Latest MicroTCA.0 Revision 3 adds high-bandwidth interfaces such as 100 GbE and PCIe Gen 5 with increased TDP to prepare the specification for demanding next-generation edge and server workloads and applications

WAKEFIELD, MA. PICMG, a leading consortium for the development of open embedded computing specifications, has ratified Revision 3.0 of the MicroTCA.0 (µTCA.0) specification. This new release addresses urgent bandwidth requirements by defining 100 GbE and PCIe Gen 5 fabrics that improve system performance by 4x while also expanding platform thermal design power (TDP), enabling the use of higher performance processors. Users can now select from a range of specification-compliant building blocks and solutions that allow for more power per slot for higher transfer rates within µTCA chassis and to external systems and server clusters. It also lays the foundation for building next-generation MicroTCA proofs of concept.

Revision 3 of MTCA.0 addresses the current and future demands of applications such as machine vision, AI, defense, research, instrumentation, wireless communication, and emerging applications like quantum computing. “Revision 3 of MTCA.0 addresses urgent requirements and thus enables companies to now provide specification-compliant solutions rather than proprietary or custom approaches,” says Heiko Korte of NAT Europe and lead of PICMG’s MicroTCA Technical Working Group. “The fact that so many MicroTCA ecosystem suppliers have joined the working group shows the importance of the changes and also underlines the strong interest to make these part of an open specification.

“The broad spectrum of participants also ensured that every single agenda item got reviewed from different angles and properly discussed,” he adds.

MicroTCA.0 Revision 3.0-compliant solutions will be available shortly, including chassis, MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH), Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC), Rear Transition Module (RTM), and power modules (PM) products from VadaTech, NAT, AIES Sp z o.o., nVent SCHROFF, and others. The commitment of existing vendors to continuing the development of µTCA products is joined by increased interest from players in emerging fields like quantum computing, projecting a healthy lifecycle for the open computing specification for years to come.

“VadaTech is proud to have been part of the development and ratification of revision 3 of the uTCA specification,” says Alex Malcom, Managing Director of VadaTech Ltd. “Its release secures the continued adoption of the standard by commercial, scientific and defense organizations around the world.”

The MicroTCA.0 Revision 3.0 specification can be accessed at www.picmg.org/product/micro-telecommunications-computing-architecture-base-specification. For more information on the MicroTCA family, visit https://nateurope.com/technology/mtca-amc or https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/microtca.

About PICMG

Founded in 1994, PICMG is a not-for-profit 501(c) consortium of companies and organizations that collaboratively develop open standards for high performance industrial, Industrial IoT, military & aerospace, telecommunications, test & measurement, medical, and general-purpose embedded computing applications. There are over 130 member companies that specialize in a wide range of technical disciplines, including mechanical and thermal design, single board computer design, high-speed signaling design and analysis, networking expertise, backplane, and packaging design, power management, high availability software and comprehensive system management.

Key standards families developed by PICMG include COM-HPC, COM Express, CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, CompactPCI Serial, SHB Express, MicroSAM, and HPM (Hardware Platform Management). https://www.picmg.org.

We are proud to announce our new partnership with Blue Line A/S representing N.A.T. in Scandinavia.

Blue Line, a Danish-based provider of industrial IT hardware designed for demanding environments having local offices in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, is dedicated to serving the Nordic region.

“This new partnership allows us to expand our product portfolio by incorporating widely implemented MicroTCA, VPX, and PMC/XMC solutions.”, said Niels Pedersen, Managing Director of BlueLine A/S.  He continued: “ Additionally, it enables us to offer NAT's market-leading solutions across the Nordic region.”

Helmut Laufkoetter, Managing Director of N.A.T., added: “We warmly welcome Blue Line as our new partner. This new partnership allows us to meet the growing demands of the embedded market in all the Nordic countries and unlocks exciting new opportunities for team N.A.T..”

N.A.T. and  Blue Line are looking  forward to a very successful joint future in the Scandinavian markets.

Click the link below to discover more about Blue Line.

🌐: https://blue-line.com/

The 12^th MicroTCA Workshop for Industry and Research will again take place at the CFEL building on DESY premises from December 5^th to December 7^th 2023.

As a member of the advisory committee, exhibitor, vendor and participant N.A.T. cordially invites you to participate (please follow this link to register) in the MicroTCA Workshop, either on-site at DESY or virtually through the workshop's streaming portal.

The annual MicroTCA Workshop for Industry and Research is the one of the most important events on MicroTCA and targets both users and vendors from international industry and research facilities around the globe.

The main topics of this year's MicroTCA Workshop are:

• Applications in research facilities
• Applications in industry
• New products
• New Technologies
• Future of standard and interoperability
• Software and firmware
• Industry Exhibition - presentation of modules and systems from industry and research

At the 12^th MicroTCA Workshop for Industry and Research N.A.T. will present on the following topics

• MicroTCA Tutorial: "MicroTCA Management, Clocking and Fabrics" by Heiko Koerte (Dec 5th, 9:35 - 10:00am CET)
• "NAT-MCH Generation 4 - new features and how to transit from NAT-MCH Generation 3" by Heiko Koerte (date and time to be confirmed)
• "NATIVE-server: from concept to solution" by Herbert Erd (date and time to be confirmed)

In case you cannot make it to our booth during the daily conference times, please reach out to us to schedule your personal online appointment with either Herbert Erd or Heiko Koerte.

We are looking forward to welcoming and meeting you on-site at DESY.

N.A.T. is a highly innovative and owner-led company located right on the banks of the River Rhine in Bonn-Oberkassel.

Since 1990 we are developing high-tech products for wire, fibre, and radio based applications in telecommunication and industrial automation.

Based on the most recent open standards our board and system solutions are continously developed further using state-of-the-art technologies to serve our highly appreciating international customer base.

However, at N.A.T. we honestly believe that such solutions can be created only when enjyoing work and the responsibility everyone has for the entire team.

For our growing software and hardware engineering teams we are always looking for talented and motivated students and graduates of computer science and engineering. Find details for your application here: https://nateurope.com/vacancies

On November 9^th, 2023 at stand H at the "Unternehmenstag 2023" at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in Sankt Augustin, you have the opportunity to get first-hand experience and discuss your career with our VP and Director Sales & Marketing Heiko Körte.

Come and see us at stand H to get your personal information package on externship semesters, bachelor and master theses or your career start at our corporate headquarters in Bonn.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

At embedded world 2023 NAT presents its MicroTCA based solutions for industrial applications in hall 3 at booth 3-544.

Among displaying the key benfits of our technology, i.e. real-time capabilities, modularity and mix-and match and cost efficiency, at embedded world NAT has put a strong focus on our NATvision solutions.

NATvision is a complete solution for for modular, flexible, scalable and reliable video processing applications and supports our customers from the early product development up deployment of standard products, regardless wether a customized or a turnkey solution is required.

NATvision is available on different Hardware platforms in order to support a fast and cost effective development from scratch up to demanding field applications.

Based on NATvision, any development of new algorithms can start immediately and independently from the final Hardware design.

Due to the flexibility of NATvision, various parameters and solution characteristics can be easily altered during development, i.e. amount and types of used cameras, sensor resolution, frames per second, processing power, new AI functions for the foreseen application. New and additional output requirements can be realized without delaying the software application development i.e. because of modified or changed hardware.

NATvision provides flexibility in several directions:

• Provides scalability in terms of number and types of boards.
• Provides independency of HW requirements from SW application development
• Provides graphical SW development tool and allows the use of C an C++ codes instead of HDL.
• Application functions can be distributed among different boards even after roll-out.
• Timing and latency aspects are covered by hardware.
• Remote management and system health are also covered as standard functions by design

In addition to presenting the buidling blocks at our booth 3-544 in hall 3 we also provide a life demo at booth 1-441 in hall 1 at our partner nVent.

We are looking forward to seeing you at embedded world (Mar 14-16), come and visit us at booths 3-544 in hall 3 and 1-441 in hall 1.

Please also visit the NATvision website.

N.A.T. is a highly innovative and owner-led company located right on the banks of the River Rhine in Bonn-Oberkassel.

Since 1990 we are developing high-tech products for wire, fibre and radio based applications in telecommunication and industrial automation.

Based on the most recent open standards our board and system solutions are continously developed further using state-of-the-art technologies to serve our highly appreciating international customer base.

However, at N.A.T. we honestly believe that such solutions can be created only when enjyoing work and the responsibility everyone has for the entire team.

For our growing software and hardware engineering teams we are always looking for talented and motivated students and graduates of computer science.

On November 9^th, 2022 at stand 62 at the "Unternehmenstag 2022" at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in Sankt Augustin you have the opportunity to get first-hand experience and discuss your career with our VP and Director Sales & Marketing Heiko Körte.

Come and see us at stand 62 to get your personal information package on externship semesters, bachelor and master theses or your career start at our corporate headquarters in Bonn.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

The 11^th MTCA workshop for industry and research will take place on DESY premises as a physical event from December 6^th to December 8^th 2022.

As a member of the advisory committee, exhibitor, vendor and participant N.A.T. cordially invites you to participate (please follow this link to register).

The main topics of the workshop are:

• Applications in research facilities
• Applications in industry
• New products
• New Technologies
• Future of standard and interoperability
• Software and firmware
• Industry Exhibition - presentation of modules and systems from industry and research

N.A.T. will give presentations on the following topics (list to be updated as soon as abstracts are confirmed):

• MicroTCA Tutorial: MicroTCA Management (Dec 6th, 10:30an CET - 11:00am CET)
• New AMCs
• New MCHs

In case you cannot make it to our booth during the daily conference times, please reach out to us to schedule your personal online appointment with either Herbert Erd or Heiko Koerte.

We are looking forward to welcoming and meeting you on-site at DESY.