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Chairperson's Message
AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA offer open specifications allowing the creation of carrier grade service platforms designed for telecommunications network deployment. They both support the latest processors, the newest interfaces, and the highest bandwidth and throughput. Recent market research projections indicate AdvancedTCA revenues will approach $2 billion by 2010, with MicroTCA reaching similar levels but lagging by a couple of years. Meanwhile, many designers working on military/defense, industrial control, process control, instrumentation, medical equipment, broadcasting, storage, and enterprise networking applications are considering these standards for their applications as well. In 2006, the industry experienced the establishment of new standards organizations to smooth the switchover to AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA. This year the Mountain View Alliance (MVA) has come into its own, acting as an umbrella group bringing organizations together to accelerate the adoption of platforms. Organizations such as SCOPE, CP-TA, PICMG, SAF, RapidIO, OIF, LF, and OCAF are MVA members who have a collective goal of optimizing cooperation among standards promoters. Such structured activity will certainly benefit the entire industry by promoting a diverse, thriving ecosystem of open-specification based components and platforms. These organizations recognize that platforms involve much more than just hardware. They must also include a basic operating system and middleware that allows developers to create applications at a high level. The general consensus is that the basic operating system will be Carrier-Grade Linux, and that the middleware will comply with the standards created by the Service Availability Forum. Other aspects of standard platforms will surely emerge in the future (such as the Eclipse development platform). AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA system designers currently favor Ethernet as their switch fabric. Its widespread use in networking applications, low costs, and extensive designer experience have moved it to a leadership position. Other interfaces, such as PCI Express, RapidIO, and InfiniBand, will find markets in specialized applications and in those demanding the highest possible throughput. MicroTCA is attracting tremendous interest outside of telecom. This effort to build systems based on small mezzanine cards appears well suited to low-cost telecom applications such as home gateways, appliances, and telephony equipment. The military has also taken notice of it, soliciting information on ruggedized applications for on-the-ground operations, particularly WiMAX systems. MicroTCA could also supplant proprietary approaches and older standards in other applications as well. The future for AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA is very bright. This year I am proud to announce our first annual Awards Program, including hardware, software, infrastructure, and best newcomer. So let’s see some great Best of Show applications! To enter your products, simply visit www.advancedTCAsummit.com for details. Meanwhile, please take this opportunity to trade ideas with colleagues and gain new perspectives during presentations from a wide variety of large and small companies. Learn about hardware, software, interconnect, implementations, and applications. Hear from the trade associations and standards groups that are helping to build new ecosystems. If you want to be successful designing AdvancedTCA or MicroTCA systems, creating products for them, or applying them in telecom centers or elsewhere, don’t miss this year’s AdvancedTCA Summit. It’s the only place you will find the latest information, the hottest products, and the top experts. See you there!
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Ernie Bergstrom |