» MicroTCA «

MicroTCA Overview

MicroTCA (Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture) is a PICMG standard for open modular systems based on AMCs (Advanced Mezzanine Cards). Designed to address high communication bandwidth, high processing capacity and high availability requirements, MicroTCA platforms have enough bandwidth for the most challenging applications.

MicroTCA offers designers a wide range of options by allowing full redundant systems, partially redundant systems and systems with no redundancy at all. It’s because of these types of options that MicroTCA is an ideal platform for a wide range of application spaces. Applications in Military/Aerospace, Communications, Medical and Industrial will benefit from MicroTCA’s compact design, performance capabilities, and full-range of system design options.

MicroTCA Benefits

• Massive data bandwidth on backplane via 1/10GbE, sRIO or PCIe serial interconnects
• From cost optimized compact system design to fully featured redundant system implementation
• Scalable performance via multi-processor concept

Kontron offers comprehensive pre-integration and pre-validation services for its MicroTCA open modular platforms. Available in different form factors, the line of Kontron OM MicroTCA platforms are reliable, scalable and always the best configuration from the very start

MicroTCA	AdvancedMCs	MicroTCA Carrier Hubs
OM Platforms	Processors	Cost-optimized
	I/O	Fully Featured
	Mass Storage

MicroTCA Technology Highlights

The Micro Telecommunications Architecture (MicroTCA) is a complementary, smaller scale platform to the Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA). Ratified in July 2006 as PICMG MTCA.0, Micro TCA can offer embedded system designers significantly reduced development cost and time-to-market.


MicroTCA preserves many of the important philosophies of AdvancedTCA ,including basic interconnect topologies and management structure. MicroTCA has a primary purpose of serving as a platform for telecommunications and enterprise computer network equipment. Its secondary goal is to function as high-performance system architecture for other demanding marketplaces like Medical, Military and Automation.


By configuring highly diverse collections of AdvancedMCs in a MicroTCA Shelf, many different application architectures can be realized easily. The common elements defined by the MicroTCA standard are capable of interconnecting these AdvancedMCs in many interesting ways - powering and managing them, all at high efficiency and low cost.


MicroTCA Platforms are application-ready systems that have been tested for mechanical and thermal stability and pre-validated for interoperability, including field proven carrier and module management code.

Although originally developed as a telecommunications standard, MicroTCA has generated high interest among system designers beyond the telecommunications arena for a wide range of applications, including defense, government, aerospace, industrial automation and medical.


Applications in these spaces have very similar requirements such as very high communication bandwidth and/or very high computing power in a small form factor. MicroTCA offers a number of features that can meet these requirements.


Up to 12 compute blades on a single backplane give MicroTCA a tremendous amount of computing resources, especially when each blade could be using a multicore processor. Communication bandwidth capabilities range from 40 Gbits/s to over 1 Terabit/s both numbers are theoretically correct because the actual bandwidth is implementation-dependent. With this amount of compute- and communication power, MicroTCA has more than enough bandwidth for most demanding applications.

Design Goals are your Benefits

The PICMG MicroTCA specification was written with the following design goals in mind:

• Complementary to AdvancedTCA
• Full compliance with the AMC.0 Module definition
• Favorable cost, size and modularity
• Modular and serviceable
• Standardized Shelf management implementation compatible with AdvancedTCA
• Cooling: 20-80 W per Advanced MC slot
• Support for extended temperature range
• Scalable backplane bandwidth
• Various backplane topologies: Star, Dual Star, Mesh
• Hot Swap/plug-and-play support, in conformance with AMC.0 and consistent with AdvancedTCA