Technology InContext
MicroTCA
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 G ene Juknevicius GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
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May 2008 Get Connected with companies mentioned in this article. www.rtcmagazine.com/getconnected
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n the period leading up to 2005, when FANS the AdvancedMC—a mezzanine module for AdvancedTCA blades—was finally defined and standardized, engineers quickly realized that if they took a few of these modules and connected them together, they could build small, compact FANS but highly capable systems. Thus MicroTCA was born. Despite the commonly held belief to the contrary, MicroTCA was Figure 1 Parallel Air Flow Concept envisioned from the beginning as a specipanies providing solutions now fication that would serve not only the teleration into products, technologies and companies. Whether your goal is to research the latest communications market, but would also All these benefits are obviously much more lication Engineer, or jump to a company's technical page, the goal of Get Connected is to put you be whatever well suited commercial, industrial broadly attractive than to the telecommuniice you require for type of for technology, military cations market only, and they position Miies and productsand you even are searching for. applications. Built into the MicroTCA specification croTCA as being highly suitable for wide is substantial flexibility to be compatible multi-market adoption. with a variety of chassis form factors, from small 4-module pico chassis to full-blown The Key Role of the 19-inch rack-mountable redundant sys- AdvancedMC tems. The MicroTCA specification defines MicroTCA is based on Advancedflexible and high throughput interconnect MCs, which themselves come in multiple options and it benefits from the extensive form factors. In general, AdvancedMCs platform management infrastructure that is are roughly the same size as PMCs. To already present in AdvancedMC modules. be precise, they are slightly narrower, but longer: 73.5 mm x 180.6 mm (single AdvancedMC). In terms of width, AdGet Connected vancedMCs can be single or double. A with companies mentioned in this article. www.rtcmagazine.com/getconnected double module simply doubles the PCB
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real estate. In terms of height, AdvancedMCs come in three sizes: compact, midsize 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 component 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 obviously a function not only of the module but also the chassis that it plugs into—and from this perspective, MicroTCA opens