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Chairperson's Message The MicroTCA market looks very promising, as its technology enables telecom equipment manufacturers and defense contractors to implement a standard communications platform for network core, edge, and access applications. The MicroTCA platform is particularly well-suited to access layer applications, such as WiMAX access points, VoIP access gateways, and cellular basestations that are highly cost-sensitive. Now that MicroTCA platforms are shipping to customers in reasonable quantities, we can safely predict significant revenue potential for 2008. Typical industry analyst estimates range from 100 to 300 million dollars. As usual, the ramp-up in practice will likely trail the more optimistic predictions. However, customers are clearly looking for a “pay-as-you-grow” capability supported by TEMs responding quickly to increased demand. This is besides the basic lower cost, lower power, smaller size, higher performance, and faster time to market that a MicroTCA solution offers. A recent survey of telecom equipment makers corroborates the optimism of MicroTCA manufacturers. When asked if they would be shipping MicroTCA products in 2008, 65% of the TEMs indicated they definitely would be and that MicroTCA would represent a quarter of total equipment sales. As for specific applications, the top three were wireless basestations, processors, and WiMAX, respectively. This year’s MicroTCA summit is responding to industry demand for a greater focus on software. Our program addresses current plans and implementations in the software sector. Adopting a software-enabled platform can reduce time-to-market significantly, while enabling TEMs to spend their resources on developing their products’ differentiating features and content. A platform built from a collection of standards, ranging from hardware and operating systems to high availability middleware and management interfaces, provides a strong base for broad market adoption. The software enabled platform does not limit a TEM’s ability to innovate. It offers a choice of integration points, depending on where the developer sees value in the market place. Also the advent of virtualization allows for the capture of legacy software, portability over multiple platforms, isolation for security or testing purposes, and the use of multiple operating systems (such as VxWorks, Embedded Linux, and Windows) simultaneously on the same hardware. Customers have long expressed their desire for interoperability, that is, the ability of multiple components from multiple manufacturers to work together seamlessly. This year’s MicroTCA Summit will therefore include an interoperability demonstration based on proven MicroTCA platform technology and including an integrated turnkey software enabled application platform. We will demonstrate hardware and software running a live network session between MicroTCA devices. There should be no doubt in 2008 that MicroTCA is alive and well! Furthermore, it is clearly well-placed to generate revenue for platform providers and robust solutions at reasonable cost for their customers. So please take this opportunity to trade ideas with colleagues and gain new perspectives during presentations from a wide variety of large and small companies. Learn about hardware, software, interconnect, implementations, and applications. Hear from the trade associations and standards groups such as SCOPE (telecom equipment makers), CP-TA (Communications Platforms Trade Association), and SAF (Service Availability Forum) that are helping to build new ecosystems. If you want to be successful designing MicroTCA systems, creating products for them, or applying these platforms, don’t miss the Second Annual MicroTCA Summit. See you there! Ernie Bergstrom, President, Crystal Cube Consulting
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Ernie Bergstrom