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by jason mcdonald, senior editor | read other blog posts

AdvancedTCA, or the ATCA specification as it may be called, remains a promise to be fulfilled, a mystery to be unfolded, a hype to be unhyped. How much of the buzz around the AdvancedTCA standard is real? How much product is really being shipped? Now we have a new transition: from 10GigE to 40GigE, with AdvancedTCA playing a role in this transition as well. It's a standard plagued by vaporware, difficult to decipher, yet critically important to the telecom transition. Here are thoughts and news from the recent AdvancedTCA Summit on the next high speed transition.

contents of this post:

1. Radisys ATCA 4.0 - 40GigE Leadership
2. Emerson Network Power adds 40GbE and AC Power to ATCA Platform
3. AdvancedTCA Resources - Top Picks for AdvancedTCA Learning
4. feedback - read it
5. feedback - give it

Radisys ATCA 4.0 - 40GigE Leadership

With the promised deployment of AdvancedTCA slower than promised, the vendor community nonetheless turned its sights on the transition to 40GigE. But whereas one vendor would trumpet its latest announcement, the others would secretly criticize it, saying that it was "vaporware" or "not yet ready for prime time." The truth is out there, but one can't really say for certain when, if, whether, or why the transition to 40GigE is really occurring and the role that AdvancedTCA will play in this emerging telecommunications infrastructure.

That said, my pick for the most interesting news from the recent AdvancedTCA Summit in Santa Clara, was the one by Radisys of their ATCA 4.0 initiative, the company's 4th generation of AdvancedTCA (ATCA) products that are designed to support the next generation of high bandwidth applications. A first in the marketplace, this fully integrated platform features the latest technology in the industry, incorporating a 10GBASE-KR and 40GBASE-KR4 capable backplane and 40G switching capability. As Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) focus on building next generation network elements, including 4G and Broadband, the RadiSys ATCA 4.0 platform will provide them with the next generation switching, power and cooling that they require. The company launched a fantastic microsite on their technology, here , which you will not want to miss. News release, here .

Emerson Network Power adds 40GbE and AC Power to ATCA Platform

Radisys competitor, Emerson Network Power announced the next generation of its award-winning Centellis™ 2000 AdvancedTCA (ATCA) platform at the AdvancedTCA Summit. Now with support for 40GbE and AC power natively, the new 2-slot Centellis 2000 provides equipment manufacturers and system integrators with a scalable, cost-effective solution to support high-bandwidth applications in the telecom central office and beyond.

The Centellis 2000 now features a 40GbE "KR-Ready" backplane, which allows for 40Gbps communication directly between the two ATCA blades. It is fully compatible with Emerson Network Power's existing 40GbE, 10GbE and 1GbE ATCA platforms, enabling enhanced system and network scalability.

Another big buzzword from the conference was "future proofing," the idea being to help telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMS) protect their investments by not requiring an immediate transition to 40GbE but nonetheless being hospitable to that transition once it occurs. It's a sign of tight times, and smart budgeting. "Using this technology, it is possible to upgrade to 40GbE capable payload blades in the future without replacing the shelf infrastructure," said Rob Pettigrew, director of marketing for Emerson Network Power's Embedded Computing business. "This is becoming increasingly important as data plane applications start migrating to ATCA-based platforms." Release, here .

AdvancedTCA Resources - Top Picks for AdvancedTCA Learning

AdvancedTCA has been around long enough that there are now some very good resources for learning about it, online. PICMG is the central starting point for the specification, and has a good learning site, here . The ATCA Newsletter is a good, up-to-date eLetter that can help you stay up-to-date on the standard, and they Twitter on AdvancedTCA as well!

Wikipedia, always my favorite starting point, has a pretty good article on AdvancedTCA , but like so many Wikipedia entries suffers from inconsistencies and neglect, now that the technology is aging. One of the more progressive uses of the Internet is the Emerson Network Power Channel on Youtube , where you can find some good if vendor-centric videos on the standard.

If you are looking for products, beyond just Googling, you can visit the EE Catalog / AdvancedTCA Buyers Guide . Bring along some aspirin, as it is a very, very busy interface and mixes news, new products, and a paid product directory as well. But still there aren't millions of AdvancedTCA choices, and this is a good one to figure out who might be on your short list if you are considering a standards-based approach to your project!

Finally, of course you can follow eg3.com 's AdvancedTCA coverage for e-clips, as well, and sign up for the keyword.

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