Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (MicroTCA) is a commercial standard widely used in the telecommunications industry. MicroTCA is a simplified adaptation of the Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) standard written by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG). MicroTCA uses the Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMCs) and FPGA Mezzanine Cards (FMCs) from ATCA but in a smaller enclosure with lower overhead. There is a wide ecosystem of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components from many manufacturers that are compatible and interoperable with the standard. The form factor for this standard is physically smaller than 6U VPX, which allows it to fit into space-constrained volumes. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has developed a low-cost, quick-turn platform of reusable printed circuit boards, software, firmware, and mechanicals such as conduction-cooled frames and enclosures that leverages and interoperates with these standards. LANL has leveraged the commercial MicroTCA.0 and ruggedized MicroTCA.3 standards and extended them for application in space flight environments without compromising the compatibility with low-cost COTS hardware. As a result, LANL engineers can rapidly prototype and develop systems with a mix of commercial-and flight-grade hardware.
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