nVent Electric plc (“nVent”), a global leader in electrical connection and protection solutions, has announced the launch of its first MTCA.4 Crate in accordance this new released Revision 3.0 of the MTCA.0 standard.

It supports PCIe Gen 4/5 and 100 GbE.

In September 2023 PICMG released the new revision 3.0 of the MTCA.0 specification. This new version adds the support for PCI Express Gen 4 and 5 as well as for 100GBASE-KR4. To accomplish these higher data rates SMD and compression mount connectors have been evaluated by the working group and the simulation results have been taken as a base to define the whole data transmission channel for MicroTCA. The transmission channel has been divided into the logical parts to define the limits for boards and backplane to make sure, all MTCA.0 Rev 3.0 conform MCH’s, AMC’s and Crates work together in a PCI Express Gen4/5 or 100 GbE environment.

As these high-end switches consume more power compared to the formerly supported ones, the power budget for the MCH, where the switch resides, have been upgraded from 80 W to 110 W. And to make sure that the MCH doesn’t overheat the Cooling Units power budget was also upgraded to 110 W. A software mechanism ensures the downward compatibility of old and new MCH’s, Power Modules and Cooling Units.