News

News Releases
2006

Updated Advanced Mezzanine Card Specification
Released by PICMG
MVA Launches Communications Ecosystem Conference
MicroTCA Specification approved by PICMG
PICMG® Technologies Showcase at GLOBALCOMM 2006 to Highlight
Products from 42 Member Companies
New PICMG® Subcommittee to Enhance AdvancedTCA® Interoperability
SA Forum, PICMG and the Mountain View Alliance Move Telecom Industry Closer to Open Standard Ecosystem
PICMG Officers Reelected

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information:
Rob Davidson, PICMG, +1 805-542-0999
davidson@picmg.org

Updated Advanced Mezzanine Card Specification
Released by PICMG
Specification Adds Enhanced Features and Retains Compatibility

WAKEFIELD, Mass., USA – Jan. 8, 2007 – PICMG, a consortium of more than 450 companies that collaboratively develop open specifications for high performance telecommunications and industrial computing applications, announced today that it has released an updated version of its popular Advanced Mezzanine Card (AdvancedMC®) specification. The Advanced Mezzanine Card specification defines modular daughter cards designed to provide extra functionality to AdvancedTCA® cards. They can also be used to add functionality to any other “carrier” cards and are used as the “blades” in MicroTCA® systems.

“As the current specification is already widely adopted, it is important that the latest revision doesn’t sacrifice backward compatibility,” said Jim Kennedy of Intel, the PICMG AdvancedMC subcommittee chair. “We are pleased that Revision 2 achieves this while incorporating new functionality requested by the market.”

Designated AMC.0 R.2, the new version of the specification includes the following features:

A new mid-size module defined with new faceplate dimensions optimized for ATCA conventional carrier usage;
New AdvancedMC connector options for connecting to a carrier board, including press fit, surface mount and through-hole style connectors in addition to the original compression fit style AdvancedMC connector;
Improved module faceplate LED placement guidelines in keeping with Central Office practices;
Allowance for new varieties of AdvancedMC ejector handles; and
An increase in the maximum amount of module power from 60W to 80W for payload and from 100mA to 150mA for management power.

AMC.0 R.2 will be provided free to PICMG members and for purchase by non-members. A short-form version that provides an overview is available free from the PICMG Web site. More information, including product listings, can be found at www.picmg.org.
About PICMG Founded in 1994, PICMG is a consortium of more than 450 companies that collaboratively develop open specifications for high performance telecommunications and industrial computing applications. The members of the consortium have a long history of developing and using leading-edge products for these industries. For information about PICMG membership, or to find out how to obtain PICMG specifications, visit the PICMG website at www.picmg.org or call
PICMG headquarters at (781) 246-9318.

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PICMG, CompactPCI, and AdvancedTCA are registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group. AdvancedMC and MicroTCA are trademarks of PICMG.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information:
Rob Davidson +1 805-542-0999
davidson@picmg.org

MVA Launches Communications Ecosystem Conference
San Diego, California Conference to Unveil in February ’07

Mountain View, CA September 5th, 2006 - The Mountain View Alliance (MVA), a consortium of open specification organizations in the communications industry, will launch its first annual conference, a two day event called the “MVA Comms Ecosystem Conference” on February 28th 2007.

The MVA, focuses on coordinating and promoting the activities of its member organizations. It has chosen the RTC Group, a leading conference management firm, to produce this event. The MVA and RTC have begun to shine a worldwide spotlight on the MVA-CEC 2007 event, which will be held at the conference facilities of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel on the waterfront in downtown San Diego.

The MVA was established in June 2005. Its members include PICMG, the Service Availability Forum (SA Forum), the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), the RapidIO Trade Association, the SCOPE Alliance, the Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA) and the Open Communications Architecture Forum (OCAF). More than 500 influential companies are represented by these member organizations, many of whom will be gathering for this educational two-day conference in February 2007.

“The industry is ready for a unifying event such as MVA-CEC that will address the breadth of issues of building open specifications based commercial off-the-shelf equipment for the converging wireless, Service Provider / telecom and internet infrastructure markets,” said Rob Davidson, the PICMG representative at the MVA. “This event will demonstrate the maturity of the underlying specifications, the
readiness of the ecosystem of both consumers and suppliers of standards based products and strengthen the ties between organizations by building grass-roots connections between members” he added.

The event is a gathering of MVA organizations’ member companies and is open to all professionals interested in learning more about the activities of member organizations and related open specifications. It is expected to attract industry professionals and luminaries from throughout the industry, including Service Providers, Network Equipment Providers, and other users and suppliers of high availability equipment such as carriers and large enterprises. The conference will include education sessions, interactive round table discussions as well as presentations from technology and business leaders from the entire ecosystem. The conference will also serve as the incubator for cross group activities & events
in the future.

This inaugural event is off to a great start with the appointment of industry thought leaders as Technical Co-chairs:. Magnus Karlson of Ericsson, and Technical Work Group Chair of the SAForum, Timo Jokiaho of Nokia and the Chairman of the SCOPE Alliance, and Mark Kent, Head of Technology Strategy, BT Global Services. The technical chairs are responsible for setting the agenda, selecting the speakers,
and chairing the conference.

For information on exhibiting or sponsorship availability in the MVACEC, contact Mike Miller at 415-383- 2319, mmiller4@pacbell.net. For information about attending, contact Stacy Gandre at 949-226-2024, stacyg@rtcgroup.com. Visit www.mvacec.com.

About the Mountain View Alliance
The Mountain View Alliance mission is to accelerate the adoption of platforms and building blocks based on the specifications of member organizations. The goal of the MVA is to optimize effectiveness of its member organization through coordinate marketing activities including joint trade show participation, joint meetings, and outreach activities. As the need arises, the MVA will also facilitate multi-faceted cooperation between its member organizations. Through such activities, the MVA aims to promote a diverse and thriving ecosystem of open-specification based components and platforms. For more information go to www.mountainviewalliance.org.

About the RTC Group
The RTC Group has been producing effective real-time and embedded industry events for over 19 years. In addition, the company publishes three trade magazines, RTC and COTS Journal, both standardbearers in the industry, and its latest magazine, PKG, now in distribution. RTC provides marketing and design services plus scalable custom event programs worldwide. The RTC Group is an international
marketing services organization with corporate offices located in Southern California, USA.

Mountain View Alliance, MVA, and Comms Ecosystem Conference and MVA-CEC are trademarks of the Mountain View Alliance.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information:
Rob Davidson, PICMG, (805) 542-0999
info@picmg.org

MicroTCA Specification approved by PICMG

Small form factor solution draws from AdvancedTCA and AdvancedMC efforts

WAKEFIELD, Mass., July 24th, 2006. The PICMG executive membership has ratified the PICMG MTCA.0 Specification, known as MicroTCA. This eagerly awaited specification was developed over 18 months with the participation of over ninety five companies.

The MicroTCA specification defines systems that accommodate plug in cards complying with the successful Advanced Mezzanine Card specification. These cards, which were originally designed as daughter boards, plug directly into a MicroTCA system backplane, thus extending the market for AdvancedMC cards and providing an existing supplier base for MicroTCA. The specification incorporates the system management and fabric features from AdvancedTCA into platform that is scalable from small, cost effective systems to highly available redundant systems. MicroTCA brings the robustness and reliability of the AdvancedTCA approach to market segments requiring a small footprint such as access and edge applications in telecom networks. It may well extend into other applications including medical, industrial control and military.

Mike Franco of Signal Stream Technologies, who chaired the MicroTCA subcommittee, said. “This team of authors, editors, officers and committee members has done an extraordinary job. We can all be proud of quality of the MicroTCA Specification.”

“MicroTCA extends PICMG’s coverage of Telecom and wireless infrastructure equipment” according to Joe Pavlat, President of PICMG, “PICMG now has open specifications that can be used to build modular equipment from the edge to the core of the network, as well as in other market segments”, he added.

The MicroTCA specification will be distributed free to PICMG members and is available for purchase by non-members. More information, including product listings can be found at the PICMG web site at www.picmg.org.

About PICMG
Founded in 1994 as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, PICMG is a consortium of over 400 companies that collaboratively develops open specifications for high performance telecommunications and industrial computing applications. The members of the consortium have a long history of developing and using leading edge products for these industries.

For information about PICMG membership, or to find out how to obtain PICMG specifications, visit the PICMG website at www.picmg.org or call PICMG headquarters at (781) 246-9318.

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PICMG, CompactPCI, and AdvancedTCA are registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group. AdvancedMC and MicroTCA are trademarks of PICMG.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information:
Rob Davidson, PICMG, (805) 542-0999
info@picmg.org

PICMG® Technologies Showcase at GLOBALCOMM 2006 to
Highlight Products from 42 Member Companies

Products based on PICMG specifications will be showcased at Booth #12042

WAKEFIELD, Mass., May 11, 2006 – PICMG is continuing its public outreach program with a member technology booth at GLOBALCOMM™ 2006 at McCormick Place in Chicago on June 5-8, 2006. The PICMG Technologies Showcase booth will contain exhibits and products from 42 member companies that are built on PICMG specifications.

Anyone considering building or using telecom infrastructure equipment based on open hardware specifications should visit the companies in the PICMG Technologies Showcase. PICMG specifications cover a range of open hardware implementations and include AdvancedTCA®, AdvancedMC™ and CompactPCI®, CompactPCI® Express, COM Express™ and SHB Express™. Exhibits will showcase new technologies under development including AdvancedTCA® 300 and MicroTCA™.

The companies exhibiting this year are:

ADLINK Technology
Adtron
AVIVA Networks
BittWare, Inc.
Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions
Conference ConCepts, Inc.
CorEdge Networks
Digital Power Corporation
Diversified Technology, Inc.
Electronic Solutions
Elma Electronic Inc.
Embedded Planet
ept, inc.
ESO Technologies
Fulcrum Microsystems
HARTING
Intel Corporation
Interphase Corporation
Kaparel, a Rittal Company
Kontron
Mercury Computer Systems

MicroBlade™, Inc.
Motorola
Nextronics Engineering Corp
NMS Communications
OpenSystems Publishing
Optovia
Performance Technologies
Pigeon Point Systems
Pinnacle Data Systems
PMC-Sierra
RadiSys
Sanmina-SCI
SBS Technologies
Schroff
Southco
StarGen
TeraChip
TRENTON Technology
Tyco Electronics
XTech
Yamaichi Electronics USA Inc.

The PICMG Website includes a product directory where manufacturers list their PICMG compliant product offerings. These product listings can be viewed at
www.picmg.org/v2internal/productlistings.htm. Copies of the complete specifications are available to PICMG members and can be purchased by non-members from PICMG. More information on new PICMG developments is available at www.picmg.org/v2internal/picmgnewinitiatives.htm.

About PICMG
Founded in 1994 as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, PICMG is a consortium of over 400 companies that collaboratively develops open specifications for high performance telecommunications and industrial computing applications. The members of the consortium have a long history of developing and using leading edge products for these industries.

For information about PICMG membership, or to find out how to obtain PICMG specifications, visit the PICMG website at www.picmg.org or call PICMG headquarters at (781) 246-9318.

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PICMG, CompactPCI, and AdvancedTCA are registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group. AdvancedMC and MicroTCA are trademarks of PICMG.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information:
Rob Davidson, PICMG, (805) 542-0999
davidson@picmg.org

New PICMG® Subcommittee to Enhance AdvancedTCA® Interoperability

WAKEFIELD, Mass., April 25, 2006 - The PICMG Executive members have approved the formation of the Requirements Engineering Subcommittee (RES). This subcommittee is chartered with summarizing and categorizing the mandatory and optional sections of AdvancedTCA and AdvancedMC specifications to make it easier for users and vendors to implement commercial off-the-shelf systems using these specifications.

The AdvancedTCA specifications are very powerful and comprehensive, but they also include options for several different market segments and different network elements within the Telecom market segment. The main goal of the RES is to develop a framework for industry groups to define vertical market profiles and provide recommended requirement sets for each specification. PICMG does not define profile preference or compliance or certification requirements, so the RES will concentrate on the framework that other organizations can use. RES will also provide valuable feedback to the other PICMG subcommittees when additional requirements or clarifications are needed. The formation of the RES comes as the take-up of AdvancedTCA accelerates, and the interests of the user groups are high.

“The initial work of the RES will address the needs of the Telecom market, but other market segments such as Enterprise Networks, Military, Industrial Control and Medical can follow,” according to Kai Sjöblom of Nokia, the chairman of the Requirements Engineering Subcommittee. “128 representatives from 65 companies and organizations were part of the formation, and more have joined since. The results of the RES efforts will benefit the whole telecommunication platform industry,” he continued.

“The RES effort at PICMG is very complementary to the efforts of SCOPE,” said Timo Jokiaho, chairman of the SCOPE Alliance, a recently formed industry alliance committed to accelerating the deployment of carrier grade base platforms for service provider applications. “The RES effort dovetails perfectly with the AdvancedTCA profile SCOPE has just published and will make our work much easier,” he added.

Dick Somes, the Technical Director of PICMG commented: “This effort breaks new ground for PICMG as it extends to the usability of a specification, not just its technical merits. It should have a positive impact on all future PICMG specifications.”

The RES has been meeting regularly since its inception in February and should provide its first output later this year. For more information see www.picmg.org/v2internal/picmgnewinitiatives.htm.

Details of all PICMG activities and information on its specifications can be found at the PICMG web site at www.picmg.org.

For information about PICMG membership, or to find out how to obtain PICMG specifications, visit the PICMG website at www.picmg.org or call PICMG headquarters at (781) 246-9318.

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PICMG, CompactPCI, and AdvancedTCA are registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group. AdvancedMC and MicroTCA are trademarks of PICMG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:
Lori Zielinski
SA Forum PR
503-595-2852
marketing@saforum.org

SA Forum, PICMG and the Mountain View Alliance Move Telecom
Industry Closer to Open Standard Ecosystem

Standards Organizations Release HPI-to-AdvancedTCA® Mapping Specification

PORTLAND, OR – February 7, 2006 — The Service Availability™ Forum (SA Forum) and PICMG have released the HPI-to-AdvancedTCA® Mapping Specification. The mapping specification details how the SA Forum’s Hardware Platform Interface (HPI) maps to PICMG’s AdvancedTCA specification. This enables developers to use a standard method for implementing both specifications, thereby saving companies time, money and resources.

“I applaud the joint work that PICMG and the SA Forum did together to create this mapping specification, making it significantly easier for the industry to adopt HPI and AdvancedTCA,” said Tim Kober, president of the SA Forum. “The new specification enables developers to deliver solutions using PICMG and SA Forum commercial off-the-shelf building blocks.”

“The HPI specification represents a mature data model and programmatic interface to describe generic hardware platforms,” said Dick Somes, PICMG’s technical officer. “AdvancedTCA is generally perceived to be the underlying hardware platform for many HPI implementations. Thus a mapping between these two specifications is a natural outcome from these standards efforts.”

The HPI-to-AdvancedTCA Mapping Specification exposes AdvancedTCA Shelf Management functionality and data in a standard, vendor-independent manner via the SA Forum’s HPI. By using open standards such as these, companies no longer have to develop proprietary solutions or devote resources to custom mapping between specs. This allows them to focus on their unique value-add, reduce their time-to-market and reduce lifecycle costs.

“By working together on the mapping specification, the SA Forum and PICMG have moved the telecom industry one step closer to a true open standard ecosystem,” said Brian Holden, representative of the Mountain View Alliance, a group including PICMG and the SA Forum that helps coordinate the work of specification organizations. “Prior to this new specification, the HPI could be mapped to AdvancedTCA in a number of ways which create extra work for the system integrator. The mapping specification eliminates this additional step and creates a new industry standard.”

To download the mapping specification, visit www.saforum.org/specification.

About the Service Availability Forum
The Service Availability™ Forum is a consortium of industry-leading communications and computing companies working together to foster an ecosystem that enables the use of commercial off-the-shelf building blocks in the creation of high availability network infrastructure products, systems and services. To achieve this goal, the Service Availability Forum develops and publishes high availability and management software interface specifications while promoting and facilitating their adoption by industry. Service Availability Forum membership offers the opportunity to help frame and implement the Service Availability solution. For more information about the Service Availability Forum, visit www.saforum.org.

About PICMG
Founded in 1994, PICMG is a consortium of more than 400 companies that collaboratively develops open specifications for high performance telecommunications and industrial computing applications. PICMG specifications included AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and CompactPCI. The members of the consortium have a long history of developing and using leading edge products for these industries. For information about PICMG membership or to obtain PICMG specifications, visit the PICMG Web site at www.picmg.org.

About the Mountain View Alliance
The Mountain View Alliance is a consortia of standards organizations dedicated to creating a more coordinated approach to specifications and activities around platform design. Mountain View Alliance member organizations include PICMG, the Service Availability Forum, the Network Processing Forum and RapidIO Trade Association. For more information, visit www.mountainviewalliance.org.

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information:
Rob Davidson, PICMG, (805) 542-0999
info@picmg.org

PICMG Officers Reelected

WAKEFIELD, Mass., January 17, 2006 – In an electronic ballot held in December 2005, the existing PICMG® officers were reelected unanimously by the executive membership. The PICMG officers are: Joe Pavlat, President; Dick Somes, Technical Officer; Rob Davidson, VP Marketing; and Michael Munroe, Treasurer. The officers report to the Board of Directors, which is comprised of PICMG’s nearly 100 Executive Members. PICMG’s membership also includes more than 225 Associate Members

The officers had the following comments:

Joe Pavlat, President: “As PICMG enters its twelfth year of operation, it has become one of the most recognized organizations of its kind in the industry. Our group provides effective leadership in high speed switched fabric technologies, and the future is indeed bright. I want to thank our members for their continued hard work, skill, and the experience that makes our organization successful.”

Dick Somes, Vice President and Technical Director: “I am pleased that PICMG continues to make decisions that are accepted by all its members, and therefore durable, in an atmosphere of consensus. It is an open environment where companies with differing interests and viewpoints can balance the drive towards closure with a desire for due diligence and due process.

Rob Davidson, VP Marketing: “PICMG has emerged as the leading specification development organization in its space. It has a reputation for developing solid specifications in an open and timely manner that users are confident in applying to their products”.

Michael Munroe, Treasurer: “PICMG's broad base of members has provided great financial resilience throughout our twelve years. Last year was our strongest revenue year to date, which helps to make possible PICMG’s important work that is already underway for 2006."

All the officers wish to recognize Ellen Ricciardelli of Virtual, Inc., administrator for PICMG, for her cheerful and unflagging support throughout the year.

Details of PICMG activities and information on its specifications can be found at the PICMG web site at www.picmg.org.

For information about PICMG membership, or to find out how to obtain PICMG specifications, visit the PICMG website at www.picmg.org or call PICMG headquarters at (781) 246-9318.

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PICMG, CompactPCI, and AdvancedTCA are registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group. AdvancedMC is a trademark of PICMG. PCI Express is a trademark of the PCI SIG. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

News

News Releases 2006

News Releases
2006