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AdvancedTCA, according to its PICMG sponsor, is the largest specification effort in PICMG's history, with more than 100 companies participating. The technology targets next generation carrier grade communications equipment. (More here.)

Despite rumors of few actual deployments, the recent AdvancedTCA Summit was full of buzz and promise, driven especially by the rising demand of "triple play" services. (Browse Summit presentations for free, here).

Radisys, for example, announced the first gigabit ethernet AdvancedTCA solution based on Cavium Networks Octeon™ Plus CN58XX Processors. The new boards provide high density Gigabit Ethernet interfaces with sophisticated dataplane hardware acceleration, and help equipment manufacturers reduce research and development costs while accelerating the introduction of high performance, content aware products such as Radio Network Controllers (RNC), Session Border Controllers, Media Gateways, Edge Routers, and Security Gateways. (More here).

Beyond boards, a key challenge is for telecommunications vendors in general, and AdvancedTCA vendors in particular, to bring hardware and software together into a total "solution." The most intriguing company here is OpenClovis, an "open source" provider of telecommunications infrastructure. OpenClovis provides the OpenClovis Application Service Platform, providing the middleware framework necessary for many telecommunications applications (and freeing the designer to work on more valuable applications of his own). The company uses a dual GPL / Commercial License model that allows easy non-commercial and/or evaluation use (openclovis.org) as well as commercial use with a business license. That said, OpenClovis announced a partnership with Radisys to more closely integrate hardware and software in AdvancedTCA applications. (More here). Don't miss the company's upcoming December 12th webinar.

Another company that has a solid focus on putting hardware and software together for AdvancedTCA is Performance Technologies. That company announced that its Linux OS and development environment, NexusWare® Core V11 has undergone successful validation and has registered compliance with the Open Source Developments Labs (OSDL) Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) 3.2 specification. And beyond providing Linux and a cool IDE with their AdvancedTCA solutions, Performance has partnered with GoAhead® Software to provide GoAhead SelfReliant® high availability middleware with Performance Technologies' Advanced Managed Platform™ products. (Release here).

Interested in AdvancedTCA hardware and software integration? Here are key sites for further information:

• Service Availability Forum - consortium working to standardize telecommunications hardware and software;
• Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA) - consortium dedicated to defining and managing interoperability testing for AdvancedTCA;
• OSDL, Carrier Grade Linux - initiative to harden Linux for telecommunications needs;
• Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture and MicroTCA Components and Solution Global Market Demand Analysis - new research report (forthcoming); and
• eg3.com's AdvancedTCA coverage