Never before have I been so excited about the future prospects of ATCA. With LTE rolling out and ATCA deployments ramping up by Tier 1 TEMs and NEPs, the COTS offerings are getting real traction.

Where does CP-TA fit into this picture? With the goal of offering xTCA vendors benchmark test tools and guidelines, CP-TA is alleviating interoperability issues that a system integrator would have faced if there were no common ground on which to test the products. 

On the thermal side, the CP-TA Technical Work Group thermal task force is now specifying a new tool based on differential pressure topology. The task force considered but ultimately rejected the anemometer-based airflow measurement technique because the tool would not produce accurate measurements.

This was a disappointing turn of events but we made the decision because it is extremely important to know the thermal characteristics of a chassis, especially due to the myriad number of blades that come with a variety of components and provide so many variations to the airflow path. The stakes are high, as an appropriate thermal tool must not only meet engineering requirements, but must contain a feature set that meets customer needs and is at a price point the marketplace can bear.

On the manageability side, the manageability task force is well on its way to yielding the first ATCA Test tool that tests the enumerated PICMG ATCA v3.0 requirements. Fortunately the CP-TA Test Procedure Manual (TPM) has a direct correlation with the PICMG requirements. The test tool is scheduled to be beta released in February, and it will have a one-to-one mapping with the PICMG requirements.

Running the ATCA Tester will be the best way to claim PICMG compliance, as it will give the user a good picture of non-compliance with the specs in one hour-long test run. The new tester is Windows-based and has protocol decodes to help a developer see hex dumps and byte errors. CP-TA is planning to demonstrate the tool at the next PICMG interop event in April.

The CP-TA test tools are available directly from the tool vendors (e.g., Polaris Networks), but CP-TA members can purchase them at a discounted rate pre-negotiated by CP-TA. CP-TA members also benefit from discussing and debating ambiguous issues in the specs and submitting change requests (CRs) to PICMG that align with their company’s design specs. Join CP-TA here.