Scotts Valley, CA (PRWEB) August 3, 2005
Pigeon Point Systems, the leading supplier of shelf and board management solutions for AdvancedTCA® and AdvancedMC, announces the immediate availability of complete, fully compliant solutions for the management controllers on AdvancedMC (AMC) carriers and modules.
The reference designs and corresponding firmware implement a carrier IPM controller (carrier IPMC) for AMC carrier boards and a module management controller (MMC) for AMC modules. The reference designs, known as BMR-AVR-AMCc for AMC carriers and BMR-AVR-AMCm for AMC modules, are based on Atmel AVR microcontrollers and are the first such solutions to comply with PICMG AMC.0 R1.0, the recently adopted Advanced Mezzanine Card base specification.
The BMR-AVR-AMCc reference design augments the BMR-AVR-ATCA reference design for ATCA IPM controllers to handle the extra responsibilities of an AMC carrier IPMC. For instance, a carrier IPMC must represent its installed AMCs to the shelf manager of the AdvancedTCA shelf in which the carrier is installed, including all the sensors the AMCs define.
The BMR-AVR-AMCm reference design implements the MMC that is required on every AMC. In addition to the PICMG-defined MMC features, the reference design includes numerous extensions, such as the IPM Sentry reliable firmware upgrade architecture, which stores two copies of the controller firmware. If something goes wrong during a firmware upgrade, the controller automatically falls back to the previous version. This is a critical feature for most high availability applications, such as in telecom. The BMR-AVR-AMCm reference design can also be used in a new PICMG architecture currently under development, called MicroTCA that uses standard AMCs.
To further reduce time to market for AMC products, Pigeon Point Systems also offers AMC-oriented editions of the IPM Sentry Board Management Starter Kit. The BMR-AVR-AMCc Starter Kit Add-on augments the BMR-AVR-ATCA Starter Kit to support a benchtop carrier IPMC and two MMCs along with a benchtop shelf manager, and includes additional schematics and firmware covering the hardware and software aspects of a carrier IPMC. Similarly, the BMR-AVR-AMCm Starter Kit provides a comprehensive solution for rapid and cost-effective implementation of an MMC, including benchtop hardware, schematics, firmware, and firmware development tools. Both Starter Kits come with a year of technical support and a review of the management controller schematic by Pigeon Point Systems after the reference design has been integrated into a customers board.
We have successfully used both the IPM Sentry BMR-AVR-AMCc carrier and BMR-AVR-AMCm module reference designs, said Jeff Durst, director of product marketing for Artesyn Communication Products. Our experience with the compliance, interoperability, and quality of Pigeon Point Systems IPM Sentry reference designs has been excellent. Our first AMC product, the IPM Sentry-managed KosaiPM AMC CPU module, was part of the first demonstrations of MicroTCA at SUPERCOMM 2005 in June.
As an early adopter of Pigeon Point Systems IPM Sentry reference designs, Interphase was able to accelerate our initial entry into the ATCA market as well as our first AdvancedMC mezzanine products, said Felix Diaz, chief technical officer and vice president of engineering of Interphase. Our first AdvancedMC mezzanines, the iSpan® T1/E1/J1 multi-protocol communications controller and SlotOptimizer quad-port Gigabit Ethernet module, were featured in MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA applications at SUPERCOMM 2005 in June. Weve been impressed with the IPM Sentry MMC solutions compliance and robustness, and are pleased to partner with Pigeon Point Systems for this functionality.
The BMR-AVR-AMCc and BMR-AVR-AMCm solutions are members of Pigeon Point Systems IPM Sentry family of hardware and software products that enable cost-effective, interoperable management of open modular platforms based on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard. Using IPM Sentry components, developers of AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and CompactPCI® products can quickly and efficiently incorporate compliant, competitive, and interoperable management solutions into their systems. More than 55 companies worldwide employ Pigeon Point Systems IPM Sentry components at the shelf level, board level, or both.
The BMR-AVR-AMCc Starter Kit Add-on costs $ 7,500. The BMR-AVR-AMCm Starter Kit costs $ 15,000. Both kits are available now.
For additional information, contact Mark Overgaard, Pigeon Point Systems, Tel: 831-438-1565; http://www.pigeonpoint.com–especially the product briefs
Carrier IPMC reference design and starter kit add-on:
