PICMG 2.16 achieves critical mass

By Mike Downing

In just six months, the vision of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) 2.16 has become reality. A variety of companies 'from switch vendors to backplane developers to enclosure manufacturers' are now offering 2.16-compliant products.

Performance Technologies Inc. (PTI - Rochester, NY), which develop ed the 2.16 spec, currently offers its IPnexus Product Family, including an Ethernet switching platform and network-access node adapters.

General Micro Systems (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) is offering "Lightning," a dual-channel Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) PMC module to support the PICMG 2.16 Packet Switched Backplane standard. The module allows existing CompactPCI boards to be upgraded to support the PSB standard. Lightning comes with one or two GbE channels and can be used with any VMEbus or CompactPCI baseboard that provides MPC slots. It also comes with drivers for most major baseboard operating systems, including Windows NT, Windows 2000, VxWorks, and Linux. The Lightning PMC module is currently available and costs $835 for a dual-channel configuration.

Interphase Corp. (Dallas, TX) plans to release its 1635 T1/E1/J1 CompactPCI Packet Switched Backplane (cPSB) Com munications Controller during the second quarter of 2002. According to Greg Kalush, president and CEO, the new controller provides increased bandwidth and scalability on the cPSB chassis, while providing the convenience of Ethernet. "cPSB expands the capabilities of CompactPCI to address new te le communications markets, such as soft switches and media gateways, while main taining the electrical and mechanical attributes of the CompactPCI architecture," says Kalush.

The 1635 is equipped with a 200-MHz Motorola PowerQUICC II MPC8260 processor, and supports ATM and inverse multiplexing for ATM, for bandwidth aggregation. Pricing starts at $3,825 in OEM quantities.

John O'Bryan, vice president of marketing and business development for Hybricon Corp. (Ayer, MA), says there has been a lot of interest in their PICMG 2.16-compliant Ethernet Packet Switching Development Kit (priced at $2,795). "We did the simulations for PICMG when they were refining 2.16," he says. "So we have a lot of experience with the specification."

In addition, Hybricon offers a number of compliant backplanes. "We do a lot of custom work," says O'Bryan, "so it depends on customer needs. We offer standard products at 8, 10, and 21 slots, but we can produce anything in-between."

ACT/Technico (Ivyland, PA) also offers a 2.16-compliant development platform. Dubbed the cPSB Development Plat form, it includes the necessary components to establish an Embedded System Area Network (ESAN) including a cPSB-compatible chassis, two fabric boards, and a CompactPCI System. Node slot Intel® Pentium® II processor CPU, for the purpose of development.

Typical applications supported by the cPSB development platform include integrated server farms, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateways, IP DSL access multiplexers, and media gateways. The platform supports Windows 2000 and NT, Linux, and VxWorks.

The development platforms are currently available. Prices depend on whe ther the platforms come with managed switches (around $15,000), or unmanaged switches (about $12,000).

Force Computers (Fremont, CA) offers its Centellis CO 21000-12U, a carrier- grade PICMG 2.16 cPSB platform architecture. The product comes in a NEBS Level 3-tested CompactPCI chassis. NEBS compliance means that the chassis has been tested for earthquakes, vibration, fire containment, electromagnetic interference and other environmental extremes. The Centellis platform is targeted at central offices. Price is based on configuration.

Paul Zorfass, senior analyst with International Data Corp. (Framingham, MA), believes the cPSB standard will continue to be adopted in the telecommunications market as a result of its combined benefits of CompactPCI and Ethernet. "This technology continues to be validated by its acceptance from numerous firms in the industry," he says.

OTHER OFFERINGS

Other companies are offering 2.16 products outside of the cPSB realm. For example, the first standard product from APW (Poway, CA) is for system design and prototyping. The product is a 15-slot, 2.16-compliant backplane with H.110 support. Dubbed EtherPlane, the product consists of two power slots, a right-hand processor slot, 12-node board slots, and two fabric board slots. The product is currently available. Price depends on configuration.

Motorola is offering its MultiService Packet Transport Platform (MXP). The first MXP offering is a 21-slot platform with up to 18 slots available for general-pur pose processors or network processors. Full production of the MXP is expected during the second quarter of 2002. Price has not yet been announced.

Motorola is also working with Brooktrout, NMS Communications, NetPlane Systems, Performance Technologies, SBE, Wind River, and ZNYX Networks to develop embedded designs in support of 2.16.

Kaparel (Waterloo, Canada) is offering a family of development platforms based on 2.16. The PS4900 Development System is equipped with PTI's IPnexus CPC4400 series of PICMG 2.16-compliant Ethernet switches. The system comes equipped with power supplies and is enclosed in a Rittal 9U chassis. Price depends on configuration.

Radisys (Hillsboro, OR) offers a suite of 2.16-compliant telecommunications platform elements including a network processor solution, an SS7 adapter, and an integrated switch with intelligent plat form management interface (IPMI) manager. Products (priced for OEM quantities) include the EPC-3311 CompactPCI CPU, priced at approx. $2,358; the CP50 9U Compact PCI Chassis, priced at $9,786; the ESM-3100 Compact PCI Switch and IPMI Manager, priced at $1,896; the ESM-3511 CompactPCI packet Processing so lution, priced at $3,306; and the ESA-3107 CompactPCI SS7 Signaling Adapter, priced from $4,550 to $5,770 (four-and eight-port configurations respectively).

 

** Reproduced from Integrated Communication Design Online March 2002