Management & Data Switching
Any standard compliant MicroTCA system is managed by a MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH). Besides the central system management for any component in a MicroTCA system, the MCH also provides central switching functionality for the data fabrics, creating a single star (non-redundant) or dual star (redundant) switching topology.
All NAT-MCHs are MicroTCA Carrier Hubs in the form factor of either a single or double width, mid- or full-size Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC). Any MCH comprises of a base module and numerous optional daughter cards which can be mounted onto the base module. While the base modules provide the MicroTCA management and data switching for the base fabric, the daughter cards provide clock distribution functions as well as data hub functions (switches for fat pipe fabrics). Both the base modules as well as the data hubs provide uplink ports.
For a quick comparison of NAT's various MCH products, please refer to the MCH Overview.
Comprehensive on-board firmware and front panel visualization of system status down to the single FRU make our MCHs the ideal choice for your MicroTCA system.
Products
NAT-MCH
- Power and system management for up to 12 AMCs, 2 CUs, and 4 PMs
- 40G Ethernet towards the backplane and front uplink (HUB-Module required)
- PCIe Gen3 towards the backplane and front uplink (HUB-Module required)
- Various clocking features (CLK-Module required)
- Choice of interfaces towards the front panel
NAT-MCH-CLK
- Support for AMC clocks CLK1, CLK2, and CLK3 for up to 12 AMCs, Update clock for 2nd NAT-MCH
- Variable switching and distribution of clocks by on-board FPGA
- Stratum 3 type PLL clock source for telecom applications
- Reference for Stratum 3 PLL can be either CLK1 or CLK2 from any AMC, or sourced from the front panel reference clock I/O
- PCI Express compliant clock signal can be distributed via CLK3 to all 12 AMCs
NAT-MCH-CLK-PHYS
- Two direct low-jitter multiplexer connections with low latency
- CLK1 and CLK2 connections for all 12 AMC multiplexed by one device
- PCIe reference clock distribution for 12 AMCs via CLK3 (AMC.0 R2.0 – FCLKA)
- Variable switching and distribution of clocks by on-board FPGA
NAT-MCH-PCIex48
- PCIe Gen3 x1 or x4 link to each of the 12 AMCs in an MTCA system
- High bandwidth, non-blocking interconnections for various applications
- Configuration option for Spread Spectrum Clock (SSC) or 100MHz fixed PCIe clock
- PCIe clock can be provided as Fabric Clock (FCLKA) to the AMC slots
- Clustering support for 6 independent clusters with one configurable non-transparent upstream port
NAT-MCH-PCIex80
- PCIe Gen3 x4 link to each of the 12 AMCs in an MTCA system
- Two PCIe Gen3 x8 or one x16 link(s) towards front panel uplink
- PCIe Gen3 x16 link to MCH-RTM
- Higher bandwidths to reduced number of AMC slots (if supported by backplane)
- Clustering support for four virtual PCIe clusters with up to four PCIe Root Complexes
NAT-MCH-SRIO
- Flexible port width of x1 and x4 with 20 Gb/s bandwidth per port (x4)
- Operating baud rate per data lane 1.25 Gbaud, 2.5 Gbaud, 3.125 Gbaud, 5.0 Gbaud, or 6.25 Gbaud
- Low latency packet transport with transport layer error management
- Power down modes and routing capabilities per port
- Decentralised communication model: peer-to-peer
NAT-MCH-HUB-E-40GX
- High performance, low latency, and robust Ethernet switching
- Optical front uplink up to 100G (assembly option)
- Backplane interconnect with up to 40G
- Mixture of 40G/10G infrastructure
- Combination of 1 up to 4 lanes and 2.5 and 10 Gbaud per lane per AMC slot
NAT-MCH-RTM
- COMExpress Carrier
- PCIe Gen3 x16 link to PCIe switch on NAT-MCH-PHYS80
- Support for various COMExpress Modules
- Backplane Manager and Zone2 Connector to LLRF Backplane (option)
- Managing eRTMs, µRTMs, and RPMs via LLRF (option)
NAMC-PTM
- Features VCOCXO and VCTCXO
- Detection of internal or external clocking sources
- Quality rating of clocking signals
- Clock I/O at front panel via BNC connectors
- Operation in standard AMC- or dedicated PTM slot (if supported by Backplane)
NAT-JSM
- Testing and diagnostic for MTCA systems
- Operation in AMC-, MCH-, or dedicated JSM-slot
- Configuration via web interface or front panel elements
NPCIe-UPLINK-O
- PCIe interface card for operation in PCs / servers
- Optical PCIe Gen3 x8/x16 uplink(s) towards front panel
- Transparent to PCIe host => no special driver required
- SSC isolation support
- PCIe hot-plug functionality
NAT-MCH-PHYS80
- Designated for high demands regarding bandwidth, timing, and precision
- Specialized NAT-MCH-CLK-PHYS mezzanine module
- Power and system management for up to 12 AMCs, 2 CUs, and 4 PMs
- PCIe Gen3 x16 data switching towards backplane and front uplink
- RTM with COMExpress Support
NATIVE-mini
- Form factor: 1U, compact size
- Embedded NAT-eMCH
- Embedded 150W Power Module
- 2 single mid- or full-size AMCs or 1 double mid- or full-size AMC
NATIVE-mini-R1
- Form factor: 1U, 19”
- Embedded NAT-eMCH
- Embedded 400W Power Module
- 2 single mid-size AMCs and 2 double mid-size AMCs
- 2 double mid-size µRTMs
NATview
- Graphical representation of and access to an MTCA-System
- Scanning, monitoring, and changing various resources
- Platform independent
- Free basic version and four licensed versions
- Adaption to customer’s hardware