xTCA Platforms

Modular design saves time, money and hassles.

The goal of a modular design strategy is to cut costs and improve time to market by building entire systems from off-the-shelf modules.

When off-the-shelf modules can be assembled into high-performance systems, the up-front savings are significant. And this modular approach has the added benefit of protecting hardware investments over time, because as technology advances, new modules can simply be plugged in without replacing entire systems. Modularity also encourages the growth of a multi-vendor ecosystem that increases competition and further decreases costs.

The modular system architecture known as xTCA is comprised of AdvancedTCA™, MicroTCA™, and AdvancedMC™, which are open standards for next generation networking platforms. AdvancedTCA (ATCA) blades plug directly into the ATCA backplane, and AdvancedMCs cards plug into ATCA blades. MicroTCA systems are composed of AdvancedMC ‘mini-blades’ plugged into their own MicroTCA backplane. The entire xTCA architecture is an open, flexible, modular design concept.

GE Intelligent Platforms offers a broad selection of xTCA products, including ATCA blades and  AdvancedMCs to help you rapidly deploy xTCA. As a member of PICMG®, we were closely involved in the creation of AdvancedMC and MicroTCA, and we are uniquely positioned to deliver xTCA technology because of our strong communications heritage across markets, and our focus on providing modular components and blades to system integrators and telecommunications equipment manufacturers.