Five-Slot Backplane Meets PICMG Specifications

Aug. 18, 2003

Designed for system management, a five-slot AdvancedTCA backplane developed by Bustronic complies with PICMG 3.0 specifications. Featuring dual star, mesh, or replicated mesh configurations, it...

Roger Allan

Designed for system management, a five-slot AdvancedTCA backplane developed by Bustronic complies with PICMG 3.0 specifications. Featuring dual star, mesh, or replicated mesh configurations, it incorporates two three-pin headers for cabling to new shelf-management modules, called the IPM Sentry.

The headers offer optional redundant connections of the IPMB (Intelligent Platform Management Bus) signals. The backplane also has two 2-mm HM connectors (the standard connector for CompactPCI) for direct plugging of the IPM Sentry into the backplane.

The Sentry brings to the table higher-level shelf-management functions, including controlling fan speeds, sending remote signals, identifying slot cards, and keeping logs of management events.

For chassis-to-chassis interconnections, the backplane can use two optional RJ45 connectors to support ICMB (Intelligent Chassis Management Bus). Interspersed throughout the backplane are thermocouple headers for temperature sensors within the chassis. Other components include a ring header, fan tray headers, and dual sets of ±4-V power bugs.

AdvancedTCA has several key features, including gigabyte-per-second and terabyte-per-second bandwidth across each shelf, 150 to 200 W per board, and 3 kW/chassis power. It accommodates larger (8U by 280 mm) boards on a 1.2-mm pitch, which allows for larger/taller components and more space on each board.

Pricing for the five-slot backplane starts at $1340, with a four- to six-week lead time.

See associated figure

Bustronic Corp.www.bustronic.com (510) 490-7388

About the Author

Roger Allan

Roger Allan is an electronics journalism veteran, and served as Electronic Design's Executive Editor for 15 of those years. He has covered just about every technology beat from semiconductors, components, packaging and power devices, to communications, test and measurement, automotive electronics, robotics, medical electronics, military electronics, robotics, and industrial electronics. His specialties include MEMS and nanoelectronics technologies. He is a contributor to the McGraw Hill Annual Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He is also a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and holds a BSEE from New York University's School of Engineering and Science. Roger has worked for major electronics magazines besides Electronic Design, including the IEEE Spectrum, Electronics, EDN, Electronic Products, and the British New Scientist. He also has working experience in the electronics industry as a design engineer in filters, power supplies and control systems.

After his retirement from Electronic Design Magazine, He has been extensively contributing articles for Penton’s Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Energy Efficiency and Technology (EE&T) and Microwaves RF Magazine, covering all of the aforementioned electronics segments as well as energy efficiency, harvesting and related technologies. He has also contributed articles to other electronics technology magazines worldwide.

He is a “jack of all trades and a master in leading-edge technologies” like MEMS, nanolectronics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, military electronics, biometrics, implantable medical devices, and energy harvesting and related technologies.