Advantech launches turnkey MicroTCA Starter Kit Program

Advantech's MicroTCA Starter Kit (click image to zoom by 4.1x)

At a promotional price of 1999 Euros, the Starter Kit consists of a 6-slot AC-powered MicroTCA chassis with cooling and includes a Core 2 Duo-based Processor AMC, a SAS/SATA AMC with 80GB SATA hard drive, plus a MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH). The system boots Linux out of the box and is available from stock.

“Our goal is to get MicroTCA hardware into developer's hands at a price that minimizes impact on R&D budgets” said Paul Stevens, Telecom Sector Marketing Director at Advantech. He went on to add, “The turn key approach to Advantech's Starter Kit means it's simple and bootable out-of-the-box, enabling customers to quickly and cost-effectively evaluate system topologies and develop applications built on the MicroTCA architecture”.

The system is based on the Elma Electronics blu!eco system and comes loaded with three Advantech AMC's: the MIC-5602 with Intel Core 2 Duo U7500 CPU and 1GB DDR2 memory, the MIC-5401 storage AMC with 80GB HDD and the UTCA-5503 MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH). The system incorporates apluggable +12V / 300 W AC power supply and integrates IPMI for power switching, hot-swap functionality and fan control onto the backplane. The backplane is optimized for high-speed routing and provides a single-star topology to all slots, as well as integrated slot-to-slot links for SATA and PCI Express.

“Advantech's initiative should help release R&D projects held up by capital expenditure funding issues” said Peter Marek, Director of Advantech's Blade Computing Division. “This special price offer is also a signal that MicroTCA is on the right cost-curve” he added.

The MicroTCA Starter Kit is in stock in Advantech's worldwide logistics centers and available through Advantechand its worldwide system integration / channel partners. For full details and overall conditions of the program, Advantech has set up a dedicated URL at www.advantech.com.tw/epc/newsletter/microTCA_09[...] .