Advanced Mezzanine Card

• AMC.0 is the "base" or "core" specification. The AdvancedMC definition alone defines a protocol agnostic connector to connect to a carrier card or a backplane. Intermediate revisions are known as engineering change notices, or ECNs. :R1.0 adopted January 3, 2005 :ECN-001 adopted June 2006 :R2.0 adopted November 15, 2006 An AMC card can use proprietary LVDS-based signaling, or one of the following AMC specifications: • AMC.1 PCI Express (and PCI Express Advanced Switching) (ratified) • AMC.2 Gigabit Ethernet and XAUI (ratified) • AMC.3 Storage (ratified) • AMC.4 Serial RapidIO (ratified) == Sizes ==

There are six types of AMC cards ("Module") available. A Full-size Module is the most common, allowing up to 23.25 mm high components (from centerline of PCB). A Mid-size Module allows component heights maxed at 11.65 to 14.01 mm (depending on board location). A Compact Module allows only 8.18 mm. == AMCs used in AdvancedTCA systems ==

To use AMCs in ATCA-systems a special carrier card known as hybrid or cutaway carrier is required to hold one Full-size Module or two Compact-size (see connectors below). Each height is paired with a width, single or double, describing how many carrier slots the board fills. A double width card allows more component space, but does not provide any additional power or bandwidth because it only uses a single connector. The pinout of the AMC electrical connector on an ATCA-AMC carrier or motherboard is fairly complex, with up to 170 signal traces. There are four different lengths the traces can be, which allows hot swapping by knowing in advance which traces will become active in which order upon insertion. To help reduce cost for mass production, a card may only require the traces on one side (pins 1 to 85). The possibility of using only half the pin locations, combined with various height combinations, results in four different connector types that are available on the carrier card: Bay sizes: == AMCs used in MicroTCA systems ==

The AdvancedMC card is considered powerful enough that there are situations where the processing functionality is the only requirement. The MicroTCA standard is targeted at supplying a COTS chassis that will allow AMC cards to function without any AdvancedTCA carrier card. The function of the ATCA carrier board and of the ATCA shelf manager are concentrated on one board, which is called the MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH). On July 6, 2006, MicroTCA R1.0 was approved. Since this approval, companies like Advantech, Kontron, N.A.T., Annapolis Micro Systems, VadaTech Inc., have launched AMC and MCH products. Versions of MicroTCA with fewer AdvancedMC card slots are informally known as NanoTCA and PicoTCA. == References ==