PICMG Systems & Technology Spring 2014
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@PICMG_Tech ing Celebrat 20 years 1994-2014 To All PICMG Members: With the launch of this new publication, we want to take the opportunity to thank you for 20 years of innovation, hard work, and a lot of fun. You have created some of our industry’s most important and lasting technologies. The depth and breadth of your technical knowledge, as well as your willingness to share it, is unsurpassed. Please enjoy and share the articles in this inaugural issue of PICMG Systems and Technologies. They speak to the past, the present, and a bright future for all of us. Thanks from the PICMG Team, Joe Pavlat Doug Sandy Jessica Isquith Michael Munroe Ellen Ricciardelli Open Modular Computing Standards picmg.org SPRING 2014 | VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1 picmg-systems.com @PICMG_Tech Standards-based technology platforms for open innovation On the cover Since initial meetings in June of 1994, the PCI Industrial Then & Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) has sustained success by creating and governing an array of standards-based technology platforms for open innovation. The inaugural issue of PICMG Systems & Technology reflects on the roots of the consortium, highlighting evolving technologies and N W stalwart member companies that have championed PICMG specifications over the last two decades. PICMG then and now – A story of responding to customer needs Editor’s Foreword | Brandon Lewis By Jim Renehan, Trenton Systems, Inc. 5 Changing hands: How acquisitions (really) affect Special Feature 8 embedded computing companies Communications & Networking 12 AdvancedTCA – Evolution and beyond By Joe Pavlat and Brandon Lewis 16 MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA converge to offer enhanced performance and versatility By Justin Moll, VadaTech, Inc. PICMG Membership Directory 26 Celebrating 20 years of PICMG CompactPCI still active in space applications By John McHale Advertiser Index Military & Aerospace COTS 20 25 Advantech Embedded Group – 3U CompactPCI PlusIO / Serial Development System 25 Advantech Embedded Group – 6U CompactPCI Blade with Freescale QorIQ P2040 25 Advantech Embedded Group – 6U CompactPCI 4th Gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Blade with ECC 18 AIM-USA – Field Proven Solutions for CompactPCI 2 Annapolis Micro Systems, Inc. – WILDSTAR OpenVPX Ecosystem 14 ATP Electronics – Optimized for Hig Performance, Mission Critical ATCA Applications 17 Elma Electronic – “Standards based FPGA Development Platforms for Transportation Management & Control Systems” 13 Excalibur Systems, Inc. – mil-1553.com 32 GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. – High-performance RADAR with out-of-box readiness 19 LCR Embedded Systems – Rugged Systems Engineeed for Your Application 6 MEN Micro Elektronik GmbH – Rugged to the Core! 7 North Atlantic Industries – Accelerate your Time-to-Mission 9 North Atlantic Industries – Configured to Customize 3 PICMG – Celebrating 20 years Making embedded industry impact: 11 Positronic Industries – The leader in power connector solutions for PICMG applications CompactPCI continues to evolve 31 Trenton Technology Inc. – PCIe Gen3 Computer Engineered For Max Performance 21 VadaTech Inc. – The 100GB Revolution Is Taking Off By Sandra Korsinek, Kontron 15 Vector Electronics & Technology, Inc. – Powered & Cooled Subracks & Chassis Industrial Control & Automation 22 14 VEROTEC Electronics Packaging – Pluggable PSUs and fan trays ® 2014 OpenSystems Media ® CompactPCI, PICMG, PICMG, ATCA, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, GEN4, and their logos are registered trademarks of PICMG. TM AdvancedMC and xTCA are trademarks of PICMG. © 2014 XTCA & CompactPCI Systems All registered brands and trademarks in AdvancedTCA &nCompactPCI Systems are property of their respective owners. Member since 1998 4 | Spring 2014 | PICMG Systems & Technology picmg-systems.com Editor’s Foreword Changing hands: How acquisitions (really) affect embedded computing companies By Brandon Lewis [email protected] Amidst news of Google selling Motorola Mobility for a fraction technology, which will continue a prominent role in Artesyn’s of its 2011 purchase price, other transactions involving the development schemes despite customer tendencies toward former tech giant are impacting embedded computing as well. application-ready solutions, Dow continues. Last August, private investment firm Platinum Equity purchased a 51 percent share in the Embedded Computing business of “[Standards] will continue to be an important part of how we Emerson Network Power (ECNP) – which housed vestiges provide a broad range of products to as many different types of of the Motorola Computer Group – and the now-rebranded applications as possible,” Dow says. “But even that is starting Artesyn Embedded Technologies (www.artesyn.com) is still to blur a little bit in that the use of open standards like VME headquartered in Carlsbad, CA, still emphasizing competen- or AdvancedTCA (ATCA) isn’t as big a deal as it used to be cies in power and computing. because more and more people are looking for a solution set, and in some cases they don’t really care what’s under the covers Outside of how soon we can expect the “Goodbye Moto” as long as it’s repeatable and supportable and is cost effective. jingles, the real question is what, if anything, is different at So while we’ll continue to use standards as a way of leveraging Artesyn? Stephen Dow, President of Artesyn Embedded our engineering resources and being able to spin things quickly Technologies and former President of ECNP, attributes minimal and have some discipline around what we design and build, change to financial misalignment under Emerson and growth I think the outside world will care less about how those things potential realized by Platinum Equity. As Artesyn, the company get done if they solve the application problem. is now equipped to address business opportunities it neglected in the past, he says. “Over the last three/four years, we’re starting to see ATCA fit into other applications [outside of central office, big box-type “Emerson is basically a financial holdings company – it had scenarios], so while the term ATCA is kind of a misnomer for about 76 different businesses, and as a company Emerson those applications, what it brings to the party is it’s an open was extremely successful – $25 billion in revenue, 20 percent standard, it’s plug compatible, you have High Availability (HA), Operating Profit (OP), 56 years of consecutive increases to their and you can mix architectures in it as far as microprocessors,” stock dividends. And in their portfolio of companies they stack Dow continues. “So in things like military/aerospace opportuni- everybody up against each other and look to continue to add ties we’re seeing ATCA, we’re seeing ATCA systems fit on the to that kind of result,” Dow explains. “Well, in our market seg- edge of communications where maybe it’s a two-slot or six-slot ments both for power and computing, the market doesn’t allow ATCA platform. And it’s not because it’s ATCA, it’s because us to make 20 percent OP because the market dictates what it’s an open standard bladed architecture that brings a lot of you’re going to pay, and we build ‘stuff.’ So when we looked at availability and a lot of reliability to the application. So we’ll it, [Emerson] kept forcing our businesses to find places to sell continue pushing how we can take the bladed architecture from that would aggregate to the overall Emerson [objective], and as ATCA and its management and HA and see where else we can a result we kept narrowing the focus of the market segments we put that into applications, especially where we can differentiate could go after because there were fewer and fewer that would the use of those platforms.” support the kind of gross margin opportunities that [Emerson] required from us. In the end we came back and said, ‘You’re Investment advances business as usual going to destroy some really good businesses that are large – Acquisitions also affected other PICMG members in 2013, with we’re market leaders, we’re profitable, we generate cash, but Equita Holding KGaA acquiring a majority interest in MEN Micro we don’t fit your model – but at as a standalone, this is a really Elektronik GmbH (www.men.de) out of Nuremburg, Germany good business.’ That’s what Platinum [Equity] recognized. They last fall. Barbara Schmitz, CMO, MEN Micro, says that Equita felt if we weren’t to have those same kind of restrictions, we will strengthen existing subsidiaries by providing financial sup- would be able to go back after some of the business we had to port to establish new sales channels in Asia and South America, leave as Emerson and be a little bit more aggressive in some of fund new production and test facilities in the U.S., and poten- the market segments we’re going after to continue to grow the tially aid in the purchase of other embedded companies. business as opposed to just maintain a gross margin.” How ever, Equita will not be involved from a strategic product standpoint, and it will be business as usual for MEN Micro in With its own IT and factories, ECNP operated more or less as their key verticals of transportation, civil avionics, and industrial an independent entity, and outside of financial governance control. The company is expecting to release a series of Safety Artesyn has essentially maintained the same organizational Integrity Level (SIL) 4 and CompactPCI Serial-based system structure. This includes the company’s focus on standards-based solutions over the next two years. picmg-systems.com PICMG Systems & Technology | Spring 2014 | 5 PICMG Systems & Technology Editorial/Production