XCELLENCE IN WIRED COMMS
Blade Management Controller Rides
FPGA Embedded Processor
CloudShield builds powerful, flexible solution around Xilinx PowerPC 440 running embedded Linux.
by Andy Norton
Distinguished Engineer, Office of the CTO
CloudShield Technologies, Inc.
ANorton@CloudShield.com
Jeff Mullins
Principal Engineer, Embedded Systems Lead
CloudShield Technologies, Inc.
JMullins@CloudShield.com
Dick Mincher
Embedded Systems Specialist
CloudShield Technologies, Inc.
DMincher@CloudShield.com
The trend toward converged networks for
both telecom and enterprise simplifies network
infrastructure and dramatically lowers
costs while providing scalable, open
platforms. Blade platforms are achieving
network convergence using Ethernet, scaling
from 1G/10G to 40G/100G, with
blade-management controllers keeping
pace by using standards-based Intelligent
Platform Management Interfaces (IPMI).
To help drive network convergence into
the mainstream market, our design team
here at CloudShield Technologies architected
a flexible blade-management controller
by integrating the PowerPC ® 440 found in
the Virtex- ®5 with standard and custom
peripheral cores, creating multiple embedded-system
configurations with a common
hardware design. This FPGA-based design
took advantage of a unique and flexible feature
set that included system reconfiguration,
powerful embedded processors,
intellectual-property (IP) cores and embedded
Linux firmware for chassis management
services unique to the resident blade.
14 Xcell Journal Third Quarter 2009
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