Polaris Networks, a leading provider of test tools for networking equipment, announced today that its range of automate manageability test tools for xTCA platforms has been selected by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, for their internal testing of MicroTCA Carrier Hub, ATCA Blades and Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMCs).
Polaris’ test tools for xTCA platforms comprises of: a) ATCA Tester that tests the Shelf Manager, intelligent FRUs, AdvancedMC (AMC) carrier boards and AMC modules in ATCA shelves for compliance with the hardware platform management requirements (Section 3) in the PICMG 3.0 Rev 3.0 specification. The ATCA Tester also tests 40G Eternet E-Keying based on the final draft of PICMG 3.1 R 2.0 specification; b) AMC Tester for testing the hardware-management software in Module Management Controllers (MMC) of an AMC and Carrier Manager and also of the Module Management Controller (MMC) of Front AMC managing a uRTM. The AMC Tester is fully conformant with PICMG Specification AMC.0 R2.0 and PICMG MTCA.4 RC1.1;and c) MicroTCA Tester for testing the hardware management software in MicroTCA based building-blocks or systems.
This suite of test tools would be used by the Electronic Systems for Experiments Group in the Physics Department of CERN to test xTCA systems being developed for critical experiments including those for the LHC.
"Interoperability of commercial and custom built electronics will be key to the successful deployment of xTCA based modular electronics in the LHC and other experiments at CERN. We are confident the tester tools of Polaris Networks will enable us identify early and hopefully resolve many interoperability issues in an efficient way." says Markus Joos of PH/ESE Commenting on the occasion Aditya Saraf, VP Sales and Marketing stated “Since inception software tools from Polaris for xTCA, WiFi, LTE, have been primarily been used by equipment vendors for their development and testing purposes. We feel very
proud to be associated with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN and are excited to support them in their research activities by remaining committed to continuously enhance our xTCA test tools based on changes in PICMG specifications.”
By checking the compatibility of building-blocks with respect to ATCA or MicroTCA system management requirements, and by testing all building blocks in an integrated system, independently or simultaneously, the xTCA testers from Polaris Networks help in increasing interoperability of building blocks and decreasing development and integration time. These automated Test tools are useful for reducing the QA time from days to hours. Polaris Tested ATCA Boards, MCHs and AMCs are compliant to the latest PICMG standards.