WAKEFIELD, Mass., 8 March 2011. The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) in Wakefield, Mass., is announcing ratification of a new standard that defines rugged, conduction-cooled electronic circuit boards that adhere to the Micro Telecom Computing Architecture (MicroTCA) architecture.The PICMG Hardened Conduction Cooled MicroTCA (MicroTCA.3) specification for rugged MicroTCA defines the requirements for systems that meet demanding levels of temperature, shock, vibration, and other environmental conditions for rugged MicroTCA systems in military, shipboard, outdoor telecommunications, and other harsh mobile equipment environments.The PICMG MicroTCA.3 working group met extended environmental requirements by independent qualification testing of the connector. "Successful testing of the MicroTCA connector system based on requirements from the MIL-STD-801 and RTCA/DO-160 standards combined with the adoption of this new specification opens harsher military and other rugged environments for MicroTCA," says Doug Sandy, PICMG's vice president of technology.
PICMG's MicroTCA specification was adopted in 2006 and enables AdvancedMC products to function in a passive backplane architecture. By reusing AdvancedMC products, MicroTCA systems are much smaller than classic AdvancedTCA architectures. This new specification enables deployments in a wide variety of harsher environments than possible before this latest adoption.
For more information contact PICMG online at www.picmg.org.
