All About Advanced Mezzanine Cards

An Advanced MC is the core of the system. Intermediate revisions of the specification are called ECNs or engineering change notices. They include R1.0, which was adopted in January 2005, ECN-001, adopted in June of 2006, and R2.0, adopted in November 2006. Advanced MC cards can use a number of AMC specifications, include PCI Express and PCI Express Advanced Switching (AMC.1), Gigabit Ethernet and XAUI (AMC.2), Storage (AMC.3) and Serial RapidIO (AMC.4). Advanced MC cards can also use proprietary signaling based in LVDS.

Six different types of Advanced MC cards are available. Full sized modules are the most commonly seen, allowing components up to twenty-three and a quarter millimeters high. Mid sized modules allow component heights from a little over eleven and a half millimeters to a little more than fourteen millimeters, depending on the location of the board. Compact modules permit a height of only a little more then eight millimeters. To hold a single full sized module or two compact sized modules, a special carrier card is required. This card is called a cutaway or hybrid carrier.

The number of filled slots on a given board will determine the height of a MC card. Double width cards allow  more space for components, but they don’t offer increased bandwidth or power, since a single connector is still used. The Advanced MC connector has a relatively complex pinout, using up to one hundred seventy traces in four different lengths. This allows hot swapping, provided it’s known in advance in which order traces will become active. Cards may require traces on one side only, which reduces the cost for mass production. Using only half of the available pin locations, combined with the various height options, results in four different types of connectors are available on a carrier card.

Advanced MC cards are capable of being the only requirement for processing functionality. Because of this, the MicroTCA standard was developed, aimed at supplying a chassis that would let these cards work without a carrier card. Multiple companies have launched products since the July 2006 approval date of this standard. Advanced MC has offered a great deal of flexibility and technological advancement in the communications field. There are more options for manufacturers than ever before, given the versatility of this specification.

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