Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:46, 21 April 2012

Revision as of 17:04, 18 June 2012

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AdvancedTCA blades can be Processors, Switches, AMC carriers, etc. A typical shelf will contain one or more switch blades and several processor blades.

When they are first inserted into the shelf the onboard IPMC is powered from the redundant -48V on the backplane. The IPMC sends an [[Intelligent Platform Management Interface|IPMI]] event message to the Shelf Manager to let it know that it has been installed. The Shelf Manager reads information from the blade and determines if there is enough power available. If there is, the Shelf Manager sends a command to the IPMC to power-up the payload part of the blade. The Shelf Manager also determines what fabric ports are supported by the blade. It then looks at the fabric interconnect information for the backplane to find out what fabric ports are on the other end of the fabric connections. If the fabric ports on both ends of the backplane wires match then it sends an [[IPMI]] command to both blades to enable the matching ports.

Once the blade is powered-up and connected to the fabrics the Shelf Manager listens for event messages from the sensors on the blade. If a temperature sensor reports that it is too warm then the Shelf Manager will increase the speed of the fans.

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The Shelf Manager monitors and controls the boards (blades) and [[Field Replaceable Unit|FRU]] in the shelf. If any sensor reports a problem the Shelf Manager can take action or report the problem to a System Manager. This action could be something simple like making the fans go faster, or more drastic such as powering off a board. Each board and [[Field Replaceable Unit|FRU]] contains inventory information (FRU Data) that can be retrieved by the Shelf Manager. The FRU data is used by the Shelf Manager to determine if there is enough power available for a board or FRU and if the Fabric ports that interconnect boards are compatible. The FRU data can also reveal the manufacturer, manufacturing date, model number, serial number, and asset tag.

Each blade, intelligent FRU, and Shelf Manager contains an Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC). The Shelf Manager communicates with the boards and intelligent FRUs with [[Intelligent Platform Management Interface|IPMI]] protocols running on redundant [[I²C]] buses. [[IPMI]] protocols include packet checksums to ensure that data transmission is reliable. It is also possible to have non-intelligent FRUs managed by an intelligent FRUs. These are called Managed FRUs and have the same capabilities as an intelligent FRU.

The interconnection between the Shelf Manager and the boards is a redundant pair of Intelligent Platform Management Buses (IPMBs). The IPMB architecture can be a pair of buses (Bused IPMB) or a pair of radial connections (Radial IPMB). Radial IPMB implementations usually include the capability to isolate individual IPMB connections to improve reliability in the event of an IPMC failure.