Pigeon Point Systems (PPS), an Actel company, has released board management reference (BMR) starter kit updates providing TCA management controller systems, with support for in-shelf network attachment via the Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) standard.
The NC-SI support is implemented in BMR products based on the Actel Fusion mixed-signal FPGA. These and corresponding products based on Renesas H8S microcontrollers support R3.0 of PICMG 3.0, the AdvancedTCA specification.
Mark Overgaard, president of Pigeon Point Systems, said: Pigeon Point’s BMR solutions for AdvancedTCA management controllers continue to lead the industry with the first support for R3.0 of the AdvancedTCA specification for both Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs and Renesas H8S microcontrollers.”
He further added: The advanced in-shelf network attachment facility supported by the updated BMR solutions based on the Fusion mixed-signal FPGA demonstrates the flexibility of an FPGA-based management controller. Management controller compliance with the NC-SI specification requires a reduced media independent interface capable Ethernet MAC, which is realised in this solution by simply including Actel’s Core10/100 Ethernet MAC DirectCore in the FPGA design.
These new products offer BMR support for in-shelf network attachment, with support available on Actel’s Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs. The new facilities in the Fusion-based BMR products make them suited for new management controller implementations for both existing and new PPS customers.
The company claimed that in-shelf network attachments for management controllers in AdvancedTCA boards allow these connections to be used for purposes that improve usability and reduce operational expense, including remote access to on-board serial interfaces and management controller firmware updates.
Reportedly, compliance with the third major revision of the AdvancedTCA specification enables features, such as subsidiary field replaceable units (FRUs), and aligns AdvancedTCA products with the requirements for traceability improvements in the new specification revision.
