Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture
[2] AdvancedTCA is targeted primarily to requirements for "carrier grade" communications equipment, but has recently expanded its reach into more ruggedized applications geared toward the military/aerospace industries as well.
[3] This series of specifications incorporates the latest trends in high speed interconnect technologies, next-generation processors, and improved Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS).
RTMs plug into the back of the shelf in slot locations that match the front boards.
The connectors in Zone-1 provide redundant −48 VDC power and Shelf Management signals to the boards.
[4] The connectors in Zone-3 are user defined and are usually used to connect a front board to a Rear Transition Module.
The Zone-3 area can also hold a special backplane to interconnect boards with signals that are not defined in the AdvancedTCA specification.
The chassis Field Replaceable Units (FRU) data includes an Address Table that describes the relationship between the Logical and Physical slots.
Update Channel Interface is a set of 10 differential signal pairs that interconnect two slots.
If there is, the Shelf Manager sends a command to the IPMC to power-up the payload part of the blade.
The Shelf Manager communicates with the boards and intelligent FRUs with IPMI protocols running on redundant I²C buses.
IPMI protocols include packet checksums to ensure that data transmission is reliable.
The Shelf Manager communicates with outside entities with RMCP (IPMI over TCP/IP), HTTP, SNMP over an Ethernet network.
Some Shelf Managers support the Hardware Platform Interface, a technical specification defined by the Service Availability Forum.
Two new working groups have been started to adapt ATCA to the specific requirements of physics research.
Signal lines be identified for use as clocks, gates, and triggers that are commonly used in Physics data acquisition systems.
WG2 will define a common set of software architectures and supporting infrastructure to facilitate inter-operability and portability of both hardware and software modules among the various applications developed for the Physics xTCA platform and that will minimize the development effort and time required to construct experiments and systems using that platform.
