupts and other functions. Demonstration pro-grams enable the developer to quickly exercise the I/O modules before attaching the routines to the application program. This diagnostic tool can save hours of troubleshooting and debugging. Free Linux example programs are also available. Boards start at $6,750 with extended temperature (-40° to 85°C) and con-duction-cooled models available.Acromag, Wixom, MI. (248) 295-0310. [www.acromag.com].

6U CompactPCI Express CPU Board Supports Five CPCIe Boards

Targeted for OEMs migrating from CPCI to CPCIe, a new 6U CompactPCI Express board supports up to five CPCIe add-in boards and four CPCI boards. The 6U CPCIe from One Stop systems offers two PCI Express x8 (PCIe) links plus four PCIe x4 links to the backplane while providing a Core Duo processor running at 1.66 GHz. The accom-panying rear transition module (RTM) provides two Gbit Ethernet ports and two USB ports in addition to the one of each on the main board. In addition, the RTM supports a CompactFlash module and/or a 2-1/2” SATA hard drive using the hard drive mezzanine card. The main board also provides a video port to the onboard ATI Rage Mobility graphics controller in addition to one PMC site and one XMC site.

The 6U CPCIe CPU board provides the performance re-quired to power all slots of One Stop Systems’ 8U hybrid CP-CIe/CPCI platform. Six individually hot-swappable blowers provide superior cooling to all boards while a system monitor supplies data on the health of the system. The 6U CPCIe CPU board is competitively priced in OEM volumes at around $3,995, depending on the configuration. One Stop Systems, Escondido, CA. (877) 438-2724. [www.onestopsystems.com].

Products&TECHNOLOGYVPX SerDes Modules Directly Test Channel Compliance

With architectures moving to higher-speed Serial RapidIO, In-finiBand, PCI Express, Gigabit Ethernet and other serial fabrics, it is increasingly important to measure the signal performance of the sys-

tem. New SerDes Test Modules for VPX systems are being offered by Elma Electronic in partnership with DFT Microsystems. The SerDes modules are designed to plug into VPX backplanes and directly test the

channel compliance. They can be used to test VPX switch and node cards and/or the backplane channels without requiring external equip-

ment or special test fixtures. Many Time Domain Reflectometers (TDRs) and Oscilloscopes in labs today

cannot handle the massive density of high-speed serial signals used in architectures like VPX. Plugging directly into the backplane/chassis, the modules allow quick and easy characterization of the signals and eliminate the need for SMA connectors, cables and capital-intensive measurement hardware. With a USB connection to a laptop or desktop computer, it is easy to create Eye Diagrams, measure Bit Error Rates (BER) and jitter and more. Plus, the module kit includes software with a simple GUI interface. Within minutes, the user can plug the cards into the test chassis, connect the USB cable to a laptop, download the GUI software and begin measurements.

The first in the test module series is an 8-channel version for 6U cards. With a scalable de-sign, configurations in 4-channel, 12-channel, or 16-channel are available upon request. Elma also offers an E-frame VPX test chassis with dedicated cooling and power options for VPX. The chassis is offered separately, but can be purchased together with the SerDes test cards. The SerDes test technology that is deployed in the VPX Test Modules is modular and can be affixed to various form factor carrier boards. So the modules can be designed for other architectures. A MicroTCA test card for AMCs is planned to be released in the summer of 2008. Pricing starts under $22,000 depending on configuration. Elma Electronic, Fremont, CA. (510) 656-3783. [www.elma.com].

May 2008 61

FPGA Mezzanine Card Debuts as A/D Module

FPGAs keep gaining func-tionality and permeating de-signs, often in place of proces-sors. Now an FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) has appeared in the form of an A/D module—not with FPGAs on it itself, but to specifically serve the I/O needs of FPGAs on a baseboard. The ADC510 from VMetro supports two Texas Instruments ADS5463 ADC devices with each device supporting a sampling rate up to 500 MSPS and providing 12 bits of digi-tal output. The ADC device interfaces are routed to the FMC connector to enable an FPGA on a baseboard to directly control and receive data. There is a choice of sample clock sources for the ADC510 including an onboard source that supports sampling rates of 300, 320, 400 and 500 MSPS as well as the ability to utilize an external sample clock. Input and output triggers are provided to enable multiple ADC510 modules to be synchronized to increase the number of input channels.

FMCs address the needs of FPGA-centric I/O by enabling I/O de-vices that reside on an industry standard mezzanine card to be attached to, and directly controlled by, FPGAs that reside on a baseboard. The benefits of FMCs are a small footprint, reduced I/O bottlenecks, increased flexibility and reduced cost by removing redundant interfaces. An FMC module is about half the size of a PMC mezzanine module. To maximize data throughput and minimize latency, the FMC connector has many pins that support high-speed signals for moving data between the FMC and an FPGA on the baseboard. FMCs are ideal for high-speed analog I/O, digital I/O, fiber-optics, memory or even a DSP co-processor. VMetro makes available HDL example code for the ADC510 for integration into the HDL development suite for VMetro FPGA baseboards. VMetro, Houston, TX. (281) 584-0728. [www.vmetro.com].

VPX Card Boasts Quad FPGAs and Dual FMC Sites

A new FPGA processing engine with support for the new FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC/VITA 57) standard integrates four Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs with two FMC I/O sites and VPX high-speed serial backplane connec-tivity, allowing I/O and processing capabilities in a single 6U slot. The FPE650 from VMetro is available in air-cooled and conduction-cooled rugged versions and is designed to tackle demanding digital signal processing applications such as electronic counter measures (ECM), signal intelligence (SIGINT) and electro-optics (EO).

At the heart of the FPE650 are four fully interconnected user-programmable Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs. The FPGAs sites can be fitted with Virtex-5 SX95T, LX155T or FX100T platforms en-abling the FPE650 to be optimized for DSP or logic-centric de-signs. Each FPGA has four directly connected banks of memory to maximize performance. Two of the FPGAs interface to four banks of 9 Mbyte QDR2 SRAM memory; the other two FPGAs interface to two banks of 9 Mbyte QDR2 SRAM memory and two banks of 640 Mbyte DDR2 SDRAM memory.

The balance of processing performance, modular I/O and VPX connectivity is important for demanding applications. The FPE650 allows sensor I/O or system data to be delivered directly to the FPGAs. The FPE650 is pioneering use of the new FMC I/O mezzanine standard, opening the door for a new generation of products, such as ADC and DACs, tightly integrated into the FPGA resources of the carrier board without the overhead of pro-tocol translation required by other mezzanine standards.

The FPE650 addresses the I/O and data bandwidth require-ments of high—performance digital signal processing applications with three interconnects features – through FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC/VITA 57) sites for front panel I/O, through a non-blocking crossbar to help optimize the FPGA topology, and VPX/VITA 46 connections for backplane I/O. For front panel I/O, each FMC site has 68 differential signal pairs supporting 2 Gbit/s data rates per pair and four full duplex multi-Gbit/s connections to enable very large amounts of data to be moved between FMC modules and the onboard FPGAs. For onboard data movement, high-speed serial links from the FMC sites, the FPGA and the backplane are routed to a non-blocking crossbar switch. By configuring the crossbar switch, the connections between these resources can be configured specifically to meet application needs. For backplane I/O, each FPGA has two x4 full duplex multi-Gbit/s serial ports routed to the VPX backplane with each x4 port able to move over 1 Gbyte/s of data. The FPE650 also provides backplane parallel I/O directly connected to two of the FPGAs.

A Software and HDL development suite for the FPE650 is provided by VMetro, including IP blocks such as DMA and mem-ory controllers and sophisticated examples and utilities for FPGA configuration and development. The majority of the resources on all the FPGAs are available for user applications. VMetro, Houston, TX. (281) 584-0728. [www.vmetro.com].

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May 2008 63

Smart Network Three-Channel IEPE Interface Module

A 3-channel IEPE interface mod-ule with a fully digital communication

interface incorporates all electronics for analog signal conditioning, analog-to-digital conversion, digital signal process-

ing and RS-485 network communications. In the Model 6006 from Vip Sensors, the gain and offset, filter corner frequencies, and sample rates for the accelerometer are all programmable. The module provides data in engineering units, performs self-testing functions of its electronics, and stores transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS) information for com-plete identification of each sensor connected to the network. The Smart Network is a multi-drop transducer communication bus with a high data throughput that supports high-frequency measurements and a high level of synchronization for all channels connected to the network.

A smart network controller card and PC software are used to communicate with all module channels connected to the network, for sending commands to each module, and receiving and storing sensor data. Vip Sensors offers a range of smart network sensors products and accessories in addition to the standard piezoelectric and voltage mode accelerometers, signal conditioners and cable assemblies. Shock and vibration calibration services are also available for all types of acceler-ometers. The company’s strength is in its technical expertise in sensor and electronics design. Vip Sensors provides state-of-the-art, quality products at a very competitive price.Vip Sensors, San Clemente, CA. (949) 429-3558. [www.Vipsensors.com].

Mobile CAN Interfaces for USB with Linux Driver Support

A low-cost, single-channel USB-to-CAN compact and the dual channel USB-to-CAN II in-

terface device includes a layer-2 Linux driver free of charge. This inter-face from IXXAT enables the development and the usage of customer-specific analysis, configuration and test applications on notebooks and other mobile systems. Due to the common driver interface, an adapta-tion of existing Linux applications to support the USB interfaces can be made very easily.

The Linux driver provides all functions necessary for the initializa-tion of the CAN interfaces as well as for the transmission and reception of CAN messages. The easily configurable filter functions and message queues reduce the implementation effort considerably. The driver is de-livered as source code and can be used flexibly by customer applications or adapted to specific customer needs. Besides Linux, IXXAT supports its interfaces with drivers for Microsoft Windows and VxWorks.IXXAT, Bedford, NH. (603) 471-0800. [www.ixaat.com].

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Figure 1 Whisker Growth--Photos courtesy NASA

64 May 2008

Over the past several months I’ve been hearing increas-ingly more comments voicing concern over problems with non-leaded components in both military and non-

military systems. Most recently, Bob Landman, a friend of my friend and mentor in this business, the late George Rostky (of EETimes “Charley” fame), sent a note describing lead-free manufacturing as a “cancer-like growth that will kill people.” He goes on to say that it’s a “perfect storm brewing that didn’t have to happen.” The culprit, of course, being the dreaded tin and/or zinc whiskers.

Landman backs up his assertion with a barrage of infor-mation from NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, GEIA and others. Much research has been devoted to problems on non-lead components dating back as far as the 1940s, so the problem is pretty well understood. However, when the EU promulgated its RoHS rules, it did exempt at least military and automotive systems. That turns out to be somewhat of a catch-22 as virtually all chip and passive component makers, in order to sell into the larger consumer market, have shifted over to non-leaded components. Further, RoHS regulations are exclusively an EU mandate and no one in the U.S. Govern-ment had the job of defending tin-lead at the EU—the U.S. has no membership and no standing according to Landman.

Solutions are few and far between. NASA and the Navy have been sending parts to specialty companies to have them tin-lead solder dipped at some significant set-up and produc-tion costs. And, different companies handle chips, passive components and specialty surface-mount parts further com-plicating the job of procuring conforming parts. Do these re-worked parts have the same reliability/survivability as original equipment where things such as lead frames are treated before chips are bonded? And to make matters worse, Certificates of Conformance issued that parts are leaded (required by many NASA and DOD contracts) are false at a 3% or higher rate.

Not for the Military AloneThe military has so far made the most noise—and even

that’s not much—but is not the only area suffering. Automo-tive applications, because of the severe environments, were also exempted by the EU. However, they suffer from the same prob-lems. Telecom and medical instrumentation are not far behind. Raytheon Missile Systems, for example, hosts a teleconference for military/aerospace and medical device manufacturers ad-dressing the problem—but with little coming out. And it’s been reported that at least one major provider of telecommunications equipment has banned lead-free components from any subsys-tems and systems it purchases.

In all cases, failure of components can have disastrous con-sequences. Many suppliers of boards, subsystems and systems claim that their “green,” lead-free products are fully as robust as leaded parts. That may be true, but reliability and longevity still need to be proven. Several Web sites are available that discuss different tin-plating techniques that ostensibly eliminate the tin-whisker problem (Figure 1). However, it’s doubtful that they are able to change the physics of the problem.

There may well not be a simple solution. Chip and compo-nent makers are not about to set up a completely different facility

RoHS — Is it Worth the Chaos it Can Cause?

May 2008

NEWS, VIEWS &Comment

a. b.

May 2008 65

for leaded versus non-leaded parts. And, if they do, it may well destroy the fabric of the “COTS” component mentality—using the latest and greatest technology developed for the consumer market and get the economies of scale in embedded systems be they military, aerospace, communications or medical.

More likely a second tier of products could emerge, essen-tially going back to what used to be the old mil-spec criterion. That was eliminated years ago as the government first allowed waivers for the use of commercial products and finally with then (1994) Defense Secretary Perry’s order, Acquisition Reform: A Mandate For Change, which established a mandate to use com-mercial parts, and a waiver was needed to use mil-spec parts. At least one purpose of the change was to enable the military to take advantage of the latest technology. Going back to mil-spec means handcuffing the military and other industries to old and less than state-of-the-art technology, which our enemies will ex-ploit. Are we going to move back 20-some years?

I think it’s time that the industry wakes up to the potential pitfalls of using lead-free components in critical systems—and perhaps all electronic systems with an anticipated life expec-tancy of more than two years. The real threat of lead contamina-tion both here and in the EU is the careless and haphazard dis-posal of bulk lead either from tailings or improper handling of storage batteries or other lead containing products. Today’s en-vironment of recycling and ecological concern largely preclude contamination due to mishandling. I don’t know about other parts of the country, but where I live, disposing of electronics is handled in an easily and ecologically friendly way. This may be the area where more emphasis needs to be placed.

If anyone has a solution or consideration to the lead-free problem or would just like to chime in, I’d sure like hearing from

you at [email protected]. If there’s enough interest, we’ll look at working with industry leaders in finding areas that require more exploration that may lead to a real solution. More next issue.

UpdatesI waxed a little long on my discussion of lead-free prob-

lems in our industry, but I feel strongly about it. Therefore my usual market and technology updates in this space will be a little truncated. Here are some of the headlines.

Sun Micro buys Montalvo hoping to break into the low-power, mobile x86 space with Intel, AMD, VIA and others.

Lower chip prices hurt Toshiba and Elpida Memory’s bottom line. After a drop of 50% in the past year, NAND flash memory chips are expected to drop another 40% to 50% this year. At the same time, as shown in the chart, DRAM-eXchange reports prices for DRAM also tumbled as ASPs dropped 60%.

Lower NAND prices also caused Korea’s Hynix Semi-conductor to shut down its NAND fab in the third quarter to reduce output.

Delayed AMD Server Chip, Barcelona, is ready for distribu-tion. Initially scheduled for release last September, AMD’s quad-core chip is now available at frequencies of 2.3 and 2.0 GHz.

Processor maker VIA Technologies is taking off on two fronts powering the new HP Mini-Note PC as well as a move into COM Express in the embedded market. VIA is among many processor makers including Intel, Sun (see above) and others targeting the low-cost, low-power market.

Despite announcement above, AMD’s first quarter revenue took a hit forcing the company to cut its work force by 10%.

SIA says chip sales show modest year-on-year gain—an increase of roughly 1.5%.

Warren Andrews Associate Publisher

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Figure 2 512-megabit DDR2-667 chip, daily averages.

66 May 2008

Advertiser Index

Company Page Website

Acromag ...............................................................................................................67 .............................................................................................. www.acromag.com

ADLINK Technology America, Inc. ..........................................................................23 .................................................................................. www.adlinktechnology.com

Birdstep Technology .............................................................................................16 ...............................................................................................www.birdstep.com

BittWare ...............................................................................................................22 ............................................................................................... www.bittware.com

Critical I/O ...........................................................................................................33 ...............................................................................................www.criticalio.com

Design Automation Conference - DAC ....................................................................41 ......................................................................................................www.dac.com

EDA Tech Forum ...................................................................................................29 ...................................................................................... www.edatechforum.com

Elma Bustronic Corp. ............................................................................................28 ......................................................................................www.elmabustronic.com

ELMA Electronic Systems......................................................................................46 ....................................................................................................www.elma.com

Emerson Network Power ......................................................................................25 .........................................................................www.EmersonNetworkPower.com

Eurotech ..............................................................................................................17 .................................................................................................. www.eurotech.it

Express Logic .......................................................................................................19 .........................................................................................www.expresslogic.com

GE Fanuc Embedded Systems ................................................................................5 ................................................................................ www.gefanucembedded.com

Harting, Inc. EPT ...................................................................................................27 ...........................................................................www.harting.com, www.ept.com

Hybricon Corporation ............................................................................................11 ...............................................................................................www.hybricon.com

Kontron America ...................................................................................................68 ................................................................................................www.kontron.com

McObject LLC .......................................................................................................59 ..............................................................................................www.mcobject.com

Mesa Electronics ..................................................................................................59 .............................................................................................. www.mesanet.com

Moxa Technologies ................................................................................................8 .................................................................................................... www.moxa.com

National Instruments .............................................................................................7 ..........................................................................................................www.ni.com

NXTcomm .............................................................................................................43 .................................................................................... www.NTXcommShow.com

One Stop Systems ................................................................................................37 ...................................................................................www.onestopsystems.com

Orion Technologies,Inc ..........................................................................................63 ..........................................................................................www.otisolutions.com

Pentair Electronic Packaging .................................................................................40 ............................................................................................ www.pentair-ep.com

Performance Technologies .....................................................................................2 ......................................................................................................... www.pt.com

Phoenix International ............................................................................................63 .............................................................................................. www.phenxint.com

PMC Showcase.....................................................................................................35

Portable Design Conference & Exhibition ...............................................................62 ....................................................................www.portabledesignconference.com

Radian Heatsinks, a div. of Intricast Co., Inc. ..........................................................4 .................................................................................... www.radianheatsinks.com

Real-Time & Embedded Computing Conference......................................................47 ....................................................................................................www.rtecc.com

Sensoray Company ...............................................................................................30 ..............................................................................................www.sensoray.com

VadaTech .............................................................................................................31 ..............................................................................................www.vadatech.com

VersaLogic Corporation .........................................................................................13 ............................................................................................ www.versalogic.com

RTC (Issn#1092-1524) magazine is published monthly at 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 250, San Clemente, CA 92673. Periodical postage paid at San Clemente and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RTC, 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 250, San Clemente, CA 92673.




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