NAT-MCH-RTM

NAT-MCH-RTM/-BM-FPGA: MTCA.4.1 µRTM-backplane and LLRF-backplane control

COM Express carrier & rear transition module for MicroTCA.4 systems

Single slot solution providing a NAT-MCH-PHYS80 with a fully user-accessible Intel® Xeon® E3 CPU and storage and allowing full control of the optional µRTM-backplane and LLRF backplane, located behind a standard MTCA.4 backplane.

The NAT-MCH-PHYS80 and associated rear transition module NAT-MCH-RTM/-BM-FPGA, both members of the NAT-MCH family of products, bring additional flexibility and scalability to MTCA.4 and MTCA.4.1 systems.

This unique combination releases slots normally occupied by processor Advanced Mezzanine Cards (PrAMCs), storage and graphic AMCs by using the space behind the MCH slot(s) in a MicroTCA.4.1 chassis.

What's more, the NAT-MCH-RTM/-BM/FPGA allows the NAT-MCH-PHYS80 to fully control the µRTM-backplane e.g. NAT-LLRF, which is located behind the standard MTCA.4 backplane for AMCs, and any item connected to this additional backplane, such as eRTM (extended RTM), RPM (Rear Power Modules) and (optionally) standard RTMs.

The NAT-LLRF backplane allows you to combine systems that are traditionaly separate - one for the digital part and one for the analogue part - into one singe MicroTCA system. The required mechanics and the management extensions have been introduced to the PICMG MTCA.4.1 working group already in order to make these optional extensions available as part of the open MicroTCA.4.1 standard.

Using rear power modules, any RTM that connects to the µRTM-backplane (NAT-LLRF-Backplane) can be powered independently from its associated AMC, thus providing a higher power budget per AMC/RTM slot combination.

Variants
NAT-MCH-RTM is available in variants as follows:

NAT-MCH-RTM

  • Double-wide full-size rear transition module and COM Express carrier

NAT-MCH-RTM-BM

  • as above plus Backplane Management and Zone2 connector for µRTM backplanes eg LLRF backplane

NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA

  • as -RTM-BM plus ZYNQ-FPGA to implement separate bus eg SPI on LLRF backplane to access eRTMs

All three variants above can be fitted with a COM Express module Type 6 with Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 (E3-1505LV5 25W 4c/8t HDP530 2.0GHz 8MB incl. ECC up to 16 GB DDR3-1066). The part number then has -COMex-E3 at the end.


Carrier for any Type-6 COM Express modules and Rear transition module for the NAT-MCH-PHYS80
The NAT-MCH-RTM/-BM/FPGA is a fully functional COM Express carrier in double-wide, full-size format, designed for any Type-6 COM Express module. The I/O as available from the COM Express module is brought to the front panel of the RTM. The NAT-MCH-RTM/-BM/FPGA connects to the the NAT-MCH-PHYS80 via the zone 3 connector and offers the COM Express module an x16  PCI Express Gen3 path to the PCIe switch on the NAT-MCH-PHYS80 as well as a SATA connection. The NAT-MCH-PHYS80 is a double-wide, full-size MCHs, with a special clock module providing low jitter and skew, and a PCIe switch module, providing Gen3 (30Gbps) bandwidth at the fat pipe and can be equipped with one or two SATA Flash Drives (SSD).

Single slot solution for management, switching and PCIe root complex
When equipped with the optional quad-core Intel® Xeon® E3 processor COM Express module, the NAT-MCH-RTM/-BM/FPGA becomes the special version NAT-MCH-RTM-COMex-E3 (quad-core E3), NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-COMex-E3 (quad-core E3, control of LLRF backplane)  or NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA-COMex-E3 (quad-core E3, ZYNQ, control of LLRF backplane). Using the connections over the Zone 3 connector, the COM Express module has direct access to the facilities located on the NAT-MCH-PHYS80:
  • x16 link to the PCIe Gen3 fat pipe switch (Fabric D-G, NAT-MCH-PHYS80)
  • 1GbE link to the 1GbE base fabric switch (Fabric A)
  • Two SATA connections to the two SSD mounting sites
Intel® Xeon® E3 Processor and storage at user's discretion
Thus the NAT-MCH-RTM-COMex-E3, NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-COMex-E3 or NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA-COMex-E3 function as fully-featured replacements for a PrAMC, which would occupy one AMC payload slot. 

The NAT-MCH-RTM-COMex-E3, NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-COMex-E3 or NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA-COMex-E3  provide a fully user-accessible quad core Intel® Xeon® Prozessor E3 incl. ECC up to 16GB DDR3-1066. 

All versions offer high resolution graphics on two DisplayPorts, four USB3.0 and an additional 1GbE on the front panel.

Family of MCH products
The NAT-MCH-RTM is associated to the NAT-MCH family of MCHs which consists of:
  • NAT-MCH supporting PCIe, SRIO (RapidIO), XAUI, GbE, USB, JTAG-Switch
  • NAT-MCH-PHYS
  • NAT-MCH-PHYS80  with Zone-3 connector for connection to MCH-RTMs with optional LLRF backplane management support, optional optical PCIe uplinks
  • NAT-MCH-RTM-PCIEx16-UPLNK (copper PCIe uplink)
  • NAT-MCH-RTM  with options -BM, -FPGA and COMex-E3 (quad-core Xeon, Core-i7, -i5 and -i3 on request)
  • NATview
  




Background: Low Level RF backplane (NAT-LLRF)

MicroTCA is a high-channel-density system standard. In order to increase system reliability and ease of maintenance, improve cable management, reduce performance limitations and the space occupied by external RF cabling, and finally for better EMC shielding of sensitive analog signals, N.A.T. GmbH has collaborated with DESY to develop a unique concept for extending the MicroTCA.4 system capabilities.

The MicroTCA low level RF-Backplane (NAT-LLRF-Backplane) for µRTM cards is a hardware implementation of this new extension embedded in a MicroTCA.4 crate. The unit is a passive RTM backplane suited for the interconnection of high-precision RF and CLK signals and the delivery of high-performance managed analog power supply for µRTM and extended RTM (eRTM) modules. High-frequency signal distribution network was designed to operate in the DC – 6GHz band.

More information about the N.A.T. MicroTCA low level RF-Backplane can be found here.

  


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Applications/Solutions

The NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA is the standard rear transition module for the NAT-MCH-PHYS80 and functions as carrier for any Type-6 COM Express module.

  • Connections to µRTM backplanes e.g. NAT-LLRF 
    • I2C interface to EEPROM
    • IPMI to two Rear Power Modules
    • IPMI to three eRTMs, which habe no connection to front AMCs
    • FPGA for a application specific intercommunication bus
  • Mounting slot for any Type-6 COM Express module, I/O of COM Express slot connected to PHYS80 via Zone 3 connector or available at front panel

Available with optional NAT-MCH-RTM-COMex-E3, NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-COMex-E3 or NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA-COMex-E3

  • I/O on front panel of RTM:
    • 2x DisplayPort (high resolution graphics)
    • 4x USB3.0
    • 1x GbE at rear panel
  • Connections to the NAT-MCH-PHYS80
    • 2x SATA connection to two SSD slots
    • One x16 PCIe Gen3 link to fat pipe switch (Fabrics D-S)
    • One 1GbE connection to GbE switch (Fabric A)

NAT-MCH-RTM is available in variants as follows:

NAT-MCH-RTM

  • Double-wide full-size rear transition module and COM Express carrier

NAT-MCH-RTM-BM

  • as above plus Backplane Management and Zone2 connector for µRTM backplanes eg LLRF backplane

NAT-MCH-RTM-BM-FPGA

  • as -RTM-BM plus ZYNQ-FPGA to implement separate bus eg SPI on LLRF backplane to access eRTMs

All three variants above can be fitted with a COM Express module Type 6 with Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 (E3-1505LV5 25W 4c/8t HDP530 2.0GHz 8MB incl. ECC  up to 16 GB DDR3-1066). The part number then has -COMex-E3 at the end.


Standard
  • COM Express-Type 6 module


CPU

  • Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 (E3-1505LV5 25W 4c/8t HDP530 2.0GHz 8MB incl. ECC  up to 16 GB DDR3-1066)


Memory

  • ECC  up to 16GB DDR3-1066


Rear Panel Connector

  • 2x DisplayPort (high resolution graphics)
  • 4x USB3.0
  • 1x 1GbE


Interconnect to Network

  • 2x SATA connection to two SSD slots on NAT-MCH-PHYS80
  • One x16 PCIe Gen3 link to fat pipe switch (Fabrics D-S) on NAT-MCH-PHYS80
  • One 1GbE connection to GbE switch (Fabric A) on NAT-MCH-PHYS80
  

Storage

One 2.5 inch SSD with 128 GB mounted on NAT-MCH-PHYS80 or two 1.25 inch SSD in RAID mode on request mounted on NAT-MCH-PHYS080


Operating System

  • Linux, Windows, WindRiver O/S (VxWorks, Linux, Hypervisor)


Compliance

  • MTCA.0 R2.0, MTCA.4 R1.0, MTCA.4.1 R1.0, AMC.0 R2.0, AMC.1, AMC.2, AMC.4, IMPI V1.5 & V2.0, EN60950, UL1950, RoHS

Title
Description
Format
Size
Rev #
Date Last Modified
nat-mch_ds Data sheet and NAT-MCH family overview pdf 1.179 KB 1.4 06-07-2012
NAT-LLRF NAT-LLRF MicroTCA Low Level RF-Backplane web page  HTML      
nat_mch_rtm_comex_v2x_man_hw   Hardware Manual for RTMs v2.x pdf  1.4 MB  1.1 18-12-2017


For further documentation on the NAT-MCH (i.e. technical reference manuals) please contact us using the contact form. Thank you.



NAT-MCH-RTM block diagram


Product Code: NAT-MCH - [Options]

Option

Description

Comment

-RTM

Double-wide full-size rear transition module and COM Express carrier

  

-RTM-BM

as above plus Backplane Management and Zone2 connector for µRTM backplanes eg LLRF backplane

  

-RTM-BM-FPGA

as -RTM-BM plus ZYNQ-FPGA to implement separate bus eg SPI on LLRF backplane to access eRTMs

  

-COMex-E3

COM Express module Type 6 with Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 (E3-1505LV5 25W 4c/8t HDP530 2.0GHz 8MB incl. ECC  up to 16 GB DDR3-1066)

16GB DDR on request



Software:

 

Title
Description
Version
Released
NATView Java based GUI (Graphical User Interface) for monitoring and control of MTCA systems. 2.25 26-08-2016
NBSP-LINUX-NAT-MCH-RTM Ubuntu Linux for NAT-MCH-RTM-COMex-E3 12.0.4 04-2012




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