The Market for New ATCA Standards

I recently had a long chat with Kevin Bross of Intel about the following subjects:

• Double-wide AdvancedTCA blades
• Double-sided AdvancedTCA chassis
• Super rear transition module (RTM)

These are all under consideration for new PICMG commercial standards for AdvancedTCA. 

My feeling is that they would provide added processing power for AdvancedTCA, allowing for newer CPUs, better cooling, and more capabilities on a single board.  However, the drawbacks are:

Higher costs.  Boards would be more expensive to make and volumes would be lower.  We’re already hearing many complaints about the high cost of AdvancedTCA.

Reduced standardization.  The more variations we have, the less the standard means.  Also the COTS ecosystem would be smaller because few vendors would choose to implement the new variations.  SCOPE Alliance has complained that the TEMs would like to see fewer alternatives, not more.

More difficult testing.  Now we have to consider the possibility of double-wide boards, double-sided connections, and perhaps even double backplanes.

Of course, the real questions here are whether these variations open up new applications and whether vendors will choose to implement them.  One may be in the situation in which one is comparing the market for a $380,000 Rolls Royce with that for a $280,000 Bentley.  Does the difference in price tags really matter?  My guess is that the market for these new variations is small.  What do you think? 

Lance A. Leventhal