Designers who support large multiprocessor systems are turning to Advanced Switching (AS), according to the Advanced Switching Interconnect Special Interest Group (ASI SIG).
As uses the same physical layer as PCI Express. As a result, designers will run into the same chip, board, and connector problems encountered by PCI Express system designers. However, AS is even more difficult, because designers must contend with large backplanes.
Companies like Elma Bustronics and Pentair Enclosures attack the problem by delivering standard backplanes for architectures like AdvancedTCA. It's very difficult to design and test one of these backplanes. But most embedded designers in this arena will be working on board designs, not backplane designs.