AdvancedMC

AdvancedMC (PICMG AMC.x ) is a specification which defines an open standard for supporting high-speed, switched interconnect protocols on a small form factor mezzanine card.

AdvancedMC, Advanced Mezzanine Card or AMC is an open standard which defines the base-level requirements for a wide-range of high-speed mezzanine cards optimized for, AdvancedTCA^® Carriers, but also can be used in uTCA backplane implementations. This base specification defines the common elements for each implementation including mechanical, management, power, thermal, and interconnect. Subsidiary specifications will define the usage requirements for each interface implementation. Target interfaces include PCI Express, Advanced Switching, Serial RapidIO, and Gigabit Ethernet.

AdvancedMC defines a modular add-on card (called AMC Modules) that extends the functionality of a Carrier board. AMC Modules lie parallel to and are integrated onto the Carrier board by plugging into an AMC Connector. Carrier boards may range from passive boards to high performance single board computers.

A new mezzanine specification was required because of objectives of high-speed LVDS interface support and AdvancedTCA optimization. AMC is designed to take advantage of the strengths of the PICMG 3.0 ATCA specification and the Carrier grade needs of Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability. These strengths and needs required a new Hot Swappable mezzanine that could maximize density through the use of Stacked Modules or through the use of greater surface area and component height. In addition, the needs of higher electrical power with higher I/O bandwidth were also reasons to launch a new mezzanine base specification.