Wednesday, March 20, 1996

Introductions
Ray Alderman, VITA, opened the meeting and asked those in attendance to introduce themselves. The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted with no changes. The agenda was reviewed and accepted with several revisions.

General Announcements
John Rynearson, VITA, advised members that updates to VITA's web product directory could be made on-line by using forms entry on the web. By entering updates as new products are announced, the product directory can be kept up-to-date continually rather than being updated only twice a year.

Ray advised that VITA can now search its web log files by product type. Reports by product and company can be generated. VITA will be bringing up its own server in house. The server will be constructed from equipment supplied by VITA's members.

If you want to set up a Virtual Trade Show booth contact the VITA office. By June, there will be about (60) booths. By year end, there should be (120) booths. Photos of new products can be scanned into the booth.

John Rynearson advised that Greg McEachron, E-Systems, is interested in ruggedized packaging standards. A side meeting will be set up this afternoon to discuss this issue.

VSO Elections
John Rynearson advised that the elected officers will take office at the next meeting. John recognized Mike Munroe as outgoing Vice Chair , Jim Koser as ad hoc Secretary and Ray Alderman as outgoing Chair. A list of eligible voters was displayed and an official ballot was given to those eligible to vote. Several members who could not attend asked to have a proxy vote. After discussion it was the decision of the group to allow these companies to vote.

The official ballot was presented to the group. A call for additional nominations was opened from the floor. There being no additional nominations, the nominations were closed.

The nominees were presented to the group. Each nominee gave a brief presentation.

Vice Chair
Bob Downing - Background is users community. Interest in supporting the VITA office in expanding access to addition VMEbus related documents.

Tad Kubic - Tad thanked the group for the honor of being selected to serve this group if elected. He has been an active member of the VITA organization and is interested in the hardware end of the business.

Chair
Dick Somes - He is a senior member of VITA and has attended regularly. He is current with the activities and has a clear understanding of the goals of the VSO. He wishes to continue work in the VME64 Extensions. He understands the process as a vehicle to make fair decisions for the work group. He understands fair and open process since he has served in public/local offices. He is willing to serve as chair if elected.

Wayne Fischer - He has been involved and in support of VME for many years. He will be willing to serve as chair if elected.

John Rynearson announced the results of the election. Bob Downing was elected to the position of vice chair and Dick Somes was elected to the position of chair. John thanked the other nominees for their willingness to stand for election and he also thanked the nominations committee, Elwood Parsons and Dennis Terry for their efforts.

Canvass Ballot Report, John Rynearson, VITA
Four standards have been recognized by ANSI, They are: ANSI/VITA 1-1994, VME64, ANSI/VITA 5-1994, Raceway Interlink, ANSI/VITA 6-1994, SCSA, and ANSI/VITA 3-1995, BLLI. Three standards are currently in the ANSI canvass ballot process. VITA 12-1995, Skychannel is in negative ballot review, and VITA 4-1995, IP Modules and VITA 13-1995, HIC are in a 90 canvass ballot.

ESSE Update, Ray Alderman, VITA
Motorola, Austin is leading work to create a generic ABI. Tools chain is being worked out by AMD and others. I/O is being chaired by Kim Clohessy and is independent effort. The I/O group is looking at the work done by HP on the Uniform Device Interface (UDI).

There will be a report on the web regarding ESSE activity. Minutes of ABI will be posted on the web.

All three groups are meeting with Embedded Systems Conference in two weeks. They will be meeting with VSO in May.

Windows NT Embedded Environment - Naren Nachiappan, VenturCom
VenturCom provides software tools and system software components for the use of Windows NT in embedded real-time applications. Typical customers are Avionics, Industrial Automation, Telecommunications, Retail POS, and Medical Instruments. See attached presentation.

Patent Policy Announcement, John Rynearson
John advised that it was the policy of the VSO that any patent issues related to ongoing standards work should be disclosed as early as possible. John noted that the courts have overturned patents that were not disclosed during the standards development process. Ray gave as an example technology related to VESA that Dell patented and was later overturned by courts because it had not been disclosed during the development of the VESA standard. Ray asked that the agenda always have a call for patents as first item on agenda for meetings.

ANSI requires that any technology that is part of a standard and is patented must be made available to all parties on a fair and nondiscriminatory basis.

Ray Alderman advised that ANSI will perform a standards audit of VITA in June.

Common Vehicle Architecture - Dave Hodges, McDonnell Douglas
Vehicle Management Systems - VITAL VMS Integration Technology for Affordable LCC. Purpose to reduce DoD costs by using Dual Use (Military/Commercial) products. See attached presentation. VMS - Vehicle Management Systems - shared resources (Flight control, Propulsion, Utilities). VITAL GOAL - Develop common building blocks based on commercial parts and practices that are applicable to wide variety of aircraft. VME based enclosures, backplanes, CPU's et. el.

Three year plan from defining Requirements through Design to Integration/test to Flight demos.

VME Issues:

Number of connector pins

Generic failure

Evolution of Standards

Government and industry share costs $24M / each.

Ray advised Dave that a study group can be formed to support this effort at the May meeting

VME64 Extensions Review - Wayne Fischer, FORCE
Due to efforts at Force on CompactPCI the draft has not been updated. By next meeting a new draft will be issued. Task group ballot will be going out after the May meeting.

VME64 Connector Update - Dave Robak, Harting
RFQ's and orders for production parts are on going. Schedule is on track. Rear I/O is being worked on. Latching issues need to be resolved.

Agreed upon schedule was presented. Full production by August. Customer drawings will be available in about 3 weeks. See attached. Dave Robak advised there is a two disk set of IGES files available for VME64 Extensions connectors.

VITA Europe Congress Announcement, Ray Alderman
VITA EUROPE Conference is October 7-9 in conjunction with Fieldbus in Brussels. This is replacing OBS Conference. Sign-up forms are available from VITA office and on VITA's web page.

John Rynearson advised that a meeting will be held at 3 PM this afternoon to discussed ruggedized chassis standards.

Ray Alderman suggested purchasing "Being Digital" book by Nicholas Negroponte for some thought provoking ideas regarding the future of communications. He also suggested "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates.

PMC Update - Wayne Fischer, FORCE
Wayne advised that the I/O pinout has been defined for the connectors. Discussions followed with concern for conduction cooled systems that wish to use the keyed version of the P0 connector. See attached pinouts. Because of lack of interest, Wayne indicated that the SBus proposed standard SMC P1386.2 will be dropped.

GRoup IPC Presentation - Susan Chicoine, Systran
GRoup IPC is a consortia to promote Industry Pack and PMC. A magazine Mezzanine is published as well as a web site on products. GRoup IPC started in Europe and is now addressing the US market. The magazine will have a product directory for member companies. Contact Susan at the following address if you are interested in joining.

Systran Corp

4126 Linden Ave

Dayton, OH 45432

Phone:513- 252-5601 ext 206

Fax 513 258-2729

e-mail : schicon@systran.com

See attached priorities for North America GRoup IPC.

Next Group IPC will be May 8/9 in Washington D.C.

P1101.10 and P1101.11 - Wayne Fischer for Eike Waltz, Rittal
P1101.10 - Mechanical standard is in sponsor ballot. Several key issues surfaced re. patent issue from Schroff have delayed effort. A letter was sent to IEEE to resolve. Option 3a & 3b will be removed from document. See attached letter.

Peter Odell of VERO advised that as chair of IEC work group, a new work item will be going forward to resolve issue in IEC. It takes a two year period for IEC approval if accepted..

P1101.11 - A meeting on March 22 took place to work on rear I/O plug in module. A generic standard is defined with incremental sizes. Frank Hom is editor and will write the specification. Discussion followed. Tail lengths of pins was discussed in detail.

PCI Study Group - Mike Munroe
Mike asked that the study group be disbanded. He has not had any response from PICMG regarding standardization. Wayne Fischer indicated that PICMG is considering standardization of CompactPCI through the VSO and may make a decision at its April 1 meeting.

Wayne Fischer advised that there are several PCI backplane technologies including a group from Europe that is using the Futurebus+ 2 mm connector. This group is called SIPS. Discussion followed. Tad Kubic advised that this could be a complimentary VME product and that we should keep an eye on the standard. DEC, Force and Hybricon are interested in bringing CompactPCI to a standard in VSO. The question is should we bring in a non VME bus as a project in the VSO? A vote of membership is required to decide whether or not to standardize PCI platforms. The VITA Technical Committee should be consulted to determine willingness standardize the PCI platforms.

Mike Munroe again suggested the study group be dropped until PICMG makes a decision on what they are going to do with their specification. Wayne Fischer made a motion to disband the study group, with a second by Steve Crocker. Discussion followed. After discussion the group voted unanimously to disband the study group until such time that PICMG or some other group asks for formal status within the VSO.

To determine general interest a straw poll was taken to see if the VSO wants to work on PCI related technology. The poll was divided between just standardization and also marketing promotion.

Standardization Marketing

(for-against) (for-against)

PCI Technology

General PCI 27 -3

CompactPCI 30 - 2 11 - 19

PCI 2.1 4 - 14

SIPS 8 - 11

PC104/PCI 12 - 10

PCI on P2 33 - 1 YES

SPCI /Speakeasy (MMITS) 15 - 7 7 - 14

VME64 on CPCI 35 - 1 YES

The members discussed what role VITA should play in marketing PCI technology. In general the feeling of the members was that VITA should market PCI when it is implemented on VME boards but not as a free standing technology.

Ray indicated that this issue must be reviewed by Technical/Business Committee and VITA Board of Directors

The VSO meeting was adjourned for the day. An off-line discussion on ruggedized chassis standards was held with Greg McEachron, E-Systems. After lengthy discussion, several members advised Greg to review the 1156 mechanical standard and determine if it addressed the ruggedized chassis issue. Greg indicated that he would review 1156 and report back to the membership.

Ray Alderman opened the meeting and asked attendees to introduce themselves. The agenda was reviewed, modified and accepted

VIPA Report - Bob Downing, Fermi
VIPA stands for the VMEbus International Physics Association. Bob advised that the VIPA recommended practices document will be available in the April/May time frame. It will be available on the web when completed.

VME64 9Ux400mm - Bob Downing, Fermi
Forward progress on this document was waiting on the resolution of the connector issues. The task group is considering whether to use a 2 mm connector for the P3 connector. If time allows, there will be a meeting later today to work on the 9U board.

SCSA Extensions Review - Lou Francz, Dialogics
Lou Francz advised that SCSA is a real time media transport By adding additional pins to the P2 connector upper row the number of channels available could be increased. The issue of redundancy was addressed.. Lou addressed issues that will go into draft 4 document. See attached.

Joe George asked why not use ATM for interchassis connectivity rather than providing synchronous clocks. Lou explained that the need to keep the system synchronous was important as well as switching between boxes. Clock irregularity was addressed. Copies of the draft changes were available for the work group. Ballot will be ready in May meeting.

BusNet Tutorial - Paul Fischer, Force
BusNet is a backplane packet protocol modeled after TCP/IP. See attached presentation.

VITA 12-199x, M-Modules - John Rynearson
Task group ballot is completed. The VSO requirement for 75% return and 75% approval has been met. Therefore VITA 12 will be moved to canvass ballot. See attachment.

VITA 11-199x, Autobahn Update - J Rynearson for Herman Strass

Autobahn is in a 30 day task group ballot. The task group consists of both US and European members. Results will be reported at the May meeting in Phoenix. Both 50 & 100 MB chips are available now from Motorola.

VITA 14-199x, CXC/Modpacks - J Rynearson for Herman Strass
CXC/Modpacks is in a 30 day task group ballot. Results will be reported at the May meeting in Phoenix.

SPECRITE Presentation - Jerry Thomas, CRANE
Performance Specification Generator.

VSO opportunities

Partner with DoD Customers

Influence Requirement specifications

Offer Options to Mil-spec's

Formal Study Group(s)

Larry Thompson has details of the program.

See attached presentation.

VITA 07-199x, QuickRing, - Dennis Terry, Heurikon
Two major companies are participating in the writing of the spec. They are looking to add ATM to the specification. Looking for more participation - contact Terry. Production level chips okay, topped out speed at 40 Mhz -160 MB/sec.

VITA 20 - Conduction Cooled PMC's - Jing Kwok, DY-4
First draft written. Would like to use keys on the P0/J0 connector which will require pin changes to PMC document to remain compatible. There is a conflict between air cooled and conduction cooled cards if keys are used. Discussions followed. There was no clear cut solution. A new mapping will be required. Gorky Chin made a motion seconded by Alan Storrow to move the 3 rows of user defined pins on P0 to the center. Discussions followed. The question was called. Vote was 17 - 3 in favor of moving the pins. A conduction cooled card can no longer be plugged into a convection cooled backplane. Other options will be evaluated. Above was a straw vote.

General Discussion - Web Site
Ray discussed a number of issues including - web page for used equip., employment opps, web publishing new products using in-house scanner, ideas regarding Virtual Trade Show, multi-level trade show, technical program, papers, and training.

VITA 16-199x, MVIP - John Rynearson for Charlie Snell, Xircom
MVIP is a telephony standard currently in final task group ballot. Charlie Snell has taken over chair position from Bob Grochmal. Charlie is working to resolve negative ballots. May update expected.

VITA 17-199x, FPDP - John Rynearson for Jonathan Jones, ISC
Front panel data port. Task group is studying issues.

VME on SEM-E - John Rynearson for Mary Mosier, NAWC
See attached report. Will have results at the May meeting.

V-Net Presentation - Ron Meadows, FMC
See presentation. High Speed Data Bus, 24 Mb/sec, dual redundant, low latency, military ground vehicles, RS 422 drivers & receiver, Manchester Bi Phase II encoding, most messages are 10 bytes or less. Ron would like to standardize V-NET. An interest sign-up list was sent around.

SPCI Form Factor Update - Jim Koser, BERG Electronics

Jim reported that at the January '96 PCI Steering Committee meeting in Milpitas, CA., Small PCI Draft 1.5 was unanimously approved by the Steering Committee. The decision was made to formally announce this standard at the April 29th PCI Annabook Conference in San Jose. There will be a (4) hour tutorial at the conference conducted by users and suppliers of SPCI technology.

MMITS - Jim Koser, BERG for Bob McKee, MITRE
Jim gave a brief overview of the MMITS/Modular Multi-function Information Transfer Systems (Speakeasy) program. Contact Jim Koser, BERG, or Bob McKee, MITRE, for additional information on this project.

Meeting Wrap-up, Action Items, - Ray Alderman
Future meeting dates

- May 8/9 at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale. $99/night

- July meeting dates - 17-19 (preferred) or 24-26 in Ottowa,Canada

- September 11-13 - Phoenix

- November 13-15 - DelMar/ option Phoenix

- January 1997 - 15-17 - Salt Lake / option Tahoe(Reno)

There being no other business the meeting was adjourned.

Submitted by Jim Koser, BERG

Edited by John Rynearson, VITA