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.