PICMG Systems & Technology Winter 2015 by OpenSystems Media

Standards Update

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Advancing Networks

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PICMG: Year in review Market prospectus @PICMG_Tech

WINTER 2015 | VOLUME 19 NUMBER 3 Standards-based technology platforms for open innovation

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On the cover Embedded computing markets can be difficult to estimate, particularly for standardized technologies like AdvancedTCA (ATCA) that are often customized or modified from the base specification. In the 2016 Buyer’s Guide issue of PICMG Systems & Technology, we investigate the market share and opportunity for ATCA and CompactPCI, as well as how PICMG member companies are gearing up for the Internet of Things.

Adding IoT friendliness to AdvancedTCA and related specifications By Mark Overgaard, Pentair Electronics

Technology Focus

Market Pulse | Joe Pavlat and Jessica Isquith 3

The trouble with estimating embedded markets

Advancing Networks | Brandon Lewis 5

Market prospectus: Pendulum swings as PICMG wraps up 100G ATCA

Standards Update | Joe Pavlat and Jessica Isquith 6

PICMG: Year in review

Technology Focus Lower cost µTCA for special applications

By Mike Thompson, Pentair, Schroff brand

Application Feature

Adding IoT friendliness to AdvancedTCA and related specifications

By Mark Overgaard, Pentair Electronics

Application Feature 12

Lower cost µTCA for special applications

By Mike Thompson, Pentair, Schroff brand

Industry Outlook 18

The promise of COM Express

By Charlotte Adams, Abaco Systems

2016 Buyer’s Guide The promise of COM Express

By Charlotte Adams, Abaco Systems

Industry Outlook

Profile Index Communications & Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Military & Aerospace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

® 2015 OpenSystems Media ®C ompactPCI, PICMG, PICMG, ATCA, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, GEN4, and their logos are registered trademarks of PICMG. TM x TCA is a trademark of PICMG. © 2015 PICMG Systems & Technology All registered brands and trademarks in AdvancedTCA & CompactPCI Systems are property of their respective owners.

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Market Pulse

The trouble with estimating embedded markets By Joe Pavlat, Editorial Director, and Jessica Isquith, Industry Editor jpavlat@opensystemsmedia.com | info@picmg.org Estimating the size of a segment of the embedded computer market has always been difficult. It is especially difficult for high value systems like AdvancedTCA (ATCA). The dynamics are complex, and often many vendors add value throughout the supply chain. With AdavancedTCA, boards are often shipped to an integrator, who adds other value, including chassis (“shelves” in ATCA-speak), power and system management, and software. This system then usually goes to a telecom equipment manufacturer (TEM) who adds yet more hardware and software and delivers the final product to the end customer, usually the telecommunications carrier (AT&T, Verizon, etc.). It is a multi-tiered supply chain. Increasingly, customers everywhere in the chain are demanding – and getting – semi-customized or fully customized products from their vendors. While vendors may report standard product volumes to the outside world, contractual obligations often prohibit them from disclosing volumes, or even the customer names, to anyone. When I was in the board building business I signed many such contracts. Customers like tailored products for several reasons. First, the average price of an ATCA system, as reported to me by several suppliers, is generally between $50K USD and $100K USD. This is an expensive kit, and customers want to buy exactly what they need and no more or less. Customers like the TEMs, who ultimately sell the gear to the end customer, the carriers, like this also because it helps get their customers locked into them as a vendor. The mil/aero world has been using this strategy for decades. So, attempting to estimate the ATCA market size is difficult, and looking at board shipments – standard product board shipments at that – is an insufficient measurement. It’s a bit like weighing www.picmg-systems.com

someone’s thumb and then attempting to estimate their body weight, especially when coupled with the large number of AdvancedTCA-esque systems being supplied to the comms market. It is also estimated that up to 50 percent of boards manufactured are manufactured by Tier 1 TEMs (Alcatel Lucent, Nokia, Huawei). Those numbers are impossible to dig up. It’s a tough problem.

“... UP TO 50 PERCENT OF BOARDS MANUFACTURED ARE MANUFACTURED BY TIER 1 TEMS. THOSE NUMBERS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO DIG UP. IT’S A TOUGH PROBLEM.”

A much better measurement is the number of systems shipped and the average price per system. A good way to get a handle on the number of systems is to look at the number of empty shelves shipped, as most customers up and down the supply chain buy that component instead of build it. I talked to two of the leading shelf suppliers, and they each estimated that about 20K-25K ATCA systems are shipped each year by Tier 1 TEMs, and another 20K-25K systems are shipped by integrators and from geographies like India that tend to source locally. Doing the math on those estimates suggests that the total ATCA market is between $2B USD and $2.5B USD. I think that is an accurate estimate. Though not as large as the communications market, the number of military programs that currently include ATCA is growing. One of the reasons for this is the need to replace existing implementations of IBM’s Blade Center due to the sale of the product line to

Chinese company Lenovo. The lifecycle requirements of the military ensure additional long-term use, as evidenced by CompactPCI’s continued vast adoption in satellite applications. CompactPCI and CompactPCI Serial market sizes are also difficult to estimate for many of the reasons mentioned above. Vendors I talked to indicated their CompactPCI business is still doing very well and they expect it to continue for more than a couple of years. The CompactPCI Serial market is tougher to evaluate. It was developed in Europe and is gaining popularity there first. It is unknown to what extend it will scavenge existing CompactPCI business or create incremental business. Probably a little of both. Joe Pavlat is President of PICMG. Jessica Isquith is Vice President of Marketing, PICMG. PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) www.picmg.org • info@picmg.org

PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |

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Advancing Networks

Market prospectus: Pendulum swings as PICMG wraps up 100G ATCA By Brandon Lewis, Technology Editor Throughout my tenure with OpenSystems Media, Joe Pavlat, PICMG President and Editorial Director of PICMG Systems & Technology has often referred to the standards-based embedded computing market as a pendulum. On the one side, industry typically collaborates on standards-based architectures when underlying technologies are enhanced, or when vendor lockin and price gouging prompt the client base to revolt, or a combination of the two. AdvancedTCA (ATCA) owes its very existence to this phenomenon. On the other side, in markets with thinning margins suppliers are constantly looking for ways to add value on top of standards-based platforms once they’ve been defined, which inevitably leads the pendulum to swing back in the other direction towards more customized, vendor-centric offerings. You see this happening in the market today, as equipment manufacturers at all levels of the telecom/datacom supply chain are leveraging ATCA as a baseline for other communications products, Advantech’s Packetarium XLc and Kontron’s SYMKLOUD being a couple of prime examples. The Advantech and Kontron offerings also illustrate a parallel trend in the communications market, as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) architectures continue to redefine network topologies. As Daniel Mandell, Analyst at VDC Research (www.vdcresearch.com) notes, these technologies “are having a profound impact on form factor selection for networking infrastructure, pushing more purpose-built active backplane and integrated server products supporting cloud-based or network-attached configurations.” “SDN and NFV adoption is accelerating with growing familiarity and expertise with virtualization technologies – both within embedded and the enterprise,” Mandell says. “With that said, passive backplane architectures still account for approximately half of the embedded systems market in the communications and networking vertical, with ATCA being the leading open standard architecture by far, although the majority of passive backplane systems [supplied] to this vertical still feature custom or proprietary architectures.” Mandell forecasts the overall ATCA market growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around five percent for the next 5 years, citing “more competition between traditional vendors [that] is squeezing margins and profitability within the ecosystem” and the desire of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions providers to implement converged architectures based on rackmount servers as reasons for slower ATCA growth than in years passed. www.picmg-systems.com

blewis@opensystemsmedia.com Similarly, reading from his company’s 2014 market report, Mark Watson, Associate Director of Discrete Automation at IHS (www.ihs.com) predicts the ATCA board market grew marginally this year, but will begin to decline steadily through 2018. Based on his numbers for the Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and Americas regions, ATCA boards shipments will generate roughly $175 million in revenue by the end of the forecast.

“IF YOU RECALL, THE GROUNDSWELL AROUND 40G ATCA WAS ENORMOUS. I SUSPECT WE’LL SEE THE SAME AT 100G, WHICH IS HEADING FOR MEMBER REVIEW IN JANUARY/FEBRUARY OF 2016.”

However, being a 2014 report, these numbers do not reflect shipments of 100G ATCA boards given that work on the PICMG 3.1 R 3.0 specification was announced in early 2015. This enhancement is critical to the continued success of the ATCA ecosystem, as the ability to migrate across backwardscompatible systems allows users to preserve their investment as bandwidth demands increase. “Standard ATCA has wrestled some share away from custom/ proprietary form factors with updated PICMG standards allowing more power, cooling, I/O capability, etc.,” says Mandell. “Lots of network operators will be looking to preserve their ATCA-based networks and can typically easily upgrade from 10G to 40G to 100G by swapping boards and reusing the system card cage, cooling, and power,” he adds. Pendulums swing in both directions As Pavlat and PICMG’s Marketing Director Jessica Isquith wrote elsewhere in this issue, estimating embedded markets is difficult, notwithstanding the current influx of ATCA-like systems. But as PICMG continues to update its flagship specification family, the AdvancedTCA standard will remain relevant until such a time as the pendulum swings away from proprietary offerings and back into the world of standards. If you recall, the groundswell around 40G ATCA was enormous. I suspect we’ll see the same at 100G, which is heading for member review in January/February of 2016. Happy holidays, and best of luck next year. PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |

Standards Update

PICMG: Year in review By Joe Pavlat, Editorial Director, and Jessica Isquith, Industry Editor

jpavlat@opensystemsmedia.com | info@picmg.org PICMG enjoyed a busy year with a number of technical subcommittees working on and releasing updates to existing specifications. Most of the work has been related to new revisions of popular technologies. 2016 will see a continuation of these efforts, and a few other specs will be opened up for a refresh. AdvancedTCA, originally developed specifically for the central office telco environment, has continued to evolve over the years, increasing board power capability from 200 to 400 watts and speeding up the Ethernet fabric from 10 to 40 Gbps. 2015 saw the release of a major enhancement to the standard in the form of PICMG 3.7, known as ATCA Extensions, which increases ATCA’s capability further and also defines versions of ATCA that are optimized for enterprise, or datacenter, applications. Key new features include: ›› A complete definition of doublewide boards that can use full-size, low-cost DIMM memory and dissipate up to 800 watts per slot ›› Dual-sided shelves that can support up to 32 single-wide or 16 double-wide boards (Figure 1) ›› Enhanced Hardware Platform Management ›› New temperature profiles and a datacenter climatic class for 45 ºC maximum ambient operation, different than ATCA’s original central office requirement of 55 ºC operation ›› Elimination of the now-obsolete requirement for -60V main supply voltage ›› Much larger Rear Transition Modules (RTMs), called Extended Transition Modules (ETMs) Realizing that the world is running out of 32-bit IPv4 IP addresses, ATCA and

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Figure 1 | Dual-sided shelves introduced in the AdvancedTCA Extensions specification can support up to 32 single-wide or 16 double-wide boards. Image courtesy of Pentair Electronics Protection.

its variants now support IPv6 addressing. Updated specs include the PICMG 3.0 Base Specification, PICMG 3.7, and HPM.2, one of the Hardware Platform Management specs. HPM.3 will follow with an update in 2016. Adapting the old adage that says you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much bandwidth, committees are working hard on upping the speed of ATCA again (which now accommodates 40G Ethernet) to 100G Ethernet. An important part of any open standard like ATCA is the interoperability of system elements – boards, backplanes, connectors, etc. – between vendors. This requires that sophisticated modeling and simulations be done. The PICMG 3.1 Revision 3 committee is well along the way to completing that work, and 100G capability is expected to be released early in 2016. In another area, CompactPCI Serial revision 2 was released, with increased rear panel I/O capability and more flexible internal Ethernet networking. A new CompactPCI Serial committee is being formed to extend that specification’s applicability to space and satellite applications, where traditional CompactPCI is widely used. MicroTCA, which has always been somewhat of a niche technology, is now enjoying wide acceptance and applicability in physics research and a global group of scientists is upgrading MicroTCA in a variety of ways. First, networking speed is increasing to 40G. This is also being specified for the AMC.2 standard. Second, a newer version of the MTCA.4 RTM spec is near completion. It adds new functionality and tightens up some of the electrical and mechanical requirements for building RTMs. Operating concurrently, a software effort is underway to define APIs for what the physics community

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

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“ADAPTING THE OLD ADAGE THAT SAYS YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO RICH, TOO THIN, OR HAVE TOO MUCH BANDWIDTH, COMMITTEES ARE WORKING HARD ON UPPING THE SPEED OF ATCA AGAIN (WHICH NOW ACCOMMODATES 40G ETHERNET) TO 100G ETHERNET.”

business of General Electric Co., which has been part of the GE Intelligent Platforms business unit based in Huntsville, AL. We would be remiss if we did not note that 2015 saw the full retirement of long-time engineering contributor Eike Waltz, who has played a vital role in the mechanical design of virtually everything PICMG and VITA have done for over 20 years, including CompactPCI, ATCA, MicroTCA, VME, and a host of other standards too numerous to mention. In addition to his major contributions to our industry, Eike is an accomplished artist who has exhibited his work in galleries and exhibitions in both the US and Europe. He will now focus his time and talent on his art, and we all wish him the best. Joe Pavlat, President Jessica Isquith, Vice President of Marketing PICMG • www.picmg.org • info@picmg.org

is calling the Standard Device Model for developing MicroTCA data acquisition and processing software for physics. A Call for Participation has just gone out inviting PICMG members to join a new subcommittee that will update and refresh the COM Express specification. The updates include providing for 10 gigabit Ethernet and facilitating the transition from LPC to eSPI. A new Type 7 pinout will also be defined. Miscellaneous fixes and updates will also be addressed. More on M&As and a farewell 2015 was a busy year on the business side of things, with a number of acquisitions, mergers, consolidations, and divestitures within the embedded computing world. Eletronics packaging giant Pentair Electronics Protection, best known for their Schroff line of chassis and enclosures, acquired long-time partner Pigeon Point Systems, best known for their platform management products that are an important part of a variety of PICMG technologies, including ATCA, MicroTCA, and CompactPCI. There was other consolidation in the packaging area. Ableconn, CBT Technology, Photo Etch, and SIE Computing solutions joined together to form Atrenne Integrated Solutions. Atrenne then acquired part of the Curtiss-Wright packaging business, formerly known to most of us as Hybricon.

Intelligent Embedded Computing MicroTCA.4 System Platforms • Beam forming and test • Scientific Data Acquisition & Diagnostics • Energy Research Equipment • Control Systems for Particle Accelerators & Colliders The mTCA architecture is well suited for use in applications such as particle accelerator labs, smart grid, wireless infrastructure and gateway systems. Elma has the expertise and resources to help you design and build your system.

Also, private equity firm Veritas Capital is acquiring the embedded computing www.picmg-systems.com

PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |

Technology Focus

Adding IoT friendliness to AdvancedTCA and related specifications By Mark Overgaard, Pentair Electronics Protection The Internet of Things vision of a massively Internet-connected world is rapidly coming to fruition, along with numerous associated challenges. One of them, exhaustion of the available public Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in traditional IP version 4 (IPv4) is already upon us. Along with many other improvements, IP version 6 (IPv6), which was formalized way back in 1998, grows IP addresses from 32 bits to 128 bits, massively expanding the number of devices that can be addressed. Until just the last few years, the adoption rate for IPv6 has been very low. One reason (or consequence!) is that numerous workarounds were developed to stave off the biggest downsides of IPv4. For instance, Network Address Translation (NAT) applied at a point of Internet access can allow one IPv4 address to represent hundreds, thousands, or more private IP addresses; only the public address needs to be unique. But NAT and the other workarounds have downsides, such as complicating direct device-todevice communication, an important part of IoT friendliness.

subsystems, which are based on IPMI, becoming IPv6-aware as well. Existing IPv4-based network architectures, and the ATCA systems used therein, can continue to take advantage of the various available workarounds. New architectures, however, can begin to take advantage of the inherent benefits of IPv6.

Now, however, the adoption rate is accelerating. As of September, 2015, for instance, of the 10 largest network operators (by traffic volume) tracked by the IPv6 Launch organization, the fraction of IPv6 traffic was over 70 percent for Verizon Wireless, and at or near 50 percent for ATT and T-Mobile USA.

IPv6-aware AdvancedTCA Base and Base Extensions specifications The ATCA HPM subsystem was first adopted with the rest of ATCA at the end of 2002 and has had multiple major rounds of enhancement since then. Other elements of xTCA, including MicroTCA, AMC, and related specifications (numbering almost two dozen in all) base their HPM subsystems on the foundation established by ATCA. It was natural, therefore, for the HPM subcommittee to begin its IPv6 work with PICMG 3.0, the ATCA specification. This work resulted in an Engineering Change Notice (formally, ECN 3.0-3.0-001, which is ECN #001 for PICMG 3.0 R3.0), which was adopted in April 2015.

In 2013, the promoter companies of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) – Intel, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, and Dell – released an update of the IPMI specification that adds IPv6 awareness. That was a key gating factor for the AdvancedTCA (ATCA), AdvancedMC (AMC), and MicroTCA (collectively, xTCA) hardware platform management

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

This article describes the IPv6-awareness initiative of PICMG, which is led by its Hardware Platform Management (HPM) subcommittee.

www.picmg-systems.com

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Figure 1 | A block diagram for an ATCA Shelf Manager, in this case the widely used Schroff Pigeon Point Shelf Manager, showing that all protocols in the System Manager Interface are IPv6 enabled (including the ATCA-mandated RMCP), assumed to be running here on the most recent Pigeon Point Shelf Manager hardware platform, the ShMM-700R.

One key principle for the ECN is that IPv6 support is optional. With the adoption of the ECN, the official definition of ATCA now includes IPv6 support, but an ATCA system without IPv6 support can still be fully compliant. Another key principle of this ECN is that IPv6 complements, but does not replace IPv4 in the ATCA architecture. IPv4 support continues to be mandatory to maximize backward compatibility. If IPv6 support is present, however, it must be compliant with this ECN and with the IPv6 aspects of the IPMI 2.0 specification. One challenge in adding IPv6 awareness was that in IPv6, unlike in IPv4, an IP connection endpoint can have multiple IPv6 addresses, versus normally having a single primary address in IPv4. As a consequence, ATCA originally assumed that the IP address of the active Shelf Manager is a single IPv4 address. After the ECN, that single address becomes the Active Shelf Manager IP Address Set and can include multiple IP addresses. Figure 1 shows a block diagram for one ATCA Shelf Manager product, including the various elements of its System Manager Interface, which is IP-based. The diagram exemplifies what is likely to be the case for all ATCA Shelf Managers that add IPv6 awareness in that interface. Multiple protocols are supported www.picmg-systems.com

PICMG Systems & Technology Buyerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guide | Winter 2015 |

Technology Focus in that interface, even though only the Remote Management Control Protocol (RMCP) is mandated and functionally specified in ATCA; it makes sense for all those protocols to enable IPv6 access, as is done in the Schroff Pigeon Point Shelf Manager shown. PICMG 3.7, the AdvancedTCA Base Extensions specification, is organized as a series of changes to PICMG 3.0 R3.0. By design, the HPM portions of these changes were structured so that PICMG 3.0 as amended by ECN 3.0-3.0-001 could be easily used as an alternate base. A formal ECN to PICMG 3.7 makes exactly that change. No other changes are necessary to make PICMG 3.7 IPv6 aware. Both the PICMG 3.0 and 3.7 ECNs are available free on the PICMG AdvancedTCA page: www.picmg.org/openstandards/ advancedtca. What about MicroTCA? The MicroTCA HPM subsystem was directly based on the corresponding ATCA subsystem. There is a PICMG subcommittee already working on a revision of the MicroTCA base specification. It will be straightforward for that subcommittee to include IPv6 awareness in that revision, following the model used for ATCA. What about the HPM.x specifications? This set of PICMG Hardware Platform Management specifications augments the xTCA architecture and includes the following members: ›› HPM.1: The Firmware Upgrade specification, which standardizes upgrades for xTCA management controllers. This critical function is not standardized by IPMI. ›› HPM.2: The LAN-attached IPM Controller (IPMC) specification, which enables IPMCs, which are boardand module-level management controllers, to directly connect to existing in-shelf LANs to augment their communication with the Shelf Manager and potentially with shelf-external entities. ›› HPM.3: The DHCP-assigned Platform Management Parameters specification, which provides a standard way for IP addresses and other parameters to be assigned to LAN-attached management controllers. HPM.1 allows the use of IP connections for firmware upgrade traffic, but does not attempt to standardize any IP addressrelated aspect of that communication. Therefore, no IPv6 awareness changes are needed. HPM.2 R1.0, which was adopted in 2012, already has some placeholder provisions for IPv6 support. Those provisions have been filled out, along with other modest changes, in the justadopted R1.1. Figure 2 shows how a LAN-attached IPMC connects to an inshelf LAN, in this case the Base Interface (which supports 1G Ethernet in PICMG 3.0 and optionally 10G in PICMG 3.7). With HPM.2 R1.1, IPv6 is supported for such connections.

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

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Figure 2 | One way for HPM.2 IPMCs to connect with an in-shelf Ethernet Base Interface is to share access to one or more network controllers so that IPMI traffic can be multiplexed with other Ethernet traffic to or from the board’s payload CPU(s). The IPMC to network controller link is called a sideband interface.

HPM.3 R1.0 is tightly focused on IPv4 and the corresponding version 4 of DHCP, the Dynamic Host Control Protocol, which uses one or more DHCP servers in a network to provide IPv4 address assignments to DHCP clients in the network. Network entities must have IP addresses to use IP on the network. For instance, Shelf Manager(s) in Figure 1 and the IPMC in Figure 2 would usually, in production environments, receive their IP address assignments via DHCP. Assignments of IPv6 addresses and other network parameters need version 6 of DHCP (DHCPv6), which o perates quite differently, especially at the detailed level, than DHCPv4. Therefore, R2.0 of HPM.3 will be a significant extension of R1.0. Work on this revision is under way in the HPM subcommittee. As with the other aspects of PICMG’s IPv6 initiative, backward compatibility will be preserved in HPM.3 R2.0, which will support existing IPv4- and DHCPv4-based network architectures as defined in HPM.3 R1.0. The new facilities, though different, will be as compatible as possible with R1.0’s IPv4-oriented approaches. www.picmg-systems.com

ATCA boards and AMC modules, if designed to be LAN-attached (which would typically be done via HPM.2) can also be made IPv6-capable at the management controller level with Pigeon Point Board Management Reference (BMR) solutions for IPMCs, Carrier IPMCs, and Module Management Controllers (MMCs). Carrier IPMCs are the management controllers on AMC carrier boards and MMCs are the controllers on the AMCs themselves.

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Figure 3 | Example IPv6-capable Shelf Manager board, the Schroff ACB-VI, which includes a Pigeon Point ShMM-700R.

How can I get going with IPv6 for management controllers in ATCA? The best way is to pick management controllers that already support IPv6. One option is Pentair’s Schroff Pigeon Point management solutions for ATCA, starting with the already available Pigeon Point ShMM-700R, a small mezzanine module. The ShMM-700R comes pre-loaded with the Pigeon Point Shelf Manager, the first Shelf Manager for ATCA to support the just-adopted IPv6 ECN. Multiple companies, including Pentair, are already delivering ATCA shelves managed by the ShMM-700R. Figure 3 shows a Schroff Shelf Manager board that includes a ShMM-700R and installs in a wide range of Schroff ATCA shelves.

Conclusion ATCA systems with IPv6-enabled hardware platform management can be an excellent part of a backend compute complex for the Internet of Things, as well as for new applications in ATCA’s traditional application spaces, including communications and defense. Mature, intensively field-tested management subsystems are critical to achieving the performance and reliability promise of the ATCA architecture. Mark Overgaard is Architect, System Management for Pentair Electronics Protection. Mark was the Founder and formerly the CTO of Pigeon Point Systems, which was acquired by Pentair in July 2015 and integrated into Pentair’s Electronics Protection platform, under the Schroff brand. Pentair Electronics Protection www.pentairprotect.com/en/na/ hardware-platform-management info.pigeonpoint@pentair.com

LCR Embedded System’s complete line of integrated rugged industrial and military systems, from off-the-shelf to fully customized, are ideal for all aspects of mission-critical computing. To learn more about what we can do for you and your application, contact us today. Our integrated systems feature VME, VPX, ATCA and CompactPCI architectures For chassis, backplanes and integrated systems, LCR Electronics is now LCR Embedded Systems.

(800) 747-5972 e-mail sales@lcrembedded.com www.lcrembeddedsystems.com

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Application Feature

Lower cost µTCA for special applications By Mike Thompson, Pentair, Schroff brand

The Schroff 11850-016 AdvancedMC mini system for two single full-size AMC modules with an NAT eMCH is designed to eliminate costs associated with the MicroTCA system architecture while remaining compliant with the specification.

Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) modules were originally developed by PICMG as a modular I/O expansion device for AdvancedTCA (ATCA) systems. An ATCA board (carrier) with one or more AMC slots is installed in the ATCA shelf. The AMC carrier provides the AMCs with +3.3V DC management power (MP), +12V DC payload power (PP), an I2C connection to the module management controller (MMC), synchronization clocks, and a switch for one of the available serial fabrics, typically Ethernet, SATA/SAS, PCIe, or SRIO. AMC manufacturers quickly determined that they could build a small version of an ATCA system using just the AMC modules. In a MicroTCA (mTCA) system, the AMC modules plug directly into the backplane. The support functions originally provided by the ATCA carrier are provided by special modules in the MTCA system. The power supply and presence detection functions went into the mTCA power module (PM); the shelf management, Ethernet switch, fabric switch, and clock distribution functions went into the MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH); and the ATCA fan tray became the mTCA cooling unit (CU). PICMG decided that a maximum of 12 AMCs would be allowed in an mTCA system, so the standard MCH and PM modules were designed to meet this requirement. Since mTCA is a derivative of ATCA, all of the high-reliability features such as hot-swap, redundancy, and shelf management were included. MTCA system overhead cost The simplest implementation of an MCH performs just the system management functions for up to 12 AMCs, 2 CUs, 4 PMs, and possibly a second MCH. The system management functions include the power up/down sequence of all FRUs in the chassis, cooling management based on onboard temperature sensors, E-Keying the AMC and MCH ports, providing an external network connection to the system management functions, and providing an interface to the onboard sensors. All of these are vital to the health and reliability of the system.

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

By assembling the MCH with additional ICs, it also provides an Ethernet switch for each AMC’s port 0/1, and an external Ethernet connection for management tools. Users can add PCBs for a SRIO, PCIe, or Ethernet fabric switch to the MCH depending on what fabric the AMC modules need. These fabrics are implemented on the AMC’s ports 4-7, ports 8-11, and ports 12-20. A PCB can also be added to the MCH for PCIe or telecom clock distribution. In a redundant configuration, one MCH connects to port 0, ports 4-7, and possibly some of the ports 12-20. The second MCH connects to port 1, ports 8-12, and possibly some of the ports 12-20. The cost of the MCH varies considerably depending on the amount of features selected.

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The PM can come in many varieties, with -48 V DC, +12 V DC, or AC inputs, and total power capacities ranging from 400 W to 1000 W. The PM converts the input voltage to individually controllable +12 V and +3.3 V outputs for each AMC, CU, PM, and MCH in the chassis. The PM also has voltage and current measurement for each output, as well as presence detection and an enable signal output for each output. Because of space constraints, the PM is challenging to design and cool. The CUs in an mTCA chassis are typically redundant so a failed CU can be replaced without a significant reduction in cooling capacity. The CU includes a management

MicroTCA Carrier Cooling Unit #2 Cooling Unit #1

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Air Air Mower Air Mower Mower AirAir Air Mower Mower Air Mower EMMC Mower

Figure 1 | AMC module in an AdvancedTCA Carrier

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Figure 2 | NAT NAMC-8569-CPU

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A M C 2

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Figure 3 | MicroTCA system interconnections

The brain of your MTCA.4 system Higher bandwidth for Physics: the new NAT-MCH-PHYS80 Key features · · · · · ·

x16 PCIe Gen3 uplink at front panel 128Gbps link to local CPU/root complex special low latency and low jitter CLK module fully user accessible quad core Intel® Core i7 new RTM for LLRF backplane complete product line

Let Your Application benefit Make our expertise your solution – talk to us ... we care. N.A.T. GmbH I Konrad-Zuse-Platz 9 I 53227 Bonn I Germany Fon: +49 228 965 864 0 I info@nateurope.com I www.nateurope.com I innovation in communication

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PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |

Application Feature processor that measures voltage and current in the CU, measures the individual fans’ speed, and provides a mechanism for fan speed control. In a 12-slot mTCA system, the overhead costs for the MCH(s), PM(s), and CU(s) are reasonable. In a small slot count system, the cost of the MCH and PM are a large percentage of the total cost of the system, and can make mTCA uncompetitive. MicroTCA-compliant cost reduction MicroTCA Carrier Hub Most MCH manufacturers use a modular approach to implementing their products. The original implementations of the MCH included a fabric B SATA/SAS switch for the disk drives on tongue 2 of the MCH. Users quickly found that they could eliminate the SAS/SATA switch on the MCH if the common options port [2:3] SAS/SATA interconnections between the processor and storage AMC slots were directly routed through the backplane. There is some loss of flexibility with dedicated processor and storage AMC slots, but this generally does not cause any problems. The fat pipe port [D:G] fabric switch, typically Ethernet or PCIe, is located on tongues 3 and 4 of the MCH. Tongue 3 connects to the first six AMC modules and tongue 4 connects to the last six AMC modules. When building a small slot count system, users can select a smaller fabric switch on the MCH that only connects to tongue 3. If the fat pipe fabric is not used at all, a lower cost basic MCH can be used that provides just the management and common options port [0:1] Ethernet switching functions. If users are not using a PCIe fabric or not building a telecom system, they can skip the clock distribution module to again save cost. Power module PMs typically use -48 V telecom as the input power. These PMs convert the -48 V to +3.3 V and +12 V for the AMCs and CUs, respectively. A lower cost solution is to use a PM Connector Region

Back Side

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Figure 4 | AMC-MCH port interconnections

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

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Figure 5 | NAT MCH with clock and fabric options.

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Figure 6 | A Schroff +12 V input PM

with a +12 V input because it only needs to convert a little of the +12 V to +3.3 V. Since the -48 V and +12 V input PMs need an external power supply, users might be able to reduce the total cost of power conversion by using an AC input PM. Cooling unit If the system does not need to be serviced while running, operators might be able to use just a single CU and cut the cost of cooling in half. Bending the rules to reduce cost In order to make small mTCA systems more cost-effective, manufacturers and system integrators are bending the mTCA specification’s rules. For special applications, and with careful consideration of the consequences, bending the mTCA rules can result in a significant reduction of cost in an mTCA system. MicroTCA Carrier Hub The idea behind having Ethernet and fabric switches on the MCH was to support a large number of AMCs, and to make the AMCs independent of the slot location. If only a few AMCs are needed in an mTCA system, users might be able to directly interconnect the Ethernet and fabric ports between the AMCs and eliminate the cost of the Ethernet and fabric switches on the MCH. Since the www.picmg-systems.com

“A LOW-COST, REDUCED FUNCTIONALITY “EMCH” HAS BEEN DEVELOPED BY NAT ... AMCS IN A SYSTEM WITH AN EMCH CANNOT TELL THAT A REDUCED FUNCTIONALITY MCH IS MANAGING THEM.” port [A:B] Ethernet connection on the AMC is a 1000BASE-T, it is possible to connect port [A:B] Ethernet to an RJ-45 connector and then to an external network. PCIe fabrics need a PCIe reference clock, so if the PCIe ports are directly interconnected between the processor AMC and other AMCs, the processor AMC will need to source the PCIe reference clock and send it to the other AMCs. Most processor AMC modules can source the fabric clock. A low-cost, reduced functionality “eMCH” has been developed by NAT. This eMCH is implemented on a mezzanine that mounts to the backplane and provides an external Ethernet connection and service interface. It eliminates the need for a special MCH backplane slot and provides significant design flexibility. This low-cost eMCH provides all of the normal management functions and switches of port [A:B] Ethernet channels, but does not provide fabric switching or reference clocks. AMCs in a system with an eMCH cannot tell that a reduced functionality MCH is managing them. Many AMCs can be configured so that they turn on without waiting for commands from the MCH. If all of the AMCs in a system support this feature, then it is possible to eliminate the MCH entirely. If the MCH is eliminated, a chassis is needed with CUs that support autonomous fan speed control based on intake and exhaust air temperatures. If the CU is designed well, it will listen for temperature event messages from the AMC modules and adjust the fan speed. It is also possible to design a PM that will operate without an MCH. In this case, when the PM sees the presence signal from the AMC it enables power to the AMC. Power module The PMs are usually installed in special slots in the chassis. In small systems, the www.picmg-systems.com

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Figure 7 | An NAT-PM-AC600 600 W AC input PM

Breaking the Chains! Open and Flexible System Architecture for Safe Train Control Rugged Computer Boards and Systems for Harsh, Mobile and Mission-Critical Environments

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Figure 8 | An NAT eMCH is shown in the above Schroff chassis between the AMC slots and the fans.

special PM slot can be eliminated and the PM functionality can be moved to a mezzanine on the rear of the backplane. This reduced cost PM-on-a-mezzanine provides all of the normal PM functions, but in a reduced-cost implementation. The MCH cannot tell that it is not managing a normal PM. A significant part of the system’s cost reduction comes from using a low-cost, open-frame power supply to provide the 12 V for the modules.

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An even lower cost PM implementation can also be used. The low-cost version does not support management by the MCH, and just enables power to the AMCs when their presence is detected. In this case, all of the power switching is done by components located directly on the backplane. Cooling unit A normal CU includes a powerful intelligent platform management controller (IPMC) management processor with

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PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |

Application Feature dual intelligent platform management bus (IPMB) connections to the MCH. For example, Schroff uses a lower cost implementation of a CU in their small chassis. This low-cost CU uses a small processor with just a private I2C connection to the MCH. In this case, the MCH includes special firmware that treats the low-cost CU as if it were a normal CU. From the user’s perspective there is no difference between the normal CU and the low-cost CU. The speed of the fans is normally managed by the MCH. The MCH reads temperature sensors on the AMCs and in the chassis, and then determines the optimal fan speed. If the MCH is eliminated, the CU needs to manage the fan speed autonomously. The CUs in some small chassis will look for an MCH, and if they don’t find one they will autonomously manage the fan speed based on their own temperature sensors. Since there are often two CUs in the low-cost system, one CU is elected the master CU and controls the speed of the slave CU’s

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Figure 9 | Schroff lowest cost 11850023 mini system for 2 single full-size AMC modules.

fans. The optimal fan speed is based on the delta-T inside the system by monitoring inlet and outlet temperature sensors. The low-cost CU can also receive temperature events from the AMC modules and react by increasing the fan speed. Lower cost MTCA examples Lowest cost This would be the simplest “mTCA” system. It holds two single full-size AMC modules, includes a universal AC input, 12 V output, and 150 W power supply inside the rear of the chassis. All ports are interconnected between the two

AMC modules, and the backplane supports 10 Gbps fabric speeds. It has no management functionality at all. The 12 V and 3.3 V power to the AMCs is enabled when the system detects the presence of the AMC. Standard AMC modules will work in this chassis as long as they can operate without management. Lower Cost: This reduced-cost mTCA chassis has management functionality that is mTCAcompliant, but the MCH, PM, and CU are integrated into the chassis. Advanced two-slot AMC boxes may include an NAT eMCH and a PM-mezzanine mounted to the rear of the backplane. The power supply is an open-frame switcher inside the rear of the chassis. Since this chassis has normal management functionality, there are no special considerations for the AMC modules. A larger version of this chassis can be built, but since there is no MCH switching function all of the interconnections

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Let Your Application benefit Make our expertise your solution – talk to us ... we care. N.A.T. GmbH i Konrad-Zuse-Platz 9 i 53227 Bonn i Germany Fon: +49 228 965 864 0 i info@nateurope.com i www.nateurope.com i innovation in communication

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

www.picmg-systems.com

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Figure 10 | Lower cost MicroTCA-compliant platform with MCH, PM, and CU integrated into the chassis.

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Figure 11 | Schroff low-cost mTCA PM mezzanine on the backplane.

between the AMC modules are point-to-point through the backplane. Once the backplane is designed for this specific application, the chassis architecture is fixed. Low cost: Another low-cost design option is a 1U mTCA chassis that holds six single mid-size AMC modules and a normal full-size MCH. The PM functions are integrated into the chassis by a PM-mezzanine mounted to the rear of the backplane and an open-frame switcher inside the rear of the chassis. This design reduces the cost of the PM, but still allows for the use of a normal full-function MCH. No special routing is used in the backplane, and there are no special considerations for the AMC modules. Conclusion MicroTCA is an extremely versatile technology with many applications driving many different requirements. System designers can reduce costs by considering what tradeoffs make sense when it comes to power, cooling, backplane routing, and system monitoring/management. Designers can harness the power and functionality of AMC modules without taking on the full cost of the MicroTCA architecture by carefully selecting their feature set. Mike Thompson is Principal Engineer at Pentair Equipment Protection (Schroff). Pentair Equipment Protection (Schroff) www.pentairprotect.com/en/na www.picmg-systems.com

PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |

Industry Outlook

The promise of COM Express By Charlotte Adams A RIM-7P NATO Sea Sparrow Missile launches the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during a stream raid shoot exercise. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jordon R. Beesley.

Cost pressures continue to bedevil military programs. Years of fighting have taken a toll on equipment, while years of sequestration have made upgrading or replacing the equipment more difficult. Budget constraints require everyone involved to pay the utmost attention to life cycle costs at all levels of procurement. Although commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies yield savings by exploiting the economies of scale available in the consumer market, there is a major tradeoff. Consumer products – along with the electronic components inside them – are intended for benign environments, whereas military products operate in some of the world’s most demanding environments. Electronic systems in missiles, tanks, and airborne platforms must thrive amid high levels of shock and vibration and be able to withstand extreme temperature swings. Resistance to dust, sand, and salt spray also may be required. In addition, military computers must provide high, and continually increasing, levels of performance as applications evolve; all of this must occur in small size, weight, and power (SWaP) packages. What’s more, these systems must endure not simply for years, but for decades, as commercial technologies come and go. The implementation of concepts like network-centric warfare has only underscored the need for high-power, highbandwidth, and easily upgradable electronics. The perennial question for designers of high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) systems then becomes: How to provide the best technologies from the commercial market in the bulletproof packages required by military applications? COM Express – from commercial to military A recent instance of this synergy is the ruggedization of computer-on-module (COM) Express technology. COM modules were developed to insulate computer boards from processor churn. Before their invention, designers of single-board

| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

computers had to rethink their layouts each time their processors went out of production. Adopting a new integrated circuit required designers to develop supporting silicon, as well as low-level software and firmware. This setup typically entailed board redesigns with the accompanying costs and delays. Like most innovations in electronics, COM modules were introduced in proprietary packages but were eventually standardized in a range of sizes and pinouts. A popular set of COM module configurations, known as COM Express, was developed by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG). Today COM Express is widely used in commercial applications from gaming to health care. The beauty of COM Express is that when a processor reaches end-of-life, it can be replaced with a new-generation, plug-in processor module without disturbing the underlying hardware. The carrier board can be a standard backplane module like VME or VPX or a customized format to support the particular size and input/output (I/O) demands of a military user. Furthermore, when upgrades become necessary, system downtime is minimal. The standard even specifies a module heatspreading interface which can be combined with a designer’s proprietary cooling approach. Ruggedizing COM Express COM Express was not developed for high-stress environments, however; after it became a commercial standard of potential interest to military users, there was still the task of ruggedizing the modules. This step has been achieved by measures such as www.picmg-systems.com

screening components, developing specialized cooling technologies, and thoroughly testing products to specifications such as MIL-STD-810 and VITA 47. Soldering rather than socketing components to modules further increases resistance to shock and vibration by reducing the number of mechanical connections. One example of a recent rugged COM Express product is the Abaco Systems mCOM10-K1 module, hosting NVIDIA’s latest Tegra K1 system-on-chip processor and up to 16 GB of soldered memory, along with support for CUDA and VisionWorks. (Figure 1). Rugged modules exist today using multiple IC types, while new developments in the manufacture of memory chips permit previously unheard-of module densities. Above all, the ruggedizing of COM Express technology has made it attractive to applications such as missiles and unmanned vehicles. For military customers the benefits are compelling: When the time comes to upgrade a module, complex I/O cabling can be left in place. This configuration avoids the necessity of detaching wires and possibly misconnecting them, as well as the need to retest signal integrity after the configuration is restored. Wear and tear on board connectors is also reduced, extending system life on multiple fronts.

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Figure 1 | The mCOM10-K1 rugged COM Express module from Abaco Systems features NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 system-on-chip processor.

by providing a low-risk path to incremental upgrades at acceptable lifecycle cost. Charlotte Adams is the Field Intelligence columnist for Military Embedded Systems. Field Intelligence is an Abaco Systems perspective on embedded military electronics trends. This article originally appeared in the April/May

2015 edition of Military Embedded Systems. While COM Express technology is relatively new to the military world, the initial upfront investment promises to yield dividends

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05.10.15 11:16

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Artesyn Embedded Technologies ATCA-7480 Packet Processing Server Blade The ATCA-7480 blade uses two Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 family processors (up to 28 cores per blade), optimized data paths and the Artesyn QuadStar™ interface to deliver the highest performance processing. Optional dual crypto hardware accelerators can improve the performance of security applications. Scalable memory capacity (up to 512GB) enables faster database access, accelerated pattern matching and helps optimize routing decisions in virtualized network environments. Sixteen memory sockets mean cost sensitive applications can achieve memory capacities using lower cost memory modules. Artesyn's enabling software for SDN/NFV supports Intel® DPDK-accelerated OpenVSwitch, OpenFlow and OpenStack plug-ins. bit.ly/1HAtltM picmg.opensystemsmedia.com/p372402

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| Winter 2015 | PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide

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The cExpress-SL PICMG COM.0 Type 6 Compact Size Module features 6th generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 processors and accompanying Intel® QM170 and HM170 Chipset. DDR4 memory is supported up to a total of 32GB, with a lower voltage compared to DDR3 resulting in a reduction in overall power consumption and heat dissipation. The cExpress-SL provides support for three independent UHD/4K displays and is well-suited for applications in automation, medical, and infotainment, with extended operating temperature range optionally available for transportation and defense applications. The cExpress-SL offers built-in SEMA (Smart Embedded Management Agent) Cloud functionality and is ready-made for IoT applications.

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Fivetech Technology Inc. ATCA Ejector Handle

Alphi Technology Corporation

Fivetech ATCA Ejector Handle This ergonomic leverage mechanism engages with minimal effort for easy injection/ejection of front board faceplates into a server rack/chassis. Fivetech’s new ejector handle evolves leverage principles so the ejector can be pulled or pushed in any heavy server tray with sleek, systematic movement. As engineers repeatedly operate server trays during maintenance, Fivetech's innovative ejector handle can save time, effort, and reduce workloads. The ejector provides the best solution for accelerating speed and efficiency, and is also customizable.

USER RECONFIGURABLE ISOLATED COMMUNICATION I/O with 20 LVDS, 4 RS-422 AND 1 RS-232 Altera Cyclone® IV FPGAs, 4MBYTE DUAL-PORTED SRAM ñ 20 isolated I/O pins buffered LVDS interface ñ 4 isolated RS-422 interface ñ 1 isolated RS-232 interface ñ Fully user programmable ñ Direction programmed ñ Change of state detection & interrupt: Generated per line on positive or negative edge ñ Bit pattern recognition ñ Direct readback of register ñ Direct output control ñ Pre-programmed output latch with output strobe PMC interface ñ VIO 3.3/5.0 Volts ñ 32-bit, 33/66 MHz ñ DMA for maximum throughput from the host

PMC-CIV-COM-ISO

www.fivetk.com picmg.opensystemsmedia.com/p373205

www.alphitech.com picmg.mil-embedded.com/p373203

Design

Military & Aerospace

ADLINK Technology

North Atlantic Industries

Express-SL COM Express® Computer-on-Module

Sensor Interface Unit - SIU31 Configure with up to 3 I/O and Communications Function Modules — Over 40 different modules to choose from Configure to Customize The SIU31 is a highly configurable rugged system or subsystem ideally suited to support a multitude of Mil-Aero applications that require high-density I/O, communications, Ethernet switching and processing. The SIU31 uses one NAI field-proven 3U cPCI board to deliver off-the-shelf solutions that accelerate deployment of SWaPoptimized systems in air, land and sea applications.

The Express-SL PICMG COM.0 Type 6 Basic Size Module features 6th generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 processors and accompanying Intel® QM170 and HM170 Chipset. DDR4 memory is supported up to a total of 32GB, with a lower voltage compared to DDR3 resulting in a reduction in overall power consumption and heat dissipation. The Express-SL provides support for three independent UHD/4K displays and is well-suited for applications in automation, medical, and infotainment, with extended operating temperature range optionally available for transportation and defense applications. The Express-SL offers built-in SEMA (Smart Embedded Management Agent) Cloud functionality and is ready-made for IoT applications.

Architected for Versatility NAI’s Custom-On-Standard Architecture™ (COSA™) offers a choice of over 40 intelligent I/O, communications, Ethernet switch and SBC options. Pre-existing, fully-tested functions can be combined in an unlimited number of ways to quickly and easily meet system requirements.

www.adlinktech.com picmg.opensystemsmedia.com/p373206

www.naii.com picmg.opensystemsmedia.com/p372473

www.picmg-systems.com

PICMG Systems & Technology Buyer’s Guide | Winter 2015 |