Firmware Upgrade in xTCA Systems

Abstract

The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) and Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (μTCA) standards, collectively known as xTCA, provide a flexible and scalable infrastructure for designing complex control and data acquisition systems. The xTCA standards are becoming more and more popular in physics applications. Programmable devices, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), conventional and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are present in Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) modules and ATCA blades used in the xTCA crates. Those devices typically boot from non-volatile memories available on the modules. This paper deals with an universal framework and set of tools for upgrading firmware in such devices in xTCA systems. The proposed framework uses a fat pipe region interface of backplane for the firmware data transmission and the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard for PROM memory management and the control of the upgrade procedure. This is the world's first attempt to implement the firmware upgrade in system not using the JTAG Switch Module (JSM).