Articles

By Paul Virgo
Director of Marketing - Embedded Computing
Emerson Network Power

It has been almost two years after the MicroTCA ratification, and one year since the inaugural MicroTCA Summit and the first claimed design win. So, where do we stand today, and what does the future hold for MicroTCA?

This article will explore a number of the drivers of MicroTCA adoption, including issues that either impede or accelerate the implementation of this popular open standard into diverse applications. For example, the potential for commoditized cost is seen as one of the big value propositions, but is the total cost of ownership really understood? Do products from different vendors interoperate, or is the user faced with a significant amount of integration work?

Packaging
Due to the diversity of the target applications and environments, packaging is probably the most critical development area for MicroTCA. First generation packaging – largely around metal construction 19-inch rackmount solutions – is now being supplemented by ruggedized Air Transport Rack (ATR) systems as well as low-cost plastic injection molded systems. ATR systems are able to withstand elevated levels of temperature, shock and vibration, and ultimately conduction cooling, which in turn makes them suitable for military and aerospace markets. Plastic injection molded systems are economical, compact, portable and optimal for low-noise enterprise environments.

Performance
Second generation processor AMCs are utilizing dual-core and multi-core technologies to boost the MIPS/SqIn/Watt for high-end embedded applications. Memory is already advancing to 6 and 8Gb with space allocation and cooling technologies being the gating factor. This memory and processor performance pacing will continue in line with the accepted embedded CPU performance and memory density advancement to provide products that are ‘good enough' for purpose, without encroaching on the server class of performance provided by AdvancedTCA (ATCA) boards.

Ease of Use
While PICMG Interoperability labs and the forthcoming CP-TA test suites are ensuring that different vendors' products work together, there is still a level of integration overhead that a customer must expend to bring up a system to their configuration requirements. This might include setting FRU data, BIOS settings, fabric set up, ensuring compatibility of port mappings, OS configuration and BSPs, etc. Spending time on “basic integration” is not a good use of customers' R&D resources (which are better applied to creating differentiated value through the application). Buying a complete system from a single vendor can negate this step, but with the diverse application set for MicroTCA, it is rare for a single vendor to be able to supply the entire solution. To combat that issue, Emerson Network Power provides a “light” Operation, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning (OAM&P) capability package called SpiderWareM3 on all MicroTCA systems.

Manage	FRU inventory, serial number and revision level
	Override control of fan speeds and LEDs
	Warm/cold/ graceful reboot
Monitor	Monitor hardware and environmental sensors
	Set upper and lower limits for alarms
	Prioritize and filter alarms & events
	Filtered logging
	Configure email alerts for alarms and events
Maintain	Hot swap support, FRU discovery
	IP address maintenance
	Software loading
	Firmware upgrade/fallback

 

Services
Although the MicroTCA specification is based on a significant amount of re-use from ATCA, many companies are not familiar with its capabilities and benefits, which leads to a hesitancy to adopt the technology. To address this uncertainty, companies need to provide design, integration, deployment, lifecycle management and supply chain management services to decrease the risks and to increase the overall experience (including speeding time to market) for the customer's first MicroTCA application.

Education
As with any new technology, PICMG specifications can often be complex and difficult to grasp at the beginning, Reducing the complexity of these specs and making them simpler and easier to understand helps to significantly reduce the customer's initial fear and uncertainty. In addition to reducing the complexity of the specs, customer education is also an integral part of acceptance and future widespread adoption. Intel should be applauded for its 2007 ‘Big Momentum on MicroTCA' campaign, which promoted not only the standard, but also the technology's many uses.

Industry Specification
While PICMG is the primary industry body behind MicroTCA and responsible for developing multiple ruggedization dot specifications to encourage adoption, there are several other groups contributing to its success, refinement, standardization, and ultimately adoption. For example, SCOPE, the user consortium of Tier 1 telecom original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), has defined usage models that have identified preferred configurations out of this flexible architecture that help consolidate their requirements. In addition, the Communications Platform Trade Association (CP-TA) will be defining open specifications test suites to ensure that users get consistent levels of conformance from vendors. As MicroTCA builds upon the success of ATCA in the telecommunications space, applications will evolve that require various levels of high availability. These needs will be met by the efforts of the Service Availability Forum (SA Forum) and OpenSAF. Outside the telecommunications space, there are similar standards for environmental, operating system and software development initiatives that will become more relevant as MicroTCA pushes out into the adjacent vertical markets.

Cost of Technology
MicroTCA's most compelling value proposition is bringing down the cost of technology via expectations of commoditization. This is a simple model:

Small modular architecture that supports a pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-grow philosophy, re-use of the building blocks across different architectures and high unit volume applications that accelerate the economies of scale.

This last issue causes the most hesitancy to potential adopters. The current perception is that those who enter the market first pay higher costs because the volumes aren't there, while those who wait enjoy the benefits of lower entrance costs. To avoid this road block, vendors need to get involved by investing in tooling, Design for Cost (DFC) processes and high volume manufacturing capabilities. This is in fact already happening, as in the last year we have seen the entrance of dual core processor AMCs at sub-$2,000 prices; sub-$5,000 systems and packaging well under $1,000.

Total Cost of Ownership
While cost of technology (product) is a critical component of adoption, the total cost of ownership should not be overlooked. The impact to capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and ROI on R&D are all factors that the management team needs to consider before agonizing over make versus buy decisions and how to create, maintain and defend competitive advantage. With so many industry consortiums and leading companies already supporting MicroTCA, this standard is well on its way to meet and exceed technology, cost and performance expectations.

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About Paul Virgo
Paul Virgo is the Director of Marketing responsible for MicroTCA and AdvancedMCs for the Embedded Computing business of Emerson Network Power. He has led the market development and launch of these technologies since their inception.

About the MicroTCA Summit 2008
The MicroTCA Summit 2008 will be held on May 28-30 at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia The Summit will provide attendees with current information on this emerging standard platform for low-cost telecommunications equipment, mobile systems, military and defense systems, medical equipment, and other applications. It will feature tutorials, workshops, paper and panel sessions, keynotes, and exhibits. Attendees will gain practical, up-to-date information on how to reduce equipment cost and development time, get projects off the ground, and achieve goals for high throughput, low power consumption, and certified interoperability. For more information, visit www.microtcasummit.com.

SOURCE: MicroTCASummit 2008