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| Pigeon Point’s ChMM-700R comes loaded with the Pigeon Point Chassis Manager and supports VITA 46.11-compliant VPX chassis. |
CARLSBAD, California, March 31, 2014 – Pigeon Point Systems, LLC, the leading independent supplier of hardware platform management solutions for AdvancedTCA® (ATCA®) has delivered the first COTS Chassis Manager based on VITA 46.11, recently adopted as a Draft Standard for Trial Use. The VITA Standards Organization (VSO) chose to base VITA 46.11 on the management infrastructure of ATCA to take advantage of the maturity and widespread implementation of that architecture in the embedded computing community. PPS’ Chassis Manager is based on and shares substantial subsystems with the Pigeon Point Shelf Manager, the market leader in ATCA Shelf Managers, which is installed in tens of thousands of shelves around the world. The Pigeon Point Chassis Manager is delivered on the ChMM-700R, a Chassis Management Mezzanine that shares its physical platform with the award-winning ShMM-700R, PPS’ newest Shelf Management Mezzanine.
The ChMM-700R uses a Freescale i.MX287 ARM9-based main processor to execute Linux and the Chassis Manager application, plus a Microsemi SmartFusion A2F060 intelligent mixed signal FPGA for critical supplementary functions. Like the ShMM-700R for ATCA, the ChMM-700R is based on the Pigeon Point Management Mezzanine or PPMM-700R and leverages a 204-pin DDR3 SODIMM form factor. This compact, but capable, mezzanine enables a wide range of implementation options for developers of VITA 46.11-compliant VPX chassis. The Chassis Adaptation Layer in the Pigeon Point Chassis Manager makes it easy for chassis developers to customize Chassis Manager operation for their chassis designs.
The Pigeon Point Chassis Manager complies with the VPX-specific requirements of VITA 46.11, including its support for two functionality tiers for IPMCs, with the simpler Tier 1 model intended to facilitate lower cost implementations. The Pigeon Point Chassis Manager supports chassis with a mixture of Tier 1 IPMCs and more sophisticated Tier 2 IPMCs. The Chassis Manager itself is a Tier 2 Chassis Manager, with many extensions beyond Tier 2 requirements, such as support for redundant operation.
Redundant (or active/standby) configurations of the Pigeon Point ChMM-700R and Chassis Manager are supported for high availability of ChMM-based chassis, where that is required. In addition, there is support for two implementations for System IPMB, the main internal management bus in VITA 46.11. In the simplest approach, System IPMB is implemented as a bus, connected to all management-equipped Field Replaceable Units (FRUs) in the chassis. Alternative, with the ChMM-700R, System IPMB can be implemented on a radial basis for improved resilience.
There are two available adoption models for chassis developers who choose the ChMM-700R as their VITA 46.11 Chassis Manager. The first model is the simplest to develop and involves designing a custom ChMM carrier board with a ChMM-700R socket on it. A ChMM-700R purchased from Pigeon Point is integrated with that ChMM carrier boards to produce a complete Chassis Manager module. In the second model, the developer licenses the schematic for the ChMM-700R and integrates that schematic directly into their Chassis Manager module design, so that no physical mezzanine is needed at all. In either case, the Chassis Manager module can include other functionality, such as communication plane switching for the chassis.
“Mercury plans to participate in VITA 46.11 Trial Use testing using Chassis Managers and board-level controllers based upon Pigeon Point’s reference designs,” said Dan Toohey, Technical Director at Mercury Systems and VITA 46.11 Working Group Chair. “With increased emphasis on interoperability, reduced integration effort, and time-to-market, we believe a standardized OpenVPX system management architecture will enable our customers to quickly and efficiently combine platform elements for their applications while implementing the appropriate level of system management.”
For additional information on the Pigeon Point Chassis Manager, ChMM-700R and other Pigeon Point products, visit www.pigeonpoint.com; further queries are welcome via email at [email protected].
About Pigeon Point
Pigeon Point Systems LLC delivers world-class management components for modular platforms based on the AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and MicroTCA and VPX architectures to leading companies worldwide. Pigeon Point’s focus on providing dependable, proven solutions for the management controllers in these architectures allows customers to concentrate on the value-added aspects of their products. Deep expertise on these architectures ensures compliance and interoperability in the Pigeon Point components.
Pigeon Point is a member of VITA and participates actively in the working group that issued VITA 46.11 as a Draft Standard for Trial Use, covering System Management on VPX. Pigeon Point is also an executive member of PICMG, a leader in its AdvancedTCA®, AdvancedMC®, and MicroTCA™ subcommittees and active in many other technical subcommittees. For more information on Pigeon Point Systems, visit www.pigeonpoint.com.
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