AdvancedTCA Newsletter

• AdvancedTCA/MicroTCA Announcements

  Webinar
  Advanced Thermal Solutions will be hosting a webinar entitled Analytical, Computational and Experimental Thermal Analysis of a xTCA Chassis, starting at 2:00 pm (EST) on May 27.

  Course description: ATCA and MicroTCA are chassis standards geared to getting systems from telecomm, computing, military, medical and other companies to market faster and with lower cost. While the form factor, modularity and price point are attractive, thermal challenges can be magnified with the small form factors and interoperability challenges of a standard architecture. Attendees will be equipped with advanced, fast and accurate thermal design techniques that will help them efficiently use modeling and testing tools to determine device junction temperatures and speed time-to-market. To register, please visit www2.gotomeeting.com/register/116965051.

• Table of Contents
  1. Market Watch 2. Industry News 3. Navigating the Technology Minefield 4. Organization Updates 5. Contributing Editors Perspective 6. Features 7. UNH-IOL Interoperability Events 8. Financial News 9. Newsletter Advertising Rates 10. Newsletter Archives

• AdvancedTCA Acronyms

1. Market Watch Current Application Segment Analysis for AdvancedTCA , By Eric Heikkila, Contributing Editor, and Director of Embedded Hardware Practice, Venture Development Corporation (VDC) AdvancedTCA is now well established in many embedded applications. We project sales will reach the billion dollar mark by 2012, an impressive feat in the highly fragmented embedded computing market. Core Communications at the Core Core communications remains by far the largest vertical market for AdvancedTCA with two-thirds of the projected total for 2010. Such applications are exactly what AdvancedTCA was invented for, so this is no surprise. AdvancedTCA has done particularly well among Tier II/III network equipment providers (NEPs). Lacking the development resources of their tier I competitors, they prefer to avoid building proprietary compute platforms in-house. Instead, using the standardized, commercial off the shelf (COTS) AdvancedTCA platform allows them to focus their precious development time and dollars on their differentiating value-add. AdvancedTCA also allows them to use the same platform across multiple product lines and accelerate time to market. Most tier 1 NEPs are also adopting AdvancedTCA because of the same value propositions, although they are migrating from their proprietary platforms much more slowly. AdvancedTCA usage has grown along with the deployment of converged “All-IP” networks. Typically AdvancedTCA is deployed in “greenfield” applications involving brand new infrastructure equipment. Therefore, we are only now entering the period with the greatest potential for AdvancedTCA deployment - the rollout of next generation 4G/LTE networks. Edge Communications and the Enterprise More recently, AdvancedTCA has also found its way into edge communications and even enterprise applications. Smaller rack configurations such as 5-slot systems are a good fit in such situations. Core communications will always be the largest market for AdvancedTCA. However, the amount adopted by the edge and enterprise segments will increase from its current one-sixth of 2010 sales. In the Army Now A surprising vertical market to adopt AdvancedTCA is military/defense. The military needs secure communications networks much like the ones built for commercial telecommunications. Hence, AdvancedTCA is a perfect fit. Much of the military AdvancedTCA deployment is in benign environments outside the war theatre (for example, housed in buildings on bases). However, some deployments have been to the field, as well as on ships and airplanes. The applications with the greatest potential for AdvancedTCA adoption in the military are only just emerging. For example, the US military services are rebuilding their entire communications networks because their legacy infrastructure consists of “stovepiped” systems that cannot communicate or interoperate and are difficult to maintain or update. Programs such as CANES in the US Navy and NETCENTSII in the US Air Force are huge efforts aimed at building unified, consistent, and interoperable communications networks. AdvancedTCA, as a COTS modular open standard, has obvious potential to be the computing platform of choice. Furthermore, other nations are building their own similar military network infrastructures as well. A Bright Future for AdvancedTCA AdvancedTCA has a bright future. Besides its base in core communications, it will find increasing use in edge communications, highly available enterprise networks, and military networks. Eric Heikkila can be reached at eric@atcanewsletter.com.

Annual Sponsors Annual Sponsors

2. Industry News

Market Research

Embedded Market Forecasters, a market intelligence and advisory firm for the embedded technology industry, released a report titled “Choosing Between Commercial and ‘Roll Your Own’ Embedded Communication Integration Middleware”and survey results that provide a cost-based evaluation framework for embedded developers evaluating the relative merits of developing in-house, or “Roll Your Own” (RYO), middleware or using a commercial alternative. The findings show that middleware selection can have a very significant impact on a project’s cost, timeliness, risk and performance.

The Embedded Market Forecasters report is based on a sample of 166 developers that identified themselves as communication middleware users (out of 476 total survey respondents). Slightly over half used in-house, “Roll-Your-Own” solutions and the remainder comprised commercial communication middleware users, including both embedded and IT communication middleware products. Applications included avionics, automotive, medical, telecom, Datacom, electronic instrumentation, industrial automation, military and consumer electronics, among others.

Commercial communications middleware consists of embedded vendors and IT middleware vendors selling into the embedded space. There is a significant difference in the comparative data; however, for purposes of this study they were combined under the “commercial” category as they together comprise the market. In addition to comparing the results of commercial and in-house, “Roll Your Own” middleware, EMF also compared the results of these two categories with those of the two most popular vendors of embedded integration middleware, Objective Interface Systems (OIS: www.ois.com) and Real-Time Innovations (RTI: www.rti.com).

According to EMF’s research:

• Total Cost of Development: The average cost of application development was substantial for projects using RYO middleware ($1.61M), most commercial solutions ($1.34M), and OIS ($1.49M); however, projects using RTI enjoyed much lower costs ($0.89M).
• Average Cost Overrun: The average cost overrun was similar for projects using RYO (11.3%) and commercial (10.1%) middleware. Projects using RTI finished closest to expected cost (6.0%) and projects using OIS ran significantly over budget (14.1%).
• Testing Costs: In projects where the cost of testing was less than 30 percent of the total development cost, RYO (72.5%) showed an advantage over commercial (65.5%) middleware. Projects using RTI’s commercial middleware, however, had testing costs less than 30 percent of the total development cost 84.6% of the time.
• Design Completion and Outcomes: Final Design outcomes using commercial embedded middleware in general, and RTI in particular, were much closer to pre-design expectations than RYO developments for performance, functionality, features and schedule.

The report can be found at www.embeddedforecast.com.



Hardware and Software


Freescale Semiconductor introduced the first processors based on its QorIQ communications platform that also incorporate QUICC Engine multiprotocol technology. The QorIQ P1012/P1021 product family offers a high-performance, low-power migration path to all-IP environments for customers using legacy multiprotocol interfaces. The processors deliver highly efficient multiprotocol processing by integrating the latest QUICC Engine technology alongside one or two 800 MHz cores based on Power Architecture technology. The combination of the QorIQ and QUICC Engine technologies enables the devices to provide both data- and control-plane processing, which eliminates the need for separate FPGAs or ASICs. For more information, visit www.freescale.com/files/pr/P1021.html.

Continuous Computing announced the incorporation of Trillium FastPath protocol software into its pre-integrated, application-ready system solutions for Long Term Evolution (LTE) Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network elements. Based on the 6WINDGate software suite from 6WIND, and designed to meet the unique needs of the next generation mobile core, Trillium Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) and GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) FastPath software is highly scalable and performance-optimized for the company’s FlexPacket ATCA-PP50 packet processing blade. All Trillium LTE protocol stacks are optimized for multi-core / multi-threaded processing architectures and each stack includes a reference application for the relevant LTE network interfaces including LTE-Uu, S1, S6, S7, S10 and X2. More information is available at www.ccpu.com/products/trillium/lte.html and www.ccpu.com/products/atca/pp50.html.

Kontron announced the signing of an expanded distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics, a leading global distributor of electronic components and solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Arrow will market and distribute Kontron’s full line of embedded computing products in North and Central America. This new agreement is an extension of an existing successful relationship between the two companies, which primarily focused on Kontron’s Carrier Grade and Rack Mount Servers. Kontron’s full product portfolio is now available through Arrow Electronics. For more information, visit www.kontron.com.

RadiSys announced that GENBAND, a developer of IP infrastructure solutions, will incorporate RadiSys ATCA switching and packet processing technology into its next–generation of carrier–class security, session and border control products. The GENBAND S–Series product line addresses security and border control requirements across a wide spectrum of applications including Femtocells, WiFi and VoIP. GENBAND's S–Series reaches up to 1.2 million IPSec tunnels at 3,000 tunnels per second set–up rate and 108,000 concurrent SBC sessions.

CommAgility announced a new Advanced Mezzanine Card module, the AMC-3D74, a single width, full-size PICMG AMC module. The AMC module includes a front panel mounted Serial RapidIO (SRIO) interface, and provides a cost-effective, high performance solution for test equipment and general purpose DSP processing applications. Multiple 10Gbps SRIO interfaces are provided for radio cards and any customer-specific I/O requirements. The SRIO interfaces are also accessible via the AdvancedMC backplane, and optical I/O can be provided as an option. The AMC-3D74 also provides Gigabit Ethernet and RocketIO via the AMC backplane. For high processing density, it is based around three TMC320C6474 multicore DSPs from Texas Instruments, running at 1 or 1.2GHz, and a Virtex-5 FPGA from Xilinx. For more information, visit www.commagility.com.



Agilent Technologies announced an LTE test solution that combines the Agilent 89600 VSA LTE FDD and LTE TDD analysis software with the Agilent N9030A PXA signal analyzer. The PXA provides RF performance that supports both LTE FDD and LTE TDD. It delivers up to 140 MHz analysis bandwidth and up to 75 dB of spurious-free dynamic range with typical flatness of ±0.4 dB, making it an ideal solution for 3G, 4G and beyond. LTE Advanced, one of the standards candidates for true 4G mobile broadband systems, will extend LTE to even wider bandwidth, up to 100 MHz. More information about the PXA signal analyzer is available at www.agilent.com/find/PXA. A backgrounder on the Agilent PXA is available at www.agilent.com/find/PXA_backgrounder. An overall X-Series backgrounder is available at www.agilent.com/find/X-Series_backgrounder.

Smart Modular Technologies has expanded its lineup of DDR3 small modules. The new products include unbuffered and registered error-correction code (ECC) mini-DIMMs in very-low-profile (VLP) and standard heights as well as unbuffered and registered ECC SO-DIMMs. Serving a wide variety of applications in the networking, telecom, storage, and industrial markets, SMART's DDR3 ECC small modules are optimized for space savings, high density, lower power, and high performance. Available in a broad range of configurations, SMART's DDR3 small modules are form-factor comparable to its DDR2 product line, allowing OEMs to continue using familiar memory modules while advancing performance and power savings with DDR3 technology. For more information, visit www.smartm.com.

Positronic announced that it now offers all power input connector variants for MicroTCA systems. Its “QB” series offers all four Combo D variants included in the MTCA specifications. Among its features are single or stacked dual port package, right angle PCB mount connectors that  offer standard mounting brackets or a unique “low profile” design, power contacts with resistance values as low as 0.00035 ohms, and a full range of contact plating options including military grade. For information on Positronic’s complete line of Combo D connectors, including high density variants, visit www.connectpositronic.com/products/1/StandardDensityCombo-D/.

Enea announced the immediate availability of the Enea® Optima 2.2 (ww.enea.com/optima) Eclipse-based integrated development environment. Enea Optima 2.2 features new capabilities for rapidly developing complex embedded multicore applications including enhanced profiling, analysis and memory management. The Optima System Profiler simplifies the development, debugging and optimization of multicore systems by allowing users to monitor the CPU usage of all cores, programs and threads at the same time. It also permits the user to experiment with system performance by analyzing scenarios involving the moving of specific code from one core to another. Users can have profiling information of different types or from multiple cores automatically correlated in time. All profiling information can be presented in both 3D and 2D charts allowing the developer to quickly assess total usage as well as the contribution from individual processes.

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering announced that its AXS-200/635 Triple-Play Test Set has been approved by three different tier-1 North American network operators to support their deployment of next-generation VDSL2 services and applications. The AXS-200/635 single unit includes 30 MHz, single-ended wideband copper testing to fully validate broadband deployments as well as voice, data and proven IPTV analysis/testing capabilities over established DSL, Ethernet and HPNA links. The AXS-200/635 is a complete multi-layer test solution used in the deployment, troubleshooting and repair of POTS, ADSL2+, VDSL2, and triple-play services such as IPTV. The AXS-200/635 also includes the Broadcom DSL chipset for ADSL2+ and VDSL2 testing. For further information on the AXS-200/635 Triple-Play Test Set, visit www.EXFO.com.

Inphi announced the first 100G coherent transimpedance amplifier (TIA) available that is compliant with the Optical Internetworking Forum’s (OIF) rigorous standard. Coherent detection is a breakthrough approach to achieving 100G serial bit rate transmission over existing metro and backbone networks, and has been adopted by the OIF. Receiver makers can now build 100G coherent receivers for long-haul and metro regional networks. Another new Inphi component will allows customer to extend their reach, by addressing the challenges of Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD). PMD, a common problem faced by carriers operating at 40 Gbps, causes signal distortion and limits the reach of 40G networks.

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

Well, Back to the Old Drawing Board!
Do you have an application that requires enormous computing power, far more than a general-purpose processor can provide? Perhaps you are doing signal processing (such as FFTs), encryption/decryption, deep packet inspection, or image processing in medical applications. How do you get much more processing power without busting your budget?

One approach to consider is a graphics processor (a GPU). These devices were originally developed for graphics rendering, but their highly parallel architecture can serve other applications as well. After all, the device doesn’t know that you’re asking it to solve a non-graphical problem – and neither I nor the manufacturer will tell on you (personally, I will vow silence for a very small fee!).

Recently, graphics processors have integrated far more cores, and their manufacturers have introduced architectures that allow for programming in an extended C. For example, consider the NVIDIA Tesla C1060 processor. It offers 240 cores running at 1.3 GHz with floating-point capabilities and a fast memory interface. A high-speed PCI-Express Gen 2.0 bus transfers data to and from a standard CPU. The C for CUDA programming environment is in wide use with over 100 million GPUs enabled by it, 200 universities teaching about it in courses, and 25,000 active developers. NVIDIA will provide chips or board-level or computer-level products with performance in the hundreds of gigaflops or teraflops. Developers have gotten speedups of 6X to 150X on a variety of computational problems. Of course, there are drawbacks – the device dissipates almost 200 watts, so you’ll need a large power budget.

For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

I thank Andrew Humber of NVIDIA (ahumber@nvidia.com) for explaining his company’s products.

Protecting Your Software from Intruders
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” – Shakespeare, Hamlet

Hackers are everywhere, as we all know. But telecom networks of any kind are just as vulnerable to hacking as are public networks such as the Internet. See, for example, the fascinating case in which someone subverted telecom software to tap the cellphone of the Greek prime minister: www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/5280

What can you do to prevent your software from being hacked? Note that potential hackers could include industrial spies, software pirates, and other modern criminals as well.

For example, you could consider implementing protection in either hardware or software. Protection tools encrypt code, stop unauthorized changes, monitor and thwart tampering efforts, respond to attacks, and report problems. A typical example is GuardIT from Arxan, which is available for Windows, Linux, .NET, and other platforms. It supports a wide variety of processors, languages, operating systems, compilers, and chipsets. Features include:

• Defense techniques that prevent reverse engineering
• Detection techniques that prevent tampering
• Reaction techniques that respond to attacks

GuardIT can be integrated into your software build environment and can be readily customized for a particular application. For more information, see the company’s website at www.arxan.com.

Taming the Many-Headed Beast
“The people are a many-headed beast.” – Horace

If multicore processors aren’t on your agenda today, they soon will be. All major manufacturers have decided that multicore is the way to go, since they can no longer raise frequencies to provide more processing power. However, even though we know “two heads are better than one”, making multicore work effectively is not easy. Academic researchers have been working in the area for many years now without producing any obvious solutions.

One thing is for certain – your programmers will need retraining. So you may want to consider courses like those offered by nCore Design. Their “Programming Multicore Processors” class deals with parallelism, synchronization, shared memory, pitfalls, parallel algorithms, OS interactions, threads, and performance issues. The focus is on programming in C and C++ and on Intel’s tools. But the basic terminology and methods are the same for any processor. And they’re a far cry from what even recent graduates learned in their programming classes. Within just a few years, all processors will be multicore, and many will sport tens or even hundreds of cores. So you had better get everyone up to speed now!

For more information on nCore Design’s classes, see their website at www.ncoredesign.com. Its features include a design blog and case studies.  They also offer a course on programming graphics processors (such as Nvidia) in case you think that might be a way to achieve even higher performance.  The nCore people have extensive experience with a wide variety of applications, so they can surely help you get started in this difficult area.

I thank Ian Lintault, Managing Director of nCore Design, for an extensive briefing on his company.

SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific Is Steaming Ahead
One seldom hears nowadays of organizations with steadily increasing budgets and a plan to hire over 600 people this year. The U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Pacific (SSC Pacific) is thus a rare breed indeed. At a recent community meeting, SSC Pacific described its focus on C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance). They work primarily for the Navy, but also have programs with other military branches and the Department of Homeland Security. They described their research programs in areas such as ocean surveillance systems, sensors, command systems, communications and networking, computer technology, and navigation and aircraft. They are also actively promoting increased and more diverse student involvement in engineering and science with programs for college students, high school students, and women.

Under the leadership of Commanding Officer Captain Mark Kolheim and Technical Director Carmela Keeney, SSC Pacific has 800 ongoing projects and employs 2000 scientists and engineers (including 150 PhDs). Their mission is to be the DoD Center of Excellence for Integrated C4ISR in the maritime domain. They currently have over $2.5 billion in revenue and over 6000 industry partners. They have been rated as the #1 DoD/Navy lab in development and acquisition and a top tier for research and test. Among their interesting recent activities was hosting the 12th Annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition in which 30 student teams from around the world competed. For more information on SSC Pacific, see their website at www.spawar.navy.mil/pacific.

I would like to thank Captain Kolheim, Technical Director Keeney, and CTO Gary Wang of SSC Pacific for taking the time to brief me on their program at a recent community meeting.

Reliability is More Than Just a Word

“The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends.” – Cicero

Are you having problems with product reliability? These could include outgoing or incoming test failures, inability to meet standards requirements, field problems, or expensive service calls. You can end up with significant (and unexpected) costs, unproductive use of engineering time, and unhappy customers who look elsewhere for new orders. You may need an improved reliability program, including assessments, consulting, testing, and training. One source you might consider is the reliability engineering firm with the intriguing name of Ops A La Carte. They have many highly experienced consultants who can provide end-to-end solutions, single product solutions, training seminars, and testing services. They have their own reliability laboratory and have helped improve the reliability on over 500 products in a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, computers, defense, energy, medical, telecom and wireless. Their HALT (highly accelerated life testing) approach identifies the proper stress types and levels for your product. Let experts determine whether today’s vulnerabilities are more likely to be temperature, vibration, humidity, pressure, or whatever! Obviously, the company’s name indicates that you can buy whatever services you need for as long as you want. They can also help with software reliability, the RoHS process, and warranties. For more information, see their Website at www.opsalacarte.com.

The author would like to thank Sales Manager Clayton Bonn for describing the company’s services at a recent conference.

4. Organization Updates

Articles

RapidIO Trade Association Defines Gen 3 Specification Update
By Tom Cox, RapidIO Trade Association

The RapidIO® Trade Association has formed a technical task group to define the 3.0 version of its specification. The main goals are to enable additional high speed link implementations and broaden market applications. The new specification, officially Serial RapidIO Gen 3, will be fully backwards compatible with Gen 2. 
The 3.0 PHY Task Group is developing a higher performance PHY for the RapidIO serial protocol with the following characteristics:

• Data rate per lane of at least 8 Gbps
• Asymmetric link operation
• Power efficient
• Low latency
• Fault tolerant
• Bit error rate below 10-12

See the full article.

Thermal Classes Help AdvancedTCA Developers Achieve Interoperability
By Brian Wood, CP-TA/Continuous Computing

As Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) know, thermal issues often present the greatest challenges when integrating system platforms. Matching heat generation and cooling airflow to avoid hot spots and early system failures is particularly challenging when combining components from different vendors.

One problem is that ratings, since they are self-imposed, may not have a standard meaning. For example, one vendor might say its chassis is capable of 200W cooling. But under what conditions? True capacity could vary, depending on ambient temperature as well as limitations on fan noise level. Some blades require more thermal removal than others, and slots do not necessarily have uniform capacity. There is a real need for a common vocabulary and measurable criteria for both slots and blades. See the full article.  

SCOPE Alliance Announces Middleware Portability Project and Releases CPU Benchmarking Recommendations
By Leslie Guth, SCOPE Alliance

In December, SCOPE Alliance announced the results of its Middleware Portability Project and released its CPU Benchmarking Recommendations technical note. These documents provide commercial off-the-shelf ecosystem vendors new insight into Network Equipment Providers’ (NEPs) requirements for middleware portability and CPU benchmarking.

The Middleware Portability Project addresses the middleware layer in a carrier-grade base platform (CGBP). The project was created to analyze middleware portability and interoperability issues that arise when the base platform is implemented in a system composed of building blocks from several vendors. As CGBP middleware must be able to interoperate across multiple dimensions, the project identifies scenarios that could impact building block interoperability and application portability. The results are outlined in a new whitepaper (Middleware Portability Use Cases), detailing several examples that address multi-vendor configurations and lifecycle and operating situations. See the full article.

OpenSAF News
By Alan Meyer, OpenSAF Foundation

As we enter 2010, there is a lot of activity in and around OpenSAF. OpenSAF is focused on remaining on schedule for the upcoming Version 4 release targeted for the spring. Multiple beta milestones have been achieved, with incremental functionality and testing at each release. Additionally, the project has also responded to the current installed base, recently publishing an update of Version 3. For more details on project activities, please visit devel.opensaf.org.

Now is the time to register for the 3rd annual Developer Days conference, which will be held in Palo Alto, CA on May 24-25, hosted by HP. This year’s event will have an expanded agenda to include topics on OpenHPI, based on questions and interest from within and around the OpenSAF community. Space is limited, so please sign up early to avoid disappointment. More information can be found on the OpenSAF website. See the full article.

There’s No Upside to Downtime
By Asif Naseem, SA Forum

Service Availability implies a service is always there, regardless of whether parts of the hardware or software fail or the user makes a mistake. It is often taken for granted until an outage occurs. That is, we all simply assume that our cable TV, telephone, Internet, or wireless service will be there when we want to use it. .

Downtime May Affects Millions
Last month, BlackBerry had two significant e-mail outages within a week, spurring media coverage and consumer complaints on sites like Twitter. During the second outage, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) estimated that all of its North American customers were affected. BlackBerry has approximately 32 million global subscribers. The outages also caused RIM stock to fall. Online banking is another area impacted by downtime. In October 2009, First National Bank experienced downtime on its online banking Website spanning several days. Some customers incurred fees for late payments. The bank offered to compensate those who could show they lost money because of the outage. See the full article.

AXIe Technical Update
By Steve Narciso, AXIe Consortium

The AXIe technical committee is actively working on the 1.0 and 1.1 specifications. AXIe 1.0 is the base specification that adds basic instrumentation requirements to the AdvancedTCA framework. The AXIe 1.0 working group is focusing on maximizing AdvancedTCA compatibility, yet including the features required for high-performance instrumentation. AXIe 1.1 is an additional layer that specifies Zone 3 interfaces providing required features for automated semiconductor test systems. The AXIe 1.0 and AXIe 1.1 working groups expect to complete first-draft specifications shortly. See the full article.

Announcements

New Online Forum: Multicore Packet Processing Forum
A new online forum has emerged for designers and marketers of multicore-based architectures to address embedded software challenges they face. The forum – Multicore Packet Processing Forum – focuses on technical and marketing issues related to embedded networking software for multicore platforms, now a key industry challenge. Engineers and marketers from companies such as 6WIND, Cavium Networks, Interphase Corporation, NetLogic Microsystems and Nokia Siemens Networks have so far contributed posts to the forum. The Multicore Packet Processing Forum is moderated by 6WIND and is open to contributions from anyone involved in embedded networking for multicore technical or marketing issues. The forum is available online at www.multicorepacketprocessing.com.

“The forum is just getting started and already we have dozens of posts covering issues such as ‘packet processing and IP convergence’ or ‘virtualization for network-based multicore telecommunication systems’ and ‘performance benchmarks for packet processing’ among many other related posts,” said Eric Carmès, CEO of 6WIND. “We welcome contributions, whether periodic or on a more regular basis, from anyone involved in designing equipment or marketing products using embedded networking software for multicore-based architectures. This includes welcoming contributions from media, analysts, investors and the like.”

The Multicore Packet Processing Forum features various types of resources. The Home tab provides blog posts and commenting. A Document Database tab features dozens of papers available for download – technical papers, marketing papers and white papers. A Press Releases tab highlights news from many companies in the multicore market. A Company Links tab provides web links to companies – software; multicore processor; multicore board and appliance vendors, and to industry research firms and publications, among others. A Contributions tab provides a forms-based opportunity to submit contributions with supporting images. An Info tab provides information contributors should review prior to posting. Other links exist, such as to other blogs and resources for multicore.

Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) Workshop
The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is hosting a workshop on Common Electrical Interface (CEI) for 25- and 28-Gig on Monday, February 1, 2010 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Cypress Hotel in Cupertino, California. This workshop is open to the public and OIF members.  The OIF is currently developing an implementation agreement for the third generation of CEI work. The workshop will give attendees a history of the OIF’s CEI work and an update on the current 25- and 28-Gig project. The afternoon session will provide a forum for discussion and feedback on where the industry is headed as electrical interface bandwidth increases to support increased system bandwidth density and the next generation of 100G optics modules.

The CEI workshop is open to the public. The registration fee for OIF members is $100 and for non-members is $125 (includes continental breakfast and lunch). Late/onsite registrants will be charged an additional $25. To access the online workshop registration system, go to www.oiforum.com/public/OIF_CEI_workshop_01Feb10.html.

5. Contributing Editors' Perspectives

AdvancedTCA Poised to Penetrate LTE
By Ernie Bergstrom, Crystal Cube Consulting

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a new high performance interface for cellular mobile communications systems. It is the latest step toward the 4G (4th Generation) of radio frequency technologies created to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks. LTE consists of enhancements to the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) which will be introduced in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Release 8.

AdvancedTCA Newsletter

6. Features

Time Waits for No Man - and Surely Not in Networks
By Dan Joe Barry, Napatech

Precise timing has become essential in modern packet networks. Time-sensitive services, such as VOIP, IPTV, financial trading, real-time data transfers, and mobile infrastructure, require time-stamping of packets. Lack of precise synchronization can lead to low service quality and a bad reputation for a service provider. It also causes problems when handing off wireless calls between networks. And, of course, timing is a necessity in charging for services or capacity at every level. See the full article.

AdvancedTCA’s Big Femtocell Opportunity
By Manish Singh, Continuous Computing

A femtocell is a small wireless basestation. It resides inside a consumer’s home to provide greater indoor coverage while offloading wireless traffic from the mobile core network.

What is the opportunity here for AdvancedTCA? The key area is the implementation of femtocell gateways. Telcos want to integrate femtocells into their networks without changing their existing 3G core infrastructures. See the full article.  

Overcoming 10GBASE-T Test and Measurement Hurdles – Bring on the Streaming Video
By Randy White, Serial Applications Technical Marketing Manager Tektronix

As bandwidth-hungry applications become the norm in corporate settings, the pressure is on network managers to scale their networks to faster speeds. Applications like streaming video, VoIP, IPTV, video conferencing over Ethernet, virtualization technology, server consolidation and thin clients, among others, are driving an industry move to 10 gigabit Ethernet, currently the fastest available. See the full article.  

Embedded Instrumentation Delivers Test/Validation Coverage on Intel Xeon 5500 Boards
By Tim Caffee, Vice President, Design Validation ASSET InterTech

Getting adequate test and validation coverage on ATCA boards based on the Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series (codenamed Nehalem) can be difficult if you rely exclusively on older intrusive probe-based test equipment like in-circuit test (ICT) systems. Non-intrusive software-driven test technologies based on embedded instrumentation can deliver the coverage that intrusive technologies have lost in recent years. See the full article.  

MicroTCA User Interview with Alok Shah of Vanu
Conducted by Lance Leventhal, Technology Editor

Vanu provides wireless infrastructure solutions that enable operators to access new markets and develop new revenue streams. Vanu’s software radio access network (RAN) solutions utilize Software Defined Radio (SDR), providing tremendous flexibility. The Vanu Anywave basestation is the first FCC-certified, commercially available software RAN solution, whereby a single reusable hardware platform can support multiple wireless services and standards simultaneously. Each standard is entirely developed in high level languages that run on high volume, high performance commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, allowing customers to choose the best and most cost-effective one for their application.

1. Why did you choose MicroTCA?

7. UNH-IOL Interoperability Events

UNH-IOL reports the following events:

The 8th Broadband Forum VDSL2 Systems Integrator Interoperability Plugfest
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory's (UNH-IOL) DSL Consortium will be hosting the Eighth Broadband Forum VDSL2 System Integrator Interoperability Plugfest the week of February 8, 2010. This event is an opportunity for VDSL2 system integrators (manufacturers of DSLAMs and CPE) to test the interoperability of their implementations. For more information, please visit: www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/dsl/grouptest/feb_08_2010_systems/

MIPI Display Interop Workshop #2
UNH-IOL will be hosting the second MIPI Display Interop Workshop February 1-5, 2010. The goal of this event is to perform interoperability testing of display components. All MIPI Alliance Members are invited. For more information, please visit: www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/mipi/Interopworkshop.php

We thank Communications Coordinator Jason Walls for providing this update. He can be reached at (603) 862-5051 or jwalls@iol.unh.edu.

8. Financial News

Acquisitions

GoAhead Software Aquires S3’s embeddedMIND Business
GoAhead Software, a leader in open standards-based high availability middleware, announced that it is acquiring the embeddedMIND business of S3. The company will maintain embeddedMIND’s development facility and leverage the team’s skills and experience in configuration management. The embeddedMIND team has been delivering configuration management software for several years with their commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution for network equipment manufacturers. The embeddedMIND product will continue to be offered as a stand-alone solution. In addition, embeddedMIND will be fully integrated with GoAhead High Availability solutions.

GENBAND Enters Agreement to Acquire Nortel Assets
GENBAND, a developer of next-generation IP infrastructure solutions, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Nortel to acquire substantially all of the assets of its Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions Business (CVAS) globally, for a purchase price of $282 million and a total cost of ownership in excess of $400 million. The proposed transaction combines GENBAND’s next-generation access, trunking, session and security gateway technology and Nortel’s widely used softswitch and application technology.

New Operating Units

Emerson Network Power
Emerson announced the combination of its Aperture and Avocent businesses into a new division. Emerson acquired Avocent in December 2009 and Aperture in February 2008. The unit combines Avocent’s management systems division, which offers access and control of the physical aspects of network devices and servers, with Aperture’s infrastructure software, for a portfolio of data center infrastructure management solutions. Together with Emerson Network Power’s power systems and energy management and precision cooling, the new division creates an infrastructure management solution, from the rack to the room, for data center managers to address energy efficiency. 

Financial Statements

Intel Fourth Quarter
Intel Corporation reported fourth-quarter revenue of $10.6 billion. The company reported operating income of $2.5 billion, net income of $2.3 billion, and earnings per share of 40 cents, up 36 cents year over year, and up 7 cents from the previous quarter. Relative to the third quarter, PC Client Group revenue increased 10 percent, Data Center Group revenue increased 21 percent, and the Intel Architecture group revenue increased 22 percent. Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue increased 6 percent.

Emerson Fourth Quarter
Emerson announced sales for the fourth quarter of $5.3 billion, a decrease of 21 percent from the $6.7 billion for the same period last year. Underlying sales in the quarter declined 20 percent. Sequentially, fourth quarter sales improved 4.6 percent versus the third quarter, showing revenue stabilization for the second consecutive quarter. Earnings per share of $0.67 for the fourth quarter decreased 24 percent from the $0.88 achieved in the prior year period. In the fourth quarter, subsidiary Emerson Network Power reported a sales decline of 22 percent. For all of Emerson, underlying sales for fiscal 2010 are expected to be down 5 to 7 percent. First quarter 2010 underlying sales are expected to be down 17 to 20 percent.

Agilent Technologies Fourth Quarter
Agilent Technologies reported revenues of $1.17 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter, 21 percent below one year ago. Fourth quarter GAAP net income was $25 million, $0.07 per share. Last year’s fourth quarter GAAP net income was $231 million, $0.64 per share. Electronic Measurement revenues were down 29 percent, with some signs of a turnaround in general products, but continued weakness in communications products. Communications revenues of $209 million were down 43 percent from one year ago, with only investments in LTE, network monitoring, and China 3G infrastructure showing signs of stabilization.

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