MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform provides a flexible, integrated solution enabling efficient design and test of even the most complex AMC-based systems
santa clara, ca – October 27, 2009 – BittWare, a leading supplier of high-end COTS signal processing hardware, IP, and system solutions for communications, military/aerospace, and instrumentation markets, announced today at the Advanced/MicroTCA Summit the release of their MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform designed through a partnership with MicroBlade, N.A.T, and Concurrent Technologies. BittWare’s MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform combines the benefits of MicroTCA with the processing power of up to six Altera® Stratix® Family FPGAs in an integrated solution using a MicroBlade MicroBox 1U chassis, a N.A.T. MicroTCA carrier hub module, and an optional Concurrent Technologies processor AMC module. The development platform is a stand-alone setup allowing users to efficiently design and test their AMC and MicroTCA systems, significantly speeding up the development process. It offers up to six AdvancedMC slots with a switched or switchless MicroTCA backplane, opening up an endless array of system configurations. With the addition of BittWare’s ATLANTiS™ FrameWork for reconfigurable data routing, it enables users to fully design and debug in a portable, flexible environment.
“We have pulled together AMC/MicroTCA industry leaders MicroBlade, NAT, and Concurrent Technologies to create a one stop shop development platform that enables our customers to quickly begin their application development and in turn, get their MicroTCA based system deployed in a shorter time frame,” stated Darren Taylor, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at BittWare. “The BittWare MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform provides a flexible and powerful environment for use with BittWare FPGA-based AMC boards.”
“The MicroBlade chassis coupled with either a switched or switchless backplane offers the performance benefit of MicroTCA in a space-saving horizontal-mounted 1U height,” says Mike Franco, President and CEO of MicroBlade. “Combined with NAT’s MCH and Concurrent Technologies’ SBC, BittWare has created a powerful and robust platform for development on their FPGA-based AMCs.”
“The NAT-MCH as the central management and switching instance for 10GbE, SRIO or PCIe based MicroTCA systems provides a significant advantage to our customers by allowing them to build their systems flexible, fast and easy and thus shortening time-to-market,” says Heiko Koerte, VP and Director of Sales & Marketing at N.A.T..”Using leading edge products, BittWare has successfully configured a mature and advanced platform for their FPGA-based AMCs, a platform that provides maximum flexibility for end users.”
MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform Performance Features
Small form factor for a wide range of applications and performance
MicroBlade MicroBox 1U chassis providing 6 mid-size (3 full size) AMC slots
Up to six BittWare FPGA-based AdvancedMCs
Altera Stratix II, Stratix II GX, or Stratix IV GX FPGAs implementing BittWare ATLANTiS FrameWork for control of I/O, routing, and processing
Up to four ADSP-TS210S TigerSHARC DSPs
BittWare FINe for control plane processing and interface
Front panel I/O including SerDes, Ethernet, RS-232
Switchless system provides custom backplane to allow direct connection of all AMC boards in chassis
Switched system provides standard backplane supporting switch fabrics such as PCI Express, 10 GigE, and Serial RapidIO
Optional Concurrent Technologies processor AMC module (CCT AM 210)
1.86 GHz Core2 Duo processor
Up to 8 GB DRAM, USB NAND Flash
Optional hard disk and graphics AdvancedMC
Two hot-swappable cooling units with 100+ CFM of airflow
MicroTCA carrier hub module (NAT MCH Base 12) for central management and data switching
Optional NAT switch fabric modules for Serial RapidIO, PCI Express, and 10 GigE
Optional SSC Clock module with PCIe clock functionality
Optional telecom clock module
NATview Easy MCH software
Unique card rail design for easy insertion and removal
External AC to DC power supply; single power module slot
About BittWare’s AdvancedMC Boards
The MicroTCA development platform is available with up to six BittWare FPGA AdvancedMCs, including:
S4-AMC, Altera® Stratix® IV GX Reconfigurable AMC
SP/S4-AMC, Altera® Stratix® IV GX AdvancedMC with four SFP/SFP+
SF/GX-AMC, Altera® Stratix® II GX AdvancedMC with four SFP/SFP+
GX-AMC, Altera® Stratix® II GX AdvancedMC
B2-AMC, Hybrid Signal Processing Advanced Mezzanine Card
Complete Development Support
The MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform comes with BittWare’s BittWorks Tool Suite which provides everything necessary for host and embedded development and consists of:
Host Interface Library (HIL), a full featured, mature application programming interface (API) which provides a C callable interface to BittWare boards from the host system (connected or remote) to read and write to memory, provide board and processor control, and control interrupts
BittWare Utilities that includes access control to BittWare devices, a scan for BittWare devices on the network, access control from remote clients, automated host and DSP-based (if applicable) diagnostic tests, low-level debugging, loader for the ATLANTiS FPGA, and a graphing utility for exploring board memory
BWIO Library which provides a common interface for all supported components, easily supporting new features without API changes, and contains ATLANTiS/DSP/board component drivers, and POSIX-Based I/O (Open, Read,Write, Ioctl, Close)
The MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform is supported by Altera’s Quartus II FPGA tools and ADI’s Crosscore tool suite for application/code development.
Availability
The MicroTCA Rapid Development Platform is available in Q4 ‘09. Prices vary by configuration.
About BittWare, Inc.
Celebrating 20 years, BittWare is the leading designer and manufacturer of FPGA computing and hybrid (FPGA and DSP) board-level solutions based on Altera’s FPGAs and Analog Devices’ TigerSHARC® technology. The company provides the essential building blocks required by OEMs for developing and deploying their innovative systems in defense, communications, instrumentation, and life sciences applications. BittWare’s product offering addresses OEM needs from prototype-to-production and span a variety of platforms, including VME/VPX, AMC, PCI, CompactPCI, PMC and standalone. For more information on BittWare and its innovative FPGA and DSP solutions, visit www.bittware.com.
About MicroBlade
MicroBlade, LLC is an AMC and MicroTCA products company providing leading edge technology components for use in telecommunications, enterprise, military, medical, industrial, transportation and security markets. www.microblade.us/ .
About Concurrent Technologies
Concurrent Technologies is a world leader in the design and development of high performance computer products based on Intel® CPU technology. Telecommunications, military and aerospace markets are the main users of Concurrent Technologies’ products. www.gocct.com/ .
About N.A.T.
N.A.T. is the specialist for high performance connectivity products for data and telecommunication solutions. The product portfolio is dedicated to the embedded market, covering requirements from local area networks (LAN) up to wide area networks (WAN). www.nateurope.com .
