AdvancedTCA Newsletter

What’s New in AdvancedTCA

• The 1st Annual Ethernet Technology Summit will be held on February 24-25, 2009 at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose, California. It will feature the latest information on 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet, 10-Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), energy-efficient Ethernet, Ethernet in data centers, and Carrier Ethernet. It will include tutorials, panel discussions, paper sessions, and an expert table session. It will have keynotes by the Ethernet Alliance and MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). Program participants will include leading experts from Brocade, Cisco, Facebook, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IDC, Infinera, Intel, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Nortel, QLogic, SafeNet, SolarFlare, and many others. Attendees will hear from those who are creating the standards, developing the state-of-the-art chips, adapters, and switches, and extending Ethernet into new applications in WANs, storage, wireless, home, and backbones. Customer reactions and the latest market research will also be addressed. For more information, see www.ethernetsummit.com.
• The MicroTCA Summit for 2009 will be held at the Westfield Marriot Washington Dulles Hotel in Chantilly, Virginia from May 12th through 14th. The MicroTCA Summit is intended to provide attendees with current information on this emerging standard platform for low-cost telecommunications equipment, mobile systems, military and defense systems, medical equipment, and other applications. Subjects to be covered at the Summit include hardware, software, design methods, applications, standards, interfaces,and market research. The Summit will consist of half-day tutorials, panel discussions, keynotes, paper sessions, and workshops. For those interested in presenting at the Summit, please visit http://www.microtcasummit.com/English/Conference/Call_for_Presentations.html. The deadline for submission of proposals is January 23.

Plus - 1. Market Watch 2. Industry News 3. Navigating the Technology Minefield 4. Organization Updates 5. Contributing Editors Perspectives 6. Features 7. UNH-IOL News 8. Financial News 9. Classifieds 10. Newsletter Advertising Rates 11. Newsletter Archives

AdvancedTCA Acronyms

1. Market Watch Integrated Software: The Key to Progress in the AdvancedTCA Market, By Eric Heikkila, Contributing Editor, and Director of Embedded Hardware Practice, Venture Development Corporation (VDC) As more network equipment providers (NEPs) have adopted AdvancedTCA, the key issue has become standardizing and outsourcing not just hardware, but also the software stack up to the application layer. The ecosystem must provide the capabilities to do this if AdvancedTCA is to succeed. This will require a larger role for both software companies and for groups focused on standardizing software. Looking at history, CompactPCI was about standardizing to outsource hardware, whereas ATCA is about standardizing to outsource hardware AND software. This is a logical progression as the communications COTS market began first at the board level, then advanced to integrated hardware systems, and now to systems with commercial software included as well. CompactPCI focused on integrated hardware systems, and that is essentially where it stopped. AdvancedTCA is emerging at a time when NEP customers are looking for fully integrated hardware and software platforms that allow them to direct their R&D investment to applications. Outsourcing of software will progress further up the stack towards the application layer. It began with drivers and utilities, has now moved up to commercial middleware, and soon will extend to commercial high availability virtualization software and other more sophisticated pre-integrated core software. The promise of AdvancedTCA is that it will let the NEPs obtain basic platforms effortlessly, cost effectively, and quickly through outsourcing, reserving their development efforts for applications. The forward thinking NEPs who understand the COTS model are communicating the requirement for pre-integrated hardware and software that refocus them at the application layer - and the AdvancedTCA ecosystem must deliver! Organizations such as SA Forum and OpenSAF are thus vital to the more widespread use of AdvancedTCA. The same progression has already occurred in enterprise computing. It is a great example from which to obtain insight into where high availability computing is headed, as enterprise hardware suppliers have provided pre-integrated sophisticated middleware, software, and virtualization platforms for several years. We can view this market as a blueprint for the high availability communications COTS market because the major carriers have expressed their desire to replicate the enterprise model within the telecom network by migrating to standard hardware platforms such as AdvancedTCA, and focusing NEPs on becoming software centric at the application level. The AdvancedTCA ecosystem grasps the importance of providing standardized and outsourced core software solutions for customers, which is why organizations such as SA Forum and OpenSAF have emerged. However, it is important for the progress of the AdvancedTCA market as a whole that the work around core software solutions remains at the forefront. For without standardized, interoperable, and sophisticated core software options, AdvancedTCA could essentially end up as a technological update of CompactPCI. Solving just the hardware problems will lead to a relatively small market that will not meet the needs of the major NEPs. Eric Heikkila can be reached at eric@atcanewsletter.com

Annual Sponsors Annual Sponsors

2. Industry News

Kontron announced its new AM4101 Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC/AdvancedMC). Based on the 1.5 GHz dual core Freescale PowerPC MPC8641D, the Kontron AM4101 delivers up to 2.3 MIPS/MHz computing performance and the highest Ethernet bandwidth without breaking the power budgets of modular AdvancedTCA carriers or highly-integrated, redundant MicroTCA multi-processing systems. The Kontron AM4101 AdvancedMC processor module will be available in Mid-Size and Full-Size variants. According to Kontron, processing intense applications such as encryption, multimedia encoding and decoding, image and video processing as well in DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer), speech recognition and base station will benefit from the vector processing unit which works to minimize cache pollution while processing massive amounts of data. Samples are available on request and full production will start in December 2008. Board Support Packages (BSPs) are available for Linux and VxWorks. For more information about the Kontron AM4101, visit www.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/advancedmc/processor/am4101.html

Emerson Network Power announced the Centellis 4440, one of the industry’s first AdvancedTCA platform cores with 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) backplane technology. The Centellis 4440 is specifically designed to address the carrier-grade requirements of the telecommunications industry and future-proof customers' ATCA platforms against the increasing bandwidth demands of data plane applications, while remaining fully backward-compatible with existing 1GbE/10GbE fabric technologies. In addition to supporting 1GbE, 10GbE and 40GbE operation, the Centellis 4440 meets the CP-TA B.4 thermal profile requirements for aggregate slot level airflow and airflow direction. For more information, visit www.EmersonNetworkPower.com/EmbeddedComputing

Emerson Network Power also announced the establishment of the Innovation Partnership Program for its Embedded Computing business. The new program, comprised of a broad range of collaborative software vendors, suppliers and integrators, expands Emerson Network Power's portfolio of solutions in multiple embedded computing markets. Within the program, participating companies work with Emerson to meet customers' application-specific needs by transforming leading-edge embedded technologies into globally available business solutions. Partner products are tested for compatibility and interoperability with Emerson's hardware and software products. Emerson Network Power's Strategic Partners include: Cavium Networks, EMC, Freescale Semiconductor, Hybricon Corporation, Intel, Interphase, MontaVista Software, and Wind River Systems. For more information about the Innovation Partnership program, visit www.EmersonNetworkPower.com/EmbeddedComputing

GoAhead Software announced a standards-based high availability solution for Sun Netra ATCA blade servers. Network equipment providers can leverage GoAhead SAFfire high availability and management middleware with Netra ATCA blade servers, to focus on innovation, speed time to revenue and reduce overall project costs. SAFfire features sophisticated availability and management capabilities, such as systems management, availability management, platform resource management, application services, foundation services and a small, cross-platform kernel. According to GoAhead, SAFfire boasts the most comprehensive implementation of the SA Forum Application Interface Specification (AIS) highlighting support of the Availability Management Framework, Information Model Management, and Notification, Log, Platform Management, Cluster Membership, Checkpointing, Event, and Messaging services. For more information, visit www.goahead.com

JumpGen Systems announced the PRM-100, a next generation processor AdvancedMC (PrAMC). The PRM-100 is based on the latest 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor SL9380, coupled with the Intel 3100 chipset, an integrated memory and I/O controller operating with 800MHz Front Side Bus. The single-wide PRM-100 PrAMC features dual 10Gbps Ethernet interfaces and dual processor cores to host high-bandwidth embedded communication applications. For more information, visit www.JumpGen.com

Advantech introduced the concepts behind a simplified, more cost-effective version of MicroTCA which they are naming INCA (Industrial and Network Computing Architecture) at the AdvancedTCA Summit in October. The initial INCA definition is being prepared in close collaboration with Elma and Gateware, both of whom are playing active roles in early prototyping and design architecture. According to Advantech, INCA responds to a growing market demand for AdvancedMC (AMC) re-use in applications where higher levels of platform management, availability, and switch fabric complexity are not required. The driving force behind INCA is the removal of infrastructure overhead costs inherent in MicroTCA, and the breakdown of barriers inhibiting wider cross-industry deployment. For more information, visit www.advantech.com

Mercury Computer Systems announced availability of the newest member of the Ensemble product family: the MXI-205 Xilinx V5 FPGA AMC (advanced mezzanine card), a FPGA-based processor and I/O module. The MXI-205 combines a Virtex-5 FPGA compute node (CN) with switch fabric flexibility and multiple FMC (FPGA mezzanine card)-based I/O options. Configurable for a variety of high-performance, high-bandwidth, and low- latency processing and I/O needs, this versatile module uses the power of FPGA processing to reduce system size, cost, and complexity in network, telecom, industrial control, defense, and other applications. The MXI-205 is being evaluated by a broad range of clients, covering applications as diverse as telecom, image processing, and high-energy physics, and is seen as a key enabler for high-density compute and I/O intensive MicroTCA platforms. For more information, visit www.mc.com

Hewlett Packard announced the availability of the HP Integrity NonStop NB50000c-cg Carrier-grade (CG) BladeSystem. The HP Integrity NonStop CG BladeSystem provides significant performance gains over its predecessors and occupies less physical space. Compared to the HP Integrity NonStop NS5000CG server, it delivers twice the performance in half the physical footprint. According to HP, the new system’s blade architecture provides customers a lower initial cost for comparable NonStop server processing power -- with the flexibility to scale up as the business requires. Over the long term, it’s smaller footprint, reduced power consumption and more efficient cooling combine to deliver a lower total cost of ownership. For more information, visit www.hp.com

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation announced the availability of Arches, an Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) form factor dual-processor reference design kit for its Power Architecture 460GT processor. Arches provides developers with options for hardware, software, development tools and connectivity interfaces and it represents the company’s direction to help accelerate time-to-market by creating a healthy product development ecosystem for its AdvancedTCA customers. Arches is an Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) industry-standard solution supporting systems based on Serial RapidIO (AMC.4), Gigabit Ethernet (AMC.2), and PCI Express (AMC.1) interconnects. To accelerate customers' development time for AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA systems, AMCC's new reference design kit provides users with a comprehensive set of resources including: a custom-designed board in the AMC form factor, industry-standard software development tools, open-source middleware for interprocess communications from Enea, a leading RapidIO network management and diagnostic tool from FETCorp, system-level benchmarks, and a complete hardware/software design package. For further information, visit www.amcc.com

BittWare announced their newest AdvancedMC module - the SF/GX-AMC (SF/GXAM). The SF/GXAM features four small form-factor pluggable-plus (SFP/SFP+) transceivers enabling support of virtually any serial communication standard, including Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, SONET, CPRI, and OBSAI. The four SFP/SFP+ SerDes channels are connected directly to the on-board Altera Stratix II GX FPGA which handles the higher level communications protocols. The SF/GXAM enables BittWare's customers to meet their increased bandwidth needs while also maintaining a small board footprint, and low power consumption. For more information, visit www.bittware.com

CommAgility announced the AMC-3C87F, a single width Advanced Mezzanine Card which provides a mix of multicore DSP and FPGA processing power together with flexible, high bandwidth I/O connectivity. This makes it ideal for wireless baseband, test and other processing-intensive applications such as WiMAX and Long Term Evolution of 3GPP (LTE). For use in MicroTCA or AdvancedTCA systems, the module includes three Texas Instruments TCI6487 multi-core DSPs running at 1GHz to provide a high-performance DSP resource. It also provides a Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T FPGA for interfacing and DSP co-processing. For more information, visit www.commagility.com

Interphase announced availability for the 55MC8 packet accelerator, in addition to the 36CA, and 55CA packet accelerators. Interphase has been working closely with a number of customers to successfully complete trials with each of these products over the past several months. The 55MC8 expands Interphase’s product offerings of high performance packet accelerator products in partnership with Cavium Networks' OCTEON Plus processor architecture and 6WIND’s 6WINDGate software tools. For more information, visit www.iphase.com

Polaris Networks released the new version (v 1.1.0) of the HPI Tester. This new release of the automated test tool that tests Hardware Platform Interface (HPI) implementation requirements as defined by the Service Availability (SA) Forum HPI specification supports the HPI Tester Advanced Test Bed Setup. The advanced test bed setup consists of two systems. One is a Windows system that hosts the HPI Tester application and the other is a Linux system that hosts the HPI Proxy Server. The HPI Tester communicates with the HPI Proxy Server that in turn makes the necessary HPI calls to the resident HPI Client Library. For more information on Polaris Networks, visit www.polarisnetworks.net

Elma Electronic has announced a new MicroTCA solution in a 3U MicroSlim design. The MicroSlim line is geared to maximize performance in a minimum of space. The 19 inch rackmount 3U MicroSlim chassis offers 12 AMC (AdvancedMC), 2 MCH (MicroTCA Carrier Hub), 1 JSM (J-TAG Switch Module), 2 PM (Power Modules) and 3 spare slots. For more information, visit www.elma.com

Performance Technologies announced the availability of two new communication controllers. These new products, the AMC304 and AMC305, join the company’s growing list of AdvancedMC (AMC) modules for deployments in telecommunications, aerospace and defense, as well as commercial markets needing time-division multiplexing (TDM) communication controllers in an AMC form factor. The new offerings are part of Performance Technologies' product strategy to increase the number of supporting AMCs with integrated software to its customer base who use the company’s MicroTCA platform, the MTC5070. Communication equipment manufacturers can now select from these two new, mid-size, single-slot communication controllers for their products. Both AMCs are fully integrated with the company’s NexusWare, a robust Carrier Grade Linux OS and development environment, as well as a complete suite of integrated communications protocols including MTP2 SS7), HDLC, ISDN, X.25, and Frame Relay. For more information, visit http://go.pt.com/amc304-305

3. Navigating the Technology Minefield, from Lance Leventhal, Technology Editor

Monitoring Triple-Play Networks

Monitoring today’s triple-play networks is difficult. Most involve several topologies, typically including SONET, Ethernet, and legacy ATM or TDM. Meanwhile, traffic varies in type (voice, video, data, wireless) and is running at very high speeds. How can you be sure that your network or your equipment is working properly? And how do you resolve problems, which usually center on a single type of data (such as poor voice quality or lost data packets)? NetQuest (Mount Laurel, NJ) provides interesting new answers with their OptiCop Converger devices. They offer full performance at 100 percent line bandwidth utilization, constant throughput, and innovative traffic/stream inspection, filtering, and routing techniques. You can pinpoint the data you need to see on any type of network and find out exactly what is happening to it. This is useful for debugging and testing, as well as such issues as performance management, service and revenue assurance, and lawful intercept. The OptiCop Convergers are system level products that enable multiple monitoring systems optimized access through a single network tap. They are also available as blade technology that designers can integrate into OEM network appliances. For more details, see the company’s website at www.netquestcorp.com.

The author would like to thank Jesse Price, VP Sales and Marketing, for a discussion of his company’s products at NxtComm.

I Got Plenty of Cables…And Who Knows What's Wrong With Them?

“I got plenty of nothin’, and nothin’s plenty for me.” — Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess

Telecom equipment designers may have a shortage of time, money, customers, and other whatnot, but they are surely never short of cables. Cables and harnesses seem to run everywhere, and who knows where they came from or where they’re going.

“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.” — Anonymous Spiritual

But what if something’s wrong with one of them? Suppose you have a defective cable, a miswired one, a misoriented diode, a short, or an intermittent connection? How will you find it in a large, complex harness and how much time will you spend tracking it down? You may want to consider a CableEye cable tester from CAMI Research (www.camiresearch.com). A variety of models allows you to pick the one you want for your test needs. These devices can help you see errors in a wiring display and can handle production test as well. You can have up to 1,024 test points and measure cables up to 300 feet long. There’s an on-line database and easy-to-use software that runs on your PC. You can even produce the hard-copy documentation required by ISO 9000. CAMI president Chris Strangio has been working on this problem for over 15 years now and has sold many systems to OEM manufacturers, contract assemblers, factory automation engineers, and network installers. Highly recommended if cables play a major role in your systems and your debugging and testing problems.

“What though the mast be now blown overboard, the cable broke, the holding anchor lost, and half our sailors swallow’d in the flood? Yet lives our pilot still.” — Shakespeare, Henry VI Part III

Test Equipment Can Do More For You

“You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.” — Blake

Test equipment makers have focused largely on helping designers and operators uncover problems. Their instruments show what is happening in a system, often in overwhelming detail. However, once you acquire all this information, what you do with it is up to you. Actually resolving the problem or optimizing the system still takes a large amount of engineering time and experience. Tektronix Communications has now moved beyond the test and diagnosis business into that of automatic optimization, at least for wireless systems. Their OptiMon solution consists of fully-automated software applications that allow operators to identify problems, eliminate them, and optimize systems to avoid future recurrences. For example, their new automatic radio optimization application reports on such issues as over-provisioned and missing neighbors, pilot pollution, ping-pong handover, and sleeping cells. Meanwhile, their existing tools allow you to correlate drive test system data with protocol test data, making optimization easier to achieve. For more details, see their website at www.tek.com.

The author would like to thank Tektronix’s Senior Director and GM Richard Kenedi and Business Development Manager Matthew Thompson for explaining their new approach at the recent NxtComm conference. For those inquiring minds, I have determined that “pilot pollution” has nothing to do with either tugboat captains or airline personnel spending too much time at a local bar!

Jim Medeiros and Hurricane Ike

“Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, that thou mayst shake the superflux to them, and show the heavens more just.” — Shakespeare, King Lear

4. Organization Updates

Articles

OpenSAF Update, By John Fryer, Emerson Network Power

Less than a year after its formal launch, the OpenSAF high-availability middleware project has enlisted more than 200 open source developers and the support of nine leading network equipment providers and technology companies. In this short time, the Project has successfully released two versions of the software and announced plans for two more releases in 2009. To facilitate the use of its middleware, OpenSAF conducted a two day seminar (Developer Days 2008 in Munich, Germany) which helped interested developers ramp up quickly. All Developer Days presentations are available for download on line at http://www.opensaf.org/doc/toc.asp?assn_id=14944

John Fryer is President of the OpenSAF Foundation and Director of Technology Marketing at Emerson Network Power. You can reach him at john.fryer@emerson.com.

SCOPE Alliance: Influencing the Telecom Industry Agenda, By Paul Steinberg, SCOPE Alliance Chairman

Since our founding in January 2006, the SCOPE Alliance has been committed to accelerating the deployment of Carrier Grade Base Platforms for service provider applications. Our mission is to enable and promote the availability of open Carrier Grade Base Platforms (CGBPs) based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software building blocks, and to promote interoperability to better serve service providers and consumers. See the full article.

Interview

Interview with SA Forum President, Asif Naseem, by Ernie Bergstrom, Crystal Cube Consulting

Can you give me a high-level overview of the mission and goals of the SA Forum? Why SA Forum?

The Service Availability Forum (SA Forum) is a consortium of industry-leading communications and computing companies working together to develop and publish high availability and management software interface specifications. The SA Forum was created to help foster the concept that service availability is a critical requirement in many applications and that the industry as a whole would benefit from a single set of specifications rather than multiple solutions. Service Availability middleware and highly available applications can be written once and more easily ported to multiple platforms. Additionally, the integration of third party and proprietary applications becomes much easier.

See the full interview.

Announcements

The Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA) announced that its sponsor level members — Continuous Computing, Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing, Kontron and RadiSys — are already deploying products that have been tested to thermal guidelines specified by the CP-TA’s Test Procedure Manual (TPM) and in accordance with Interoperability Compliance Document (ICD) requirements. This announcement coincides with CP-TA’s validation of DegreeC’s Chassis Scan thermal tool as an AdvancedTCA (ATCA) chassis bulk airflow tester.

“This is a significant milestone for the ATCA market,” said Todd Keaffaber, CP-TA Technical Working Group Chair. “It demonstrates tangible progress in achieving the CP-TA’s mission of building a strong ATCA ecosystem by advancing interoperability,” Keaffaber continued. “The announcement of CP-TA’s validation of the Chassis Scan thermal test tool and further clarification of thermal ATCA shelf profiles brings us all closer to the day when Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) can expect CP-TA compliance and certification verification as required ‘must-have’ features.” For more information about CP-TA, visit www.cp-ta.org

The Service Availability Forum (www.saforum.org) (SA Forum) announced the availability of Release 6, an enhanced set of specifications that for the first time addresses the interaction between hardware events and software entities. Release 6 introduces a new service called Platform Management that bridges the SA Forum's Hardware Platform Interface HPI) and Application Interface Specification (AIS), enabling greater service availability, application portability and platform usability.

The Platform Management Service (PLM) integrates the hardware world of HPI and the software world of AIS to provide a standardized system view and enable service availability. This representation allows developers to match configured systems with hardware that is actually present in a device, allowing software to easily access relevant hardware states using a standardized model. The Release 6 specifications can be downloaded free of charge at www.saforum.org/specification

5. Contributing Editors’ Perspectives

• Lars Johan Larsson, Modt AB
• Ernie Bergstrom, Crystal Cube Consulting

How AdvancedTCA Could Fall Off the Tracks
By Lars Johan Larsson, Modt AB

Actual AdvancedTCA shipments in 2007 were well above what leading analysts predicted. Now 2008 is ending, and interim vendor reports show continuing progress. Not everyone is happy, but most major players are. The trend remains that a few suppliers dominate the market and are doing well.

AdvancedTCA is mainly taking market share from in-house proprietary systems. TEMs that have done initial AdvancedTCA applications now plan to replace more in-house systems with the new technology. Otherwise, the numbers and market shares show little change. HP and IBM’s Carrier Grade proprietary blade servers are holding their ground but not expanding. Carrier Grade rackmount systems continue to be used for smaller applications. MicroTCA is still in the feasibility study phase and is not yet visible in the statistics. Finally, the few holdouts who remain committed to proprietary in-house systems show no signs of changing their minds. See the full article.

Virtualizing AdvancedTCA Platforms
By Ernie Bergstrom, Crystal Cube Consulting

Virtualization (via platforms such as VMware) has become a standard technology in data centers, allowing them to increase server utilization well above previous levels. The idea is to provide virtual machines that applications can utilize as if they were physical hardware. Software (a hypervisor) then maps the virtual machines to physical ones, essentially combining them and thus reducing hardware needs, increasing security, simplifying provisioning, and capturing legacy software. See the full article.

RapidIO vs. PCIe Peer Communications
By Tom Cox, RapidIO Trade Association

• RapidIO supports simple, reliable, efficient true peer-to-peer communications, implemented in hardware that scales from small to large (thousands of processors) systems - PCIe does not!

PCIe specifies that switches must support “peer to peer communications”, which they define at the hardware level as the ability to route a packet headed upstream  back downstream if its address matches the BAR configuration on a downstream port. RapidIO peer to peer communications is directly between devices, and it is hardware based and routed. See the full article. 

AdvancedTCA Newsletter

6. Features

Catching Embedded Software Bugs Early
By Todd Landry, Klocwork

Embedded systems are only as good as the software that drives them! Bugs are not just a nuisance, they’re a major problem. A bug in a smart device can have disastrous effects — cell phones don’t work, automobiles stall in traffic, pacemakers don’t keep hearts beating, weapons systems kill the wrong people … the list goes on. And in less spectacular scenarios, bug-laden devices cost corporations millions annually in lost revenue and brand reputation. See the full article.

Efficient Power Management of AdvancedMCs in MicroTCA
By Jim Bird, Texas Instruments

AdvancedMCs are often used in high-power density environments with demanding power, thermal, and reliability requirements. Shrinking form factors and growing power demands make efficient power management essential. This is especially true in MicroTCA, where the form factor is small and the functionality on the cards is limited (since they were intended as mezzanine add-ons rather than as central functions). See the full article.

Automated Configuration of Network Elements
By Hakan Millroth, Tail-f Systems

Not long ago, network administrators could configure network devices once and then just leave them alone, so called “set and forget” administration. Today’s multiservice networks require frequent and often complex configuration changes to provision a range of services. It therefore makes sense to automate the configuration process. See the full article.

Powering AdvancedTCA Platforms with Network Flow Processors
By Nabil Damouny, Netronome

Accelerating Service Deployments Via a New Micro-Architecture

Service providers face many challenges today. On the one hand, their industry is very capital-intensive and requires huge investments. On the other hand, they must quickly offer and bundle new differentiated products and services to create additional revenue sources and to match competitors’ offerings. They face competition from cable and wireless providers as well as Internet-based voice services. In turn, they are requesting faster turnaround, greater flexibility, higher performance, and lower cost from their equipment providers. See the full article.

Interview with Dick Somes, PICMG’s long-time VP of Technology, By Lance A. Leventhal, Newsletter Technical Editor

1. What would you cite as the most important accomplishments of your tenure as PICMG’s VP of Technology?

My first accomplishment, back in 1994, was the formalization of PICMG’s Policies and Procedures. The CompactPCI spec had just been revised, but only a few people had been involved. Clearly, we needed to guarantee access to both development and review of specifications to all members. Our basic principle has always been to define a way for doing high-quality technical work in a consensus oriented environment. We just adopted the third revision of the Policies and Procedures, so in a sense it represents my three most important accomplishments.

In fact, I can’t claim principal credit for the other things I’ve done. I believe I made an important contribution to the development of our intellectual property policy, formally adopted four years ago and updated earlier this year. Other major players in that effort were our President, Joe Pavlat, and our attorney, Andy Updegrove.

My most significant contribution to an individual spec was the first revision of AdvancedTCA. I was officially the editor for that revision, and I have fond (!) memories of leading day long page by page reviews. See the full interview.

7. UNH-IOL News

The University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) reports the following recent and upcoming activities at their facility in Durham, New Hampshire. For more information, consult their website at www.iol.unh.edu. Communications Director Chris Volpe (volpe@iol.unh.edu) provides this ongoing service.

IMS NGN Forum sponsored IMS Plugfest - January 12-16
Broadband Forum sponsored VDSL2 System Integrator Plugfest — January 19-23
Broadband Forum sponsored TR-069 Interoperability Plugfest — January 26-30

8. Financial News

Kontron acquires communication rackmount server operation from Intel Corporation

Kontron has finalized its announced acquisition of Intel’s Communication Rackmount Server Operation. The Intel carrier-grade rackmount and network server team mainly centered in Columbia, South Carolina, and Penang, Malaysia, includes various employees engaged in engineering, product development, product marketing, technical support and operations worldwide. Kontron's management expects revenue from this acquistion to be more than 40 million for 2009.

Tundra Semiconductor Second Quarter 2009

Tundra Semiconductor reported financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended November 2, 2008. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2009 was $18.2 million, comprised of $9.2 million in the Communications market segment, $6.8 million in the Computing/Storage market segment, and $2.2 million in Design Services. Quarterly revenue represents a 1% increase from the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 and a 2% increase compared to the second quarter of fiscal year 2008. GAAP earnings for the quarter were $1.7 million or $0.09 per diluted share, compared to earnings of $0.04 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, and a loss of $0.7 million or $0.04 per diluted share in the second quarter fiscal year 2008. Management offers the following outlook for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009: Q3 Revenue is expected to be in the range of $13.5 million to $16.5 million and Q3 Pro forma diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of a loss of $0.05 to a gain of $0.02.

Actel Corporation Third Quarter 2008

Actel Corporation announced net revenues of $53.2 million for the third quarter of 2008, down 8 percent from the second quarter of 2008 and up 11 percent from the third quarter of 2007. Non-GAAP net income, which excludes stock-based compensation, option restatement expenses, and other nonrecurring adjustments, was $1.9 million for the third quarter of 2008 compared with $4.0 million for the second quarter of 2008 and $3.3 million for the third quarter of 2007. Non-GAAP earnings were $0.07 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2008 compared with $0.15 for the second quarter of 2008 and $0.12 for the third quarter of 2007. Including stock-based compensation and other adjustments in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Actel reported a net loss of $1.4 million, or ($0.05) per basic share, for the third quarter of 2008 compared with net income of $2.0 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008 and net income of $1.8 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2007. The company believes that fourth quarter 2008 revenues will be flat to four percent down sequentially.

Nortel Sheds 1,300 Jobs

Nortel Networks announced a significant restructuring plan, including a reduction of 1,300 jobs, in an effort to better address its target markets and find a profitable footing. Details of the restructuring plan came as the vendor announced its third-quarter results, which included $3.21 billion of non-cash writedowns. The net loss in the third quarter was $3.41 billion, though that included one-time non-cash charges of $3.21 billion, comprising a $1.14 goodwill writedown against enterprise and carrier business assets and a $2.07 billion revaluation of its deferred tax assets. A year ago Nortel reported a net profit of $27 million. Discounting all one-time financial items, Nortel's net loss was $150 million or $0.30 per share. Nortel expects full-year revenues to be about 4 percent lower than last year's $10.95 billion. Given the current global economic downturn, though, the company noted that "actual results may be lower than these current expectations."

9. Classifieds

Services

	Let Align Marketing help define and align your corporate strategy, positioning, messaging, sales and distribution, and communications programs. Contact Carolyn Mathas at +1.510.429.1563
	Public Relations — Media Relations for Technology Special expertise in embedded hardware and software including AMC, ATCA and MicroTCA — High Tech PR experience also includes telecom hardware & software, broadcast and Internet video, wireless networking, WiFi, ZigBee, WiMAX, web 2.0 applications, content delivery, storage, eCommerce, etc. Contact Mark Shapiro at +1.619.249.7742

Continuing Education

BOGATIN ENTERPRISES CLASS SCHEDULE (www.bethesignal.com)

Need an update on high-frequency board design? Do you think in MHz but your board works in GHz? You may need a course from signal integrity expert (and widely published author) Eric Bogatin. Highly recommended (customers include Agilent Technologies and Intel). Bogatin courses will also be available through IEEE’s Educational Partners Program starting in January 2009.

10. Newsletter Advertising Rates

• Lead sponsorship of a single bimonthly issue - $2,000
• Lead sponsorship of 3 bimonthly issues - $5,000
• Lead sponsorship for 6 bimonthly issues - $8,000
• Annual sponsorship - $1,500 (puts your logo and a 50-word statement in the Annual Sponsor section of the current issue of the Newsletter and in an Annual Sponsor section of the Website for one year)
• Banner ads (up to 468 x 60 pixels, less than 20 KB, GIF format; animated) - $500
• Display ads (text only, no more than 15 lines) - $300
• Consultant's Corner, Classified Ads, Looking for Partners - one issue free (annually); otherwise, $100/issue, $250/3 issues, $400/6 issues
• Consultant’s Cards (.jpg file for the card, .doc file for two lines of text that describe your expertise or specialty) - one month at no charge
• Jobs Wanted - complimentary
• Positions Available - free

Contact: Rudy Gentry, rudy@atcanewsletter.com