AdvancedTCA® is primarily designed for the infrastructure of telecommunications systems with the highest availability requirements. With AdvancedTCA®, it becomes possible to build modular systems using components from different manufacturers. This technology thus offers the ability to develop flexible and cost-effective devices more quickly than was possible with previous proprietary systems.

Conceptually, AdvancedTCA® is a scalable, high-performance architecture characterized by high functional density, availability, and future-proofing, on whose platform many future-oriented applications can be implemented. Scalable data rates of several Tbit/s, multi-protocol support, the integration of new services, and the convergence of access, core, and optical networks are just as much a part of this as the integration of data center functions. Interfaces for Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Infiniband, StarFabric, PCI Express, and RapidIO demonstrate the high flexibility of the AdvancedTCA® architecture. Another core element of the systems is the high availability of 99.999%.

To make the AdvancedTCA® system described above even more cost-effective, the PICMG® developed the AdvancedMC™ standard (Advanced Mezzanine Card). AdvancedMC™ modules are small cards that are mounted in parallel on a “carrier board” (a carrier board in the form of an AdvancedTCA® daughter card) as a mezzanine application. The carrier board contains only management functions, while the actual application is implemented via the AdvancedMC™ modules.

MicroTCA® is based on the approach of inserting the AdvancedMC™ modules directly into the backplane. The goal is to build smaller and more flexible systems, independent of carrier boards and AdvancedTCA®. MicroTCA® targets applications that do not require such high computing power, but where space savings and low costs are paramount. This opens up further application areas in the mid- and low-end segments, such as image processing, medical technology, or automation technology.