Heiko Körte
Director Sales & Marketing

Session 101: High-Performance Systems

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications
ATCA/MTCA summit, November 10th, 2010
Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA

All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

About N.A.T.
Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications

 board level products: PMC, cPCI, VME, AMC, MCH, etc.
 software: protocols, applications, drivers, etc.
 system level products: standard, custom, proprietary

All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 2• founded in 1990
• based in Sankt Augustin, Germany• highly profitable• ISO 9001:2008 (+ military/telecom elements)• focus: embedded communication• international customer base• product lines:

AgendaExtendingto HigherPerformance Applications• Need for higher performance MicroTCA ?
 History Current Status
 Future• MicroTCA for Physics*• Conclusion*: the terms “MicroTCA for Physics“ or “MTCA.4“ refers to the PICMG “xTCA for Physics Working
Group 1“ and not to a yet adopted sepecification.
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 3

 Requirements
 Concept
 Challenges

Need for higher
Performance ?
History Review

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Short Review
 many applications are based on VME, cPCI or IPCs

 markets: defence, aerospace, medical, industrial,communication
 problems:• bandwidth needs exceeding capabilities• system management (if any) is proprietary• concepts for redundancy or fault tolerance are proprietary

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slide 4

need for a new concept
need for better and higher performance© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

Need for higher
Performance ?
History Review

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Results
 2003: ATCA

 2004: AMC
 2006: MicroTCA
 common features:• bandwidth improved: 40Gbps (ATCA), 10Gbps (MTCA)• system management mandatory: IPMI/RMCP

slide 5• protocol agnostic: 1GbE, PCIe, SRIO, 10GbE

All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

Need for higher
Performance ?
Current Status

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Consequence Markets and Applications adopting MTCA
• Industrial: larger IPCs and PLCs are replaced by MTCA
• Telecom: MTCA base stations (UMTS, WiMAX, LTE)• Communication: test & measurem., logging + analysis• Defence: first communication concepts based on MTCA
• Aerospace: first ground and airborne systems

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slide 6

problems overcome ?
customers satisfied ?
© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

Need for higher
Performance ?
FutureExtendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Problems
 Misfit in standards• MTCA.0 defines 3 CLKs
• AMC.0 R2 defines 4 CLKs plus 1 Fabric CLK

 Insufficiencies:• cabeling at front of systems• insufficient board space (double width no benefit)

slide 7

• performance gap between ATCA and MTCA too big
need for an improved concept
need for better and higher performance
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

AgendaExtendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Need for higher performance MicroTCA ?
 History Current Status
 Future• MicroTCA for Physics*• Conclusion*: the terms “MicroTCA for Physics“ or “MTCA.4“ refers to the PICMG “xTCA for Physics WorkingGroup 1“ and not to a yet adopted sepecification.
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 8

 Requirements
 Concept
 Challenges

MicroTCA for Physics
Introduction

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Customer: particle physics
i.e. DESY, CERN, SLAC, LANL, KEKetc.

• Missing features:no Rear Transition Module (RTM)
for MTCA defined

special clock and trigger topology

sophisticated requirements for theclock and trigger accuracy

adaptions and extensions to MTCA
standard required

Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CERN

Karlsruher Tritium Neutrino experiment
KATRINAll trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 9MicroTCA for Physics
Requirements

Extendingto HigherPerformance Applications



AMC Module size: double-wide, mid-sizelarge µRTM real estate

use front panel mechanics based on Rugged uTCAreuse existing AMC front panels for the µRTMallowing mounting of mezzanine modules on the rear of
the backplaneOptional zone 3 backplane

new mechanical concept required that at the same timeprovides backwards compatibility
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 10• Required changes to the standard and conceptMicroTCA for Physics
Concept – AMC and uRTM

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Technical concept – side view

Retention device(defined in Rugged
MicroTCA spec.)

AMCµRTMAMC card edge
connector

Space for mounting mezzanine
boardsCould be used for clock andtrigger distribution

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rear

Retention device(defined in Rugged
MicroTCA spec.)© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 113-pair ZDconnector (2 x 30diff. pairs)

Safety keying,
8 positions

frontµRTM handle, is at thetop of the µRTM (µRTM
front panel appears upside down)

MicroTCA for Physics
Concept – AMC and uRTM

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Technical concept – top view

AMC

µRTM
Optional Zone 3 backplane

Pitch Line Full Size
ModulePitch Line Mid Size
ModuleBoard to B/P

Pitch Line Full Size
ModulePitch LineMid Size
Module

AMC to uRTM connector

All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

MicroTCA for Physics
Concept – AMC and uRTM

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications

AMCµRTM

Side 2Side 2(180.85 +/- 0.4) (Rugged uTCA Spec. Figure 2-7)

AMC Module STOP

Double Wide• Technical concept – mechanical sizes

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188.15 +/-0.4© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

MicroTCA for Physics
Concept – management

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Technical concept – management

MicroTCA Shelf
MicroTCA Carrier

IPMB-L Connects the MCMC onthe MCH to the MMC onthe AMC Modules
 Radial architecture

MCH
MCMC

IPMB-L

IPMB-0 Connects the MCMC on
the MCH to the EMMC on
the PM and CU
 Bused architecture

IPMB-0Backplane

MMC

MMC

MMC

EMM
CEMM
CAMC 1

AMC 2

AMC 12Cooling
Unit

PowerModule

I2C-bus Connects the AMC to theµRTM The µRTM is treated as
managed FRU of the AMC
 Not yet defined:
management of RTM fans

I2C-busµRTM 1µRTM 2µRTM
12All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holdersµRTMCooling© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

MicroTCA for PhysicsChallenges – power budget

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Technical concept – power requirement
 60 Watts per AMC slot and 20 Watts per uRTM slot

 12 slots, 80 Watts ea. = 960 Watts (720W front + 240W rear) 2 MCHs, 37.5 Watts ea. = 75 Watts
 2 CUs, 80 Watts ea. = 160 Watts
 total PM output power = 1195 Watts

Assuming efficiency of PM = 90%

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slide 15

 total PM output power = 1195 Watts
 total PM input power = 1328 Watts© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

MicroTCA for Physics
Challenges – coolingExtending
to Higher
Performance Applications• Technical concept – cooling requirement
 12 AMCs + 12 uRTMS + 2 MCHs + 2CU
 total PM input power = 1328 Watts



The uRTM has the same depth as the AMC
 own fans for the uRTM

 physics require a uRTM temperature control withina range of 1°C
Challenge: independent fan control for AMC fans and RTM fans is
not addressed in the current MTCA specification
standardized solution required, still a ToDo
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 16

 independent speed control of AMC and uRTM fans

MicroTCA for Physics
Challenges – bandwidth

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Technical concept – bandwidth currently used with MTCA: Gen1 of PCIe and SRIO
 bandwidth of 10Gbps (3.125Gbps per lane)future use requirement: Gen2 of PCIe and SRIO
 bandwidth of 20Gbps (6.25Gbps per lane)• Challenge:
currently used backplane connectors and AMC plugs
commonly tested with 3.125GHz per laneconnectors and plugs need to improve to 6.25GHz
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 17MicroTCA for Physics
Challenges – bandwidth

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• test setup
Card 1 - TX

Card 2 - RX

SMAConnector or
Chip Model
70 mm AMC Card
Trace

SMAConnector or
Chip Model
70 mm AMC Card
Trace

S-Parameter Modelof AMC connector

S-Parameter Modelof AMC connector

310 mm BackplaneTrace
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

MicroTCA for Physics
Challenges – bandwidth

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Results
 10.3125 Gbaud per second per differential pair eye diagrams

Card edge connector

AMC Plug connector

All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbH

AgendaExtendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Need for higher performance MicroTCA ?
 History Current Status
 Future• MicroTCA for Physics*• Conclusion*: the terms “MicroTCA for Physics“ or “MTCA.4“ refers to the PICMG “xTCA for Physics Working
Group 1“ and not to a yet adopted sepecification.
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 20

 Requirements
 Concept
 Challenges

Conclusion
Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• Need for higher performance has always been
driving factor because of: more space
 enhanced features (i.e. management, fault tolerance, etc.)
 higher bandwidth Is there need for higher performance with MTCA?

YES!

• MicroTCA for Physics has added new challenges
 introduction of uRTMs
 use of 2nd generation of protocols
 twice the bandwidth of MTCA systems used today
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 21

 backplane extension, cooling, management, etc.

Conclusion
Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications• MTCA has grown up and left its childhood, making
it attractive as a solid and sound platform to aneven larger number of applications.
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 22• with MTCA.4* the gap between MTCA and ATCA
has been closed:Round Up
The last slide …

Extendingto Higher
Performance Applications

This was it …
I know, you have heard what I said …

… I am not sure if this was what I meant …
All trademarks and logos are property of their respective holders© 2010 N.A.T. GmbHslide 23… but …