Advantech ATCA Blades Systems Integration Customized COTS Platform Management Resources

ATCA Reference Systems - The Netarium™ Series

Advantech’s Netarium™ series of ATCA reference systems are specifically targeted to help network equipment providers reach superior levels of performance over traditional rackmount servers or appliances and extend their product range at the high end. The series represents a new generation of systems which offer superior performance, scalability and flexibility with the latest 40 and 100G switches and application blades. We optimize the systems to achieve the highest possible density at the rack level, with a maximum number of payload blades, network ports and switching capacity.

Each system is tailored for customers to rapidly deploy in data communication markets for applications which require faster and deeper packet processing such as policy and charging enforcement, network security, real-time traffic monitoring, load balancing, subscriber analytics and content optimization among others. As ATCA was designed to meet the carrier-grade constraints of the telecom industry, the systems integrate the chassis, cooling, power distribution and shelf management into an off-the-shelf platform solution capable of superior 5 NINES availability and reliability.

  1. Ultra-High Performance Systems

    Rising volumes of data traffic, media-rich applications and data center consolidation are driving the need for increased bandwidth scalability and high-speed connections. To meet these challenges, Advantech’s flagship Netarium™ - 14 and 14e target the high-end market where equipment providers require superior performance, scalability and deployment flexibility for their large enterprise, managed security service provider or carrier customers.
  2. Mid Range Requirements

    Netarium™-6 focuses on the high performance needs of large enterprise customers with a cost-effective system loaded with four dual Intel® Xeon® blades and 40G switches in a dual-star configuration. The system provides up to 1.28 Tbps switching capacity and each blade with RTM can accommodate up to 4 FMMs for over 100Gbps egress per blade with high-speed encryption using FMM-based acceleration modules. The system is an ideal platform for cloud-based security services in private or data center clouds.
  3. Entry-Level Flexibility

    Netarium™-2 is the ultimate in entry level flexibility. This 2-slot platform allows OEMs to redeploy common platform hardware which scales when needed. It packs more processing power than legacy 6-slot systems. With an increase in miniaturization and performance at the blade level it is accompanied by our fabric mezzanine concept to bring more I/O and acceleration closer to the processing cores. With blades optimized for workload consolidation and virtualized workloads, the Netarium™-2 is a great solution to integrate multiple applications into a small footprint at attractive system cost.
  1. Netarium™-14
    288 Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 Cores
    Up to 1.92 Tbps Switching Capacity
    1. 14-SLOT, 19" wide 14U high AdvancedTCA Shelf fully integrated
    2. Up to 12 Dual Intel® Xeon® blades
    3. Dual & Dual Dual-Star backplane with 40 and 100G Switches for non- blocking base and fabric switching
    4. 300W+ per slot power distribution and cooling capability
  2. 96 Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 Cores
    Up to 1.28 Tbps Switching Capacity
    1. 6-SLOT 19" wide, 6U high, AdvancedTCA Shelf fully integrated
    2. 4 Dual Intel® Xeon® blades
    3. Dual-Star & triple-replicated mesh backplane with 40G Switches for non-blocking base and fabric switching
    4. 300W+ per slot power distribution and cooling capability.
  3. Netarium™-2
    Up to 48 Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 Cores
    Up to 20 10GbE Ports
    1. 2-SLOT, 19" wide, 3U high, AdvancedTCA Shelf fully integrated with 2 Dual Intel® Xeon® blades and RTM

eATCA – For More High-End Real-Estate

The new eATCA system architecture from Advantech responds to next generation networking needs for more high performance I/O connectivity and increased flexibility to add application-specific optimization hardware in high-end systems.

Front view ,of a two-slot eATCA system. eATCA allows enterprise and datacom customers to manage ATCA like a single entity, not a collection of blades, while specialized SMM-5060 Shelf Management Modules facilitate customization.

Extended ATCA (eATCA) is a system architecture based on ATCA that delivers increased I/O and packet processing performance for networking platforms facilitating borderless enterprise, secure datacenter, and cloud computing applications. eATCA systems integrate standard ATCA blades with extended Rear Transition Modules (eRTMs), providing almost four times more real estate for PCIe-based I/O connectivity and enabling new capacity for acceleration and offload.

With a wide range of AMC, NMC, and FMM options currently available, OEMs are able to quickly tailor a platform for particular applications . Fully custom solutions can also be implemented by designing custom AMCs, NMCs, FMMs, and eRTMs with custom IP built right in at the hardware level.

An example would be the increase in demand for viewing and controlling networks based on “flows”, a unidirectional sequence of packets all sharing a set of common packetheader values. SDN and OpenFlow represent trends that require flow capabilities, and being able to easily build a specialized flow processor into a custom eRTM enables a differentiated platform for a wide variety of cybersecurity applications.

The image above of a Netarium-14e system provides a good example of the extended real-estate available with eATCA. In this image, a MIC-5345 ATCA node blade connects through the backplane to one in a series of Advantech Network Mezzanine Card (NMC) carriers, allowing customers to run I/O ports directly into the blades rather than through the switches. NMCs are widely used on network appliances and can be reused on eATCA. They allow storage, co-processing and offload to take place next to the compute blades. The new RTM-5220 shown here adds an LSI 3008 that routes SAS/SATA to each NMC connector. The RTM-5220 also introduces NMC hot-plug and is the first RTM to support storage as well as networking I/O. Note that the Zone 1 power connector can supply over 200 W to the eRTM.

eATCA – Performance and I/O Density without compromise

Software is defining and transforming the network, but more software requires more processing power. The preferred design strategy for implementing systems is shifting from a “do-it-yourself ASICs”-based approach to one that utilizes standard commercial processors with both on-chip and external
co-processors to provide essential performance and I/O improvements.
To meet the needs of high-end network solutions providers, Advantech has designed the eATCA architecture with the necessary real estate to accommodate a wide range of acceleration, offload, and I/O options, allowing OEMs to rapidly build tailored solutions for their customers.