(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 01, 2005 ) WAKEFIELD, Mass. -– PICMG® announces the release of its latest specification for high speed interconnects over AdvancedTCA® (ATCA) backplanes – PICMG 3.5 RapidIO® for ATCA, PICMG 3.5 was recently approved by the PICMG membership and is now available.

The PICMG 3.0 specification defines the detailed characteristics of AdvancedTCA cards, chassis, and backplanes as well as the protocol for the base interconnect between cards (Ethernet) but leaves the protocols on the extended fabric to other specifications. An add-in card must notify the system manager which fabric it supports before interconnects are enabled onto the backplane. Serial RapidIO is the latest fabric to be mapped onto AdvancedTCA.

"Extending RapidIO technology to an even broader range of data plane applications, while carrying forward its best-in-class control plane features, creates a very compelling, unified open interconnect architecture," says Dave Wickliff, from Lucent Technologies, chair of the PICMG 3.5 subcommittee, and chair of the RapidIO Trade Association Steering Committee. "Leveraging RapidIO standards onto AdvancedTCA via PICMG 3.5 will extend this open interconnect into the important box-level telecommunications platform. RapidIO technology provides an interconnect architecture that can homogenously span a complete platform: backplane, boards, mezzanines, and devices."

The RapidIO interconnect architecture is an established, open standard available for review and downloading from the RapidIO Trade Association’s website, www.RapidIO.org. Also available at the website is information on system-enablement tools including RapidIO vendor product lists, synthesizable Verilog cores, analog physical layer cores, logic and protocol analyzers, operating system support, bus functional models, and hardware interoperability platforms.

PICMG 3.5 Adds Serial RapidIO
Copies of the complete PICMG 3.5 specification 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/picmgnewinitiatives.stm. Product listings can be found at http://www.picmg.org/productlistings.stm.

About The RapidIO Trade Association
The RapidIO Trade Association and its global members drive the RapidIO® interconnect architecture. This ISO-certified, open-standard seamlessly enables the chip-to-chip, board-to-board, control, backplane and data plane interconnections needed in high-performance networking, communications and embedded systems. RapidIO-based products are shipping now, including silicon chips, boards and systems. Detailed information on the RapidIO specification, products, design tools, member companies, and membership is available at www.RapidIO.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®, AdvancedTCA®, ATCA®, CompactPCI® Express and the PICMG, CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA and ATCA logos are registered trademarks, and COM Express™, MicroTCA™, CompactTCA™, AdvancedMC™ and SHB Express™ are trademarks, of the PCI. RapidIO® is a registered trademark of the RapidIO Trade Association. All other brand or product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Contact:
Rob Davidson
Tel: (805) 542-0999

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