1M. Joos, PH/ESE

ATCA for ATLAS - status

• Activities of the working group• PH/ESE xTCA evaluation project• Next steps

2M. Joos, PH/ESE

ATCA working group• Mandate:

• Propose a standard for modular electronics to replace VMEbus• Make recommendations with respect to best practices and common components

• 18 members. Composition:• Sub-detectors• TDAQ• Sysadmins• DCS• Electronics coordinator

• First meeting: Spring 2012• 1 day workshop in July 2012

• https://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=196590• Recommendation document

• https://edms.cern.ch/document/1304001/1

3M. Joos, PH/ESE

ATCA working group• Mandate:

• Propose a standard for modular electronics to replace VMEbus• Make recommendations with respect to best practices and common components

• 18 members. Composition:• Sub-detectors• TDAQ• Sysadmins• DCS• Electronics coordinator

• First meeting: Spring 2012• 1 day workshop in July 2012

• https://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=196590

First results:• ATCA will be the main replacement for VMEbus• Use of MTCA not excluded

4M. Joos, PH/ESE

(Main) ATCA recommendationsFeature Recommendation Remarks

Blade orientation Vertical See cooling

Number of blades per shelf 14 • Limited by width of 19” rack and airflow direction

• Shelves with fewer slots not excluded

Shelf manager Redundant bussed IPMB Advantage of (more expensive) radial IPMB not obvious

Maximum power per blade and RTM

• Blade: 300 W• RTM: 50 W

Power per shelf limited to ~5.5 kW (11 kW per rack)

Power supplies • Remote AC/DC (installed in bottom of rack) preferred

• N + 1 redundancy

Local AC/DC possible if compatible with vertical air flow

Cooling • Vertical air flow through entire shelf• PSUs and shelf manager must not

block air flow

Main idea: No modifications to the racks (turbines, coolers, doors)Note: Turbine limits air flow to 1180 m3/h

Backplane • Full mesh• Capable of 40 Gb/s

• Dual star possible• 10 Gb/s may be sufficient

5M. Joos, PH/ESE

(Main) ATCA recommendations (2)Feature Recommendation Remarks

Clock distribution Individually via front panel of blade One ATCA shelf may house blades that belong to several TTC partitions

IPMC ATLAS custom blades shall use the IPMC of LAPP/Annecy

A common IPMC can help limiting interoperability issues

Communication with blades Use of IPbus encouraged Performance to be kept in mind

Communication between blades

• Base interface: Ethernet• Fabric interface: 10/40 Gb/s Ethernet

Protocol (UDP, TCP/IP) not specified

AMCs • Based on the MMC of PH/ESE• Fat pipe: Ethernet or PCIe• Form factor: Avoid full size

• A common MMC can help limiting interoperability issues

• MTCA market prefers PCIe• ATCA Cut-out carriers not very

practicalDCS interface • Via IPMI but only for “important”

parameters• Common solution to be found

Bridging IPMI to PVSS possible via HPI and SNMP but potentially complex

ROD crate DAQ S/W Functionality to be kept No processor required in the shelf

6M. Joos, PH/ESE

PH/ESE evaluation project• Started in 2011 with MTCA• ATCA recently added• Main focus is on components of general interest:

• Card cages• Cooling units• Power supplies

• Status• Evaluating shelves from Schroff and ASIS with focus on cooling

• Have seen differences in cooling performance• Due to properties of “power groups” some slots in a shelf don’t offer the advertised power

• AC/DC PSUs:• Looking at different powering schemes (per shelf, per rack, per system)• Evaluating products of: Emerson, PowerOne and Lineage

• Establishing contact with additional companies (Comtel)• Commercial S/W for IPMI compliancy test available

• Designers of blades are invited to test their modules in our lab • Additional information:

• xTCA IG: https://espace.cern.ch/ph-dep-ese-be-PS-Evaluation/SitePages/Home.aspx • TWEPP: https://indico.cern.ch/sessionDisplay.py?sessionId=23&confId=228972#20130926

7M. Joos, PH/ESE

Next steps• Has the “ATCA for ATLAS” working group done its job?

• Recommendations for main features made• Anyone unhappy with them?• Does anyone feel that important issues have not yet been addressed?

• Should the mandate be extended to include e.g.• More detailed technical requirements• Involvement in equipment procurement• Liaising with other experts

• users of ATCA (LHCb)• CERN PH/ESE xTCA evaluation team

• Etc.• Is there a need for a more technical forum?

• For engineers to discuss implementation details• To share knowledge and technical solutions• To perform evaluations of commercial components

• The group will have to decide how and by whom this follow-up work is to be done• Visit our new Web site: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/viewauth/Atlas/ATCAforATLAS