Chairperson's Message - 2010

Ernie Bergstrom
President,
Crystal Cube Consulting

AdvancedTCA Summit 2010 is focusing on new directions for xTCA platforms. Key themes will include wireless systems, high-performance systems (10G, 40G, and 100G), and cloud computing. We will also look at extensions for enterprise applications and ways to win the economic case for xTCA.

From technical forums to chat sessions, you’ll get all the information you need in one place.  Hear from technology leaders, key vendors, and industry associations at all levels in the supply chain.  Learn about AdvancedTCA/MicroTCA solutions for military/defense applications and instrumentation as well as telecom. Also sit in on sessions covering infrastructure, system integration, design tips, customer input, COTS ecosystem, and more!

Mobile phone manufacturers shipped over 300 million units worldwide in the latest quarter of 2010, a 15% increase over last year. The uptick is great news for AdvancedTCA suppliers. More mobile traffic, particularly high-bandwidth video, requires more network capacity everywhere from local concentrators through the central office. Demand for backhaul and for high-availability systems will also skyrocket. AdvancedTCA is the obvious way to provide the required processing power as well as the needed modularity, flexibility, scalability, and maintainability. There were more than 450 million mobile-Internet users worldwide in 2009, a number that will double in the next four years. Wireless industry researchers predict that 7 trillion wireless devices will serve 7 billion people by 2020.

As customer demand for high-bandwidth services increases, especially with mobile devices, AdvancedTCA system providers must move quickly to support 40G (and even 100G) applications. Hunger for high-bandwidth, media-rich content is pressuring already strained service provider networks across both wireless and wireline connections. As a result, demand has increased for new, high-bandwidth network infrastructure equipment capable of supporting these applications now and into the future at affordable costs. 

Network equipment providers are ready to help their service provider customers by delivering AdvancedTCA systems that will allow quick and easy speed upgrades through simple blade addition or replacement. By taking steps to ensure a compatible infrastructure, equipment and service providers can implement the smoothest possible migration to 40G with minimal investment in time and cost. Indeed, the future for AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA is very bright.

Once again, I am proud to announce the continuation of our successful annual Awards Program, including hardware, software, infrastructure, and best unique customer application. So let’s see some great Best of Show applications!

AdvancedTCA Summit will once again provide the opportunity to trade ideas with colleagues and gain new perspectives during presentations from a wide variety of large and small companies. Learn about hardware, software, interconnect, implementations, and applications. Hear from the trade associations and standards groups that are helping build new ecosystems. If you want to be successful designing AdvancedTCA or MicroTCA systems, creating products for them, or applying them in telecom centers or elsewhere, don’t miss this year’s Summit. It’s the only place you will find the latest information, the hottest products, and the top experts. See you there!