Simon Industries Highlights microTCA Chassis
Published: 17 October 2007
MicroTCA (Telecommunications Computing Architecture) is a PICMG standard, open architecture specification using field-replaceable, hotswap capable, Advanced Mezzanine Cards. Simon Industries’ microTCA tabletop development chassis is well-suited for developing and debugging microTCA systems using full-height and half-height AMC modules. Utilizing the Molex Dual-Star backplane, the Simon chassis can facilitate hardware and software development, accelerate time to market and allow developers to evaluate various AMC cards, power supplies and MCH products. The Simon chassis features blind mating connectors to enable live replacement of the fan tray without powering down the chassis. The backplane features the Molex press-fit edge card connectors that are combined with precise launch geometry, minimizing reflections and enabling 10 Gbps over each differential pair. To minimize crosstalk, the design of the microTCA backplane employs spacing between pairs of at least 0.25 mm. Also, the backplane has a FRU ROM (Field Replaceable Unit Read Only Memory) that facilitates communication of all the important backplane characteristics to the MCH.
