VDC Research: Embedded Microprocessor, Board & Systems Market Blog

Connect with VDC Research Group at the Design West/Embedded Systems Conference 2012!

VDC Research Group will be joining the Design West/Embedded Systems Conference 2012 exhibition and conference.  During the conference, we will be presenting the coveted VDC Embeddy awards to a deserving product in each of the 2 software and hardware categories. To make sure your product is considered, please make sure that:

• The product is formally announced at the show or, has been announced as of January, 2012
• That the VDC Research team will be briefed on the details of the product by your show staff.

VDC’s Embedded Hardware Team will be arriving March 27th and will be at the conference through March 29th.  During that time, we welcome the opportunity to connect with attending vendors.  We look forward to explaining VDC’s research methodology, learning about your latest product releases, and discussing your market research and strategic needs.

If you would like to learn more about the show, please click here.

If you would like to schedule a meeting around Embedded Hardware, please contact:

David Laing, Senior Analyst, Embedded Hardware & Systems Practice, VDC Research Group at: dlaing@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x146.

Or

Chris Rommel, Vice President, Embedded Hardware & Systems Practice, VDC Research Group at: crommel@vdcresearch.com  or 508.653.9000 x123.

If you would like to schedule a meeting around Embedded Software, please contact:

Jared Weiner, Analyst, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research Group at: jweiner@vdcresearch.com  or 508.653.9000 x143.

New MicroTCA Specification targets Military Applications

PICMG has recently announced the adoption of a specification for a hardened, conduction cooled version of the emerging MicroTCA platform (MTCA.3). THis is the third in a proposed series of five specifications, aimed at broadening usage of the AMC architecture into ruggedized applications in both military and commercial markets.

The first MicroTCA specification, MTCA.0, was adopted in July of 2006. This defined the basic system architecture which employed AdvancedMC mezzanine cards (AMCs) plugged directly into a backplane, without modifications. This significant first step allowed AMC cards to be used as blades in small footprint systems, without requiring use of a carrier. It was anticipated that MicroTCA would find application not only in communications, but in industrial and military applications as well. However, many were skeptical about the edge connected nature of AMC cards, fearing that this could be a serious vulnerability. Thus the military, in particular, considered MicroTCA as only being appropriate for use in benign environments (e.g. wide-bodied aircraft).

A second specification, MTCA.1,which was adopted in March of 2009, defined an air-cooled ruggedized version of MicroTCA, intended for exterior and mobile communications applications. While an improvement over MTCA.0, this still did not offer the degree of ruggedization that was required by the Military and Aerospace market.

A hardened air-cooled specification, MTCA.2, was proposed and is the subject of an active effort at PICMG. However, MTCA.3, which was adopted in February of 2011, provides an immediate avenue for the introduction of MicroTCA into less benign application environments. Its one "downside" is that MTCA.3 does specify conduction cooling which, although desirable in many cases, is substantially more expensive.

As a part of the MicroTCA ruggedization effort, PICMG commissioned a study comprising military environmental testing of the MicroTCA connector system. The test program, performed by Contech Research (Attleboro, MA), was based on MIL-STD-801 and RTCA/DO-160 standards. The rigorous program investigated the connectors from the standpoints of mechanical shock, random vibration, thermal shock, thermal cycling with humidity, temperature life, mixed flowing gas, insulation resistance, dielectric withstanding voltage, durability, insert and extraction force, salt, fog and sand. The fact that the connectors passed these tests handily should put to rest the aforementioned skepticism and points to a probability that MicroTCA may be adopted for deployment under severe, even battleground, conditions.

MicroTCA, therefore, now provides an alternative to the small form factor VME-based systems micro.VPX and Nano-ATR, which were recently introduced by VITA members PCI-Systems, Inc. and Themis Computer.

Has VME Learned From xTCA?

Despite VME guru Ray Alderman’s (in)famous comment that CompactPCI was a “dog” and ATCA a “dog with fleas,” it appears that VITA and the VME industry may be moving along a path first blazed by PICMG and xTCA.

Late in 2002, PICMG released the first version of the Advanced TeleCommunications Architecture (ATCA) standard. This defined the first true blade-based architecture, wherein all communication across the backplane was via a high-speed serial switch fabric, rather than over a shared, parallel, multidrop bus. This was followed by the Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) standard in 2005.

It didn’t take folks that long to realize that AMC cards could also be used as blades in smaller footprint systems. PICMG released the first version of the resultant MicroTCA standard in 2006. The advent of MicroTCA was seen as a positive development for the market, not only because of its technical capability and reduced footprint (vs. ATCA), but because it also expanded the potential market for AMC cards. These could be used either as mezzanine cards or as MicroTCA blades, yielding higher potential volumes and thus greater economies of manufacturing scale.

The VME industry was slower to adopt blade-based systems architectures, largely because military and aerospace defines the primary market for VME systems, and the military tends to take a more cautious approach to innovation than do civilian markets. In the latter, time-to-market is of overarching concern, whereas in military and aerospace, where mission criticality is the primary concern, far more emphasis is placed on reliability and ruggedness.

However, the evolution of VME through VME2eSST and VXS to VPX and OpenVPX has brought blade architectures, similar to ATCA, to the forefront of VME-based technology. It now appears that parallels to AMC and MicroTCA are also in the works.

Two new small form factor systems architectures are currently being investigated by VITA, with the objective of producing standards. These are “micro.VPX”and “NanoATR.” The former is the brainchild of PCI-Systems, Inc., and is the subject of working group VITA 73; it utilizes a small form factor VPX card. The latter, NanoATR, was developed by Themis Computer, targeted at ATR systems for aircraft, and utilizes an even smaller card. NanoATR is the subject of working group VITA 74. Both versions of the cards are being evaluated by the VITA 71 working group, which is developing a standard for a new rugged VME mezzanine architecture.

VDC believes that these developments will be highly beneficial to the VME-based ecosystem, and applauds the effort. Development of the MicroTCA standard was, however, fraught with confusion and delay because of differing views on an optimal configuration (cube vs. rack mount). We caution VITA’s working group(s) against falling into a similar trap, and to allow either configuration from the start.

ATCA Summit Show Report

VDC Research Group's Embedded Hardware practice attended the ATCA Summit in Santa Clara, CA last week. This show always presents a great chance to catch up on the latest happenings of the entire ATCA ecosystem as it brings together virtually all of the important ATCA technology players. The themes that were most clear to VDC at this year's Summit were the move towards ever faster bandwidth (currently the inevitable move to 40Gigabit Ethernet) and the growing up of the ATCA software ecosystem.

It was apparent that the industry will soon be ready to move from 10 GbE to 40 GbE with various vendors displaying their latest hardware that will enable the move to 40GbE. Both Emerson Network Power's Embedded Computing Division and RadiSys announced new 40GbE integrated systems. Emerson Network Power announced the next generation of its Centellis 2000 ATCA platform, which is a two slot ATCA system featuring a 40GbE backplane. RadiSys meanwhile announced the availability of full sized ATCA integrated systems complete with 40GbE backplanes and 40GbE switch blades.  ELMA Bustronic was also exhibiting 40GbE with its latest highspeed ATCA backplane, capable of 40GbE speeds. It is obvious that with the move to 4G/LTE that the requirement for speeds of 40GbE and faster is rapidly approaching and these firms along with other ATCA vendors will be soon be securing LTE and other 4G design wins with such 40GbE ATCA platforms. VDC's own current projections show that today the ATCA market is at the inflection point where 10GbE is now used in more new ATCA designs than 1 GbE and that real deployment of 40GbE ATCA systems will begin in earnest in 2011 with an inflection point coming 2013 when 40GbE will overtake 10GbE in the majority of new ATCA designs.

The importance of the ATCA ecosystem improving its software component has been obvious to VDC for some time and it was obvious at the Summit that much work continues to be done in this area. The software infrastructure available from the ATCA ecosystem today still lags the hardware infrastructure, but there are many firms and industry organizations working hard to close that gap. VDC believes that for ATCA to achieve its full potential a more robust offering of commercial software solutions is needed around the hardware platforms available. Much has already been done in the area of commercial real-time middleware by both GoAhead Software and ENEA, but other pieces of the software puzzle are still needed. One of great important is the need for true real-time virtualization for ATCA platforms. We met with the SA Forum and OpenSAF foundations during the show to learn about the latest development at these organizations and both are making important strides in enabling a stronger ATCA software ecosystem. The work of these organizations should continue to be elevated by both vendors and customers alike as customer feedback can be invaluable for foundations of this sort and the work they are doing will make life much easier for ATCA users in the long run.

Two other firms focused on software's importance in enabling ATCA platforms at the Summit were Continuous Computing (CCPU) and Diversified Technology (DTI). CCPU continues to focus on its Trillium protocol software as an important part of its ATCA integrated systems and also confirmed that LTE business is picking up for ATCA as they are seeing adoption in some new LTE applications. DTI announced an enhanced software suite and support for its 10GbE switch blade as the market has moved rapidly to 10GbE solutions today as noted earlier.

MicroTCA also had a prominent role at the Summit. Kontron announced a carrier-grade 1U MicroTCA platform that comes pre-validated with Cavium-based AMC modules. Meanwhile, Advantech announced a new 26-core MicroTCA platform in a 3U package and CommAgility announced the release of a high performance FPGA-based interface and processing AMC that can provide speeds up to 10GbE for MicroTCA platforms.

So as you can see this year's ATCA Summit was a great sampling of the innovation that has occurred all year long in the ATCA ecosystem even in the face of the recession. Look for things to get even more exciting as 4G rollout ramps up in late 2010 and 2011, as this will create a massive deployment of brand new network infrastructure the size of which we have not seen for many years and of which ATCA is poised to capture a substantial piece.