Pigeon Point Systems (PPS), an Actel company, announced board management reference (BMR) starter kit updates providing TCA management controller solutions, with support for advanced in-shelf network attachment via the Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) standard. The NC-SI support is implemented in BMR solutions based on the Actel Fusion mixed-signal FPGA.

These and corresponding solutions based on Renesas H8S microcontrollers do support R3.0 of PICMG 3.0, the AdvancedTCA specification. In-shelf network attachments for management controllers in AdvancedTCA boards allow these high speed connections to be used for a variety of purposes that improve usability and reduce operational expense, including remote access to on-board serial interfaces and quick management controller firmware updates.

Compliance with the third major revision of the AdvancedTCA specification enables valuable features, such as intelligent subsidiary field replaceable units (FRUs), and aligns AdvancedTCA products with the requirements for traceability improvements in the new specification revision.