Low cost … small size … high throughput …
is just some of the buildup surrounding the
emerging MicroTCA standard. Riding the coat
tails of the AdvancedTCA standard, MicroTCA
leverages existing technology, engineering
expertise and industry participation. Revenue
forecasts predict fairly steep growth, anticipating
MicroTCA deployments in new telecom
and embedded application segments. This may
require the industry to address special needs
like ruggedized systems, application specific
cards and small, low-cost chassis.

Basic Promises

Drawing from AdvancedTCA and AdvancedMC (mezzanine cards) efforts,
MicroTCA is already on the right path to
deliver high availability, maintainability
and scalability. These features, plus the
benefits derived from standards-based
platforms, have convinced many telecom
equipment manufacturers to move away
from expensive proprietary solutions. Likewise,
MicroTCA extends similar capabilities
to relatively smaller infrastructure installations,
like remote or mobile base stations.

Many traditional embedded computing applications
have deployed the VME (Versa Module
Euroboard) standard, widely used in industrial,
commercial and military applications. After 25
years, it seems a safe bet the embedded industry
is ready for a new standard that implements
the latest processors and interfaces, while
respecting space and power consumption constraints.
“Time-to-market and cost efficiency
are the obvious benefits of moving toward a
standard, off-the-shelf platform,” says Lori
Scott, marketing programs manager for Intel’s
Communications Infrastructure Group.

Technology Reuse

MicroTCA takes AdvancedMC cards, originally
designed to plug into AdvancedTCA
carriers, and treats them like blades that slot
into modular backplane/chassis systems. By
providing a smaller form factor, MicroTCA
can deliver the features of AdvancedTCA to
equipment at the far reaches of the telecom
network. Outside of traditional telecom
applications, MicroTCA is generating interest
in field-oriented deployments – military, aerospace
and government sectors – such as troops
on naval ships using WiFi for communications.
Interest is also growing in embedded applications
valuing high availability, like industrial
and process control, medical equipment and
instrumentation applications.

MicroTCA currently defines MicroTCA
Carrier Hubs to provide the functionality
of AdvancedTCA carriers that run management
software and contain backplane
interface switches, fabric control and other
functions. Carrier hubs, as well as backplane
power management hardware, will add to
system overhead and cost.

“The reuse of ATCA elements, along with
the size and performance scalability of
MicroTCA, now extends the range of ATCA
to cover nearly all telecom applications. At
the same time, by leveraging the modular
software and hardware developed for
ATCA, MicroTCA keeps development costs
down while maintaining the performance
and reliability required by telecom applications,”
says Stuart Jamieson, an architect at
Emerson Network Power.

Revenue Forecast

“Market researchers expect MicroTCA to
quickly become a multi-billion dollar market
with the benefits of wide availability, short
development times, and low manufacturing
costs,” says Ernie Bergstrom, VP Research &
Chief Analyst at Crystal Cube Consulting.

MicroTCA is an obvious fit for telecom
equipment at the edge of the network. It
is less clear which traditional embedded
applications will embrace this new standard
and drive volume. PICMG members working
on the MicroTCA specification are trying to
answer this question so they can anticipate
the needs of emerging market segments.

Specialized Needs

In order for MicroTCA adoption to gain traction
beyond its communication roots, it will
need to address non-telecom requirements.
Data acquisition and industrial control
applications will need cards that won’t
be useful to most AdvancedTCA systems.
Military and aerospace equipment must
operate in harsh environments and undergo
rigorous field testing. And will suppliers
simply scale down AdvancedTCA chassis,
which can be rather large and expensive, or
develop smaller frames with fewer slots at
lower price-points?

Automation and Control applications need
cards that operate in both analog and digital
domains, as well as support a diverse set of
interfaces and protocols. “Although there is
a growing ecosystem of AdvancedTCA vendors striving to be interoperable, there is still
a fair amount of work to be done, especially
with application specific AdvancedMCs such
as for DSPs, NPUs, E1/T1, IPSec, storage,
and processing”, says Sven Freudenfeld,
North American business development
for the Kontron line of AdvancedTCA and
AdvancedMC modular solutions.

Defense and aerospace require MicroTCA
to make improvements in several environment
oriented areas: shock and vibration
tolerance, EMI/EMC emissions, and operating
temperature ranges. “To allow AMCs
and MicroTCA to become viable COTS
technologies for all functional elements of
the defense and aerospace architectures,
ruggedization efforts must begin now.
To that end, Hybricon and Motorola have
teamed to develop a ruggedized version
of Motorola’s first commercial MicroTCA
platform, for use as a development and
design-in vehicle for rugged applications,”
say PIGMG members Willie Coffey and Bob
Truffford at Motorola Inc. and Bob Sullivan
at Hybricon. They add, “Many defense solution
providers and prime contractors are
interested in deploying platforms based
on open PICMG specifications, specifically
AdvancedMC and MicroTCA. This interest is fueled by the bandwidth, management
and flexibility potential provided by these
platforms.”

Suppliers are already creating a range of
MicroTCA chassis with names like “Cube”
and “Pico” that support a wide range – 2, 4, 12,
24, and 48 – of AdvancedMC cards. “Surely
high-volume applications will involve only a
small number of MicroTCA cards in a small,
low-cost framework,” says Ernie Bergstrom
at Crystal Cube Consulting. He adds, “The
connector is still another issue. What is
good enough for an add-on board may not
suffice for mobile or portable applications.
Can the industry develop other solutions
without sacrificing low cost and system
interoperability?”

MicroTCA is off to a running start and is
creating a lot of enthusiasm. Coupled with
some of the latest low power multi-core
processors, it can satisfy higher levels of
compute performance and I/O processing
to serve applications such as medical
imaging, industrial and defense. By combining
the knowledge from prior VME and AdvancedTCA engineering efforts,
MicroTCA stands on the shoulders of its
predecessors.

Craig Szydlowski is a contributing editor to Embedded Intel Solutions. He is a technology writer with over twenty years of semiconductor and embedded market experience working for Intel, IBM and Siemens. He
holds a BSEE from Yale University and an
MBA from the Wharton School.