The PICMG AdvancedTCA specification provides a clear structure to develop open architecture blades. However, as you know, with any specification comes potential for interpretation. This is why the CP-TA was formed – to provide the interoperability testing that enables components from different manufacturers within the ATCA eco-system to be more easily integrated. To help smooth this process, the specification was divided into a set of different functional areas: manageability, thermal and data transport. A task force for each functional area, made up of subject matter experts from member companies, was created to solve the interoperability challenges that integrators have repeatedly faced in the past. In addition, a certification task force was created, to define certification levels and the certification programs to support each level.

The thermal requirements of ATCA have been designed to support the NEBS and ETSI environmental specifications. This places extremely challenging requirements on the design cooling sub-system within an ATCA chassis. Specifically, the cooling sub-system must deliver enough airflow to cool payload blades up to 40C while still meeting the acoustical limits. The cooling sub-system, or its components, must be field replaceable without impacting system availability or without the use of tools. Adding to the complexity, the airflow and cooling characteristics for each blade are unique. All these factors makes it very difficult to predict the overall thermal characteristics of a system, especially when the components are supplied by different vendors.

The Thermal task force (TTF) has developed (and is continuing to develop) a set of tests specified within the Test Procedure Manual (TPM) to provide a consistent set of measures of climatic, airflow and thermal values for a blade(s) and system. These tests, when applied to a vendor’s equipment, allow the integrator a much greater degree of confidence that a system can provide the necessary cooling within the climatic conditions.

During the development of the tests, the TTF recognized that the ability to consistently provide these measurements for the blades was needed. As a result, it has been working with third parties and contractors to develop a tool that will consistently and accurately measure the characteristics of a blade, thus providing a means for blade vendors to generate the airflow/impedance curve. The tool is simple enough to use throughout the blade development to understand the impacts of component placement and changes.

Finally, members of the TTF are working with PICMG on aspects of the thermal analysis being proposed within the MicroTCA.1 committee as well as being heavily involved in developing the latest version of the ATCA specification (now at R3.0 after the ECN committee has completed).