Embedded Computing ATCA/AMC in telecommunications

AdvancedTCA® (ATCA) and Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) bring an open modular system architecture to telecommunications. These system and expansion module standards were conceived explicitly for telecommunications and are defined from the ground up to meet the rigorous performance, environmental and regulatory requirements demanded by telecom OEMs. They comprise an optimal telecom platform that addresses major bandwidth, availability, field upgradeability, cost, scalability, management, and interoperability issues.

ATCA blades measure 322mm (8U) x 280mm with a 1.2 inch (30.48mm) board pitch and each blade can draw up to 200W. The power budget and size allows each ATCA blade pack a great deal of functionality into a single slot, reducing system footprint and implementation costs. For instance a complete media gateway system could be implemented on a single ATCA blade; an application that might require 2 to 3 CompactPCI/2.16 boards to implement at the same channel density. 

To bring even greater flexibility and modularity to ATCA, a new mezzanine card standard was conceived called Advanced Mezzanine Card, or AMC for short. Up to 8 AMC modules can be put onto an ATCA blade, bringing an even finer grain modularity to telecom OEMs. These AMC modules are hotswappable and have all the system management and data bandwidth of a full ATCA blade. AMC allows a system designer to build a complete system on a blade. 

AMC modules come in 4 different sizes ranging from single-wide to double-wide and half-height to full-height.  A single-wide module is 72.9mm x 183.5mm and a double-wide module is 147.9mm x 183.5mm. The power budget for each module ranges from 20 Watts for a single-wide/half-height module to 60 Watts for a double-wide/half-height module. This size and power budget flexibility lends AMC to a range of functions, from advanced server-class processors such as the low-voltage Intel® Xeon® processor to relatively simple Ethernet or non-intelligent T1/E1 interface boards.

Emerson has taken a leadership role with these standards, actively participating in the definition and authoring many parts of both the ATCA and AMC standards. Emerson was the first company to demonstrate and show an AdvancedTCA AMC carrier card. We were also the first to introduce an AMC card.  Our KosaiPM provides a complete Intel Pentium-M subsystem in a single-wide AMC formfactor.

ATCA and AMC provide a solid platform for telecom OEMs with the promise of shortened time-to-market, lowered CAPEX and lowered OPEX.