The AdvancedMC® standard defines a family of mezzanine cards that can be used in a variety of ways. Also known as Advanced Mezzanine Cards, or, more commonly, AMC cards, this technology was originally developed as an adjunct to the AdvancedTCA standard to customize I/O or peripheral processing functions when plugged onto an AdvancedTCA CPU or mezzanine carrier card. Customizing I/O using AMC’s makes it possible to use the same AdvancedTCA CPU board in a variety of applications where the I/O requirements vary. This is common in telecom central office applications as there are hundreds of different I/O standards in use. AMC’s allow telecom carriers to stock fewer spare AdvancedTCA boards, reducing operating and training costs.
There are many popular mezzanine standards, but AMC’s are unique in several aspects. First, AMC’s are hot-swappable, meaning that an AMC may be removed while a system is in operation (a microswitch senses that a removal is underway to allow the operating software to manage the event). They typically have a faceplate and are accessible from the front of a system. Second, the full AdvancedTCA system management architecture and infrastructure extends onto the AMC module to support on-the fly replacement or upgrade. Third, several different sizes are defined, which provides the system designer the board real estate or front panel connector space needed for a particular application.
Standard data interconnects are supported, including Ethernet, PCI Express, Serial Rapid I/O, and Fibre Channel.
The small size, high performance, hot swap capability, and full management infrastructure has made AMC’s desirable for other applications, and the MicroTCA standard emerged not long after the AMC specifications were released. In a MicroTCA system, the AMC cards themselves plug directly into a backplane, allowing for small yet powerful and highly reliable systems to be built. MicroTCA is enjoying broad acceptance in a variety of mil/aero, data acquisition, and remote telecom applications. Ruggedized, conduction cooled AMC modules for demanding mil/aero and other similar applications are defined in the MicroTCA family of specifications
Download the Short Form Specification here.
