Introduction

Dick Somes called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM and asked members to introduce themselves. The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted as written.

Agenda Review

The agenda was reviewed and several modifications were requested and made.

Patent Disclosure

John Rynearson, VITA, noted that ANSI had updated its patent policy. See overhead. Basically ANSI removed the requirement for the terms of the license agreement to be submitted to ANSI for review by ANSI counsel. Eike Waltz, Rittal, voiced his concern that the word "reasonable" was vague and needed clarification. This issue will be pursued with ANSI.

Dick Somes stated the VSO's early patent disclosure policy and asked if members were aware of any patents which should be disclosed. No disclosures were made.

Announcements

Wayne Fischer asked how many members needed hard copy versions of the VME64x draft standard and the latest VME64x task group ballot. Wayne reminded members that PDF copies of these documents are available from both Force's and VITA's web site and urged members to obtain copies via download.

John Rynearson, VITA, noted that a breakout meeting room was available.

John Rynearson, VITA noted that IEEE 1101.2 Conduction Cooled Standard was up for reaffirmation. Those interested in balloting 1101.2 should contact the IEEE.

John Rynearson, VITA , gave an update on the status of VME ISO/IEC standards efforts. Chris Parkman, CERN, is the project chairman. IEC821 is up for reaffirmation. Minor modifications will be made to bring it into line with CENELEC En60821.

ANSI/VITA 1-1994, VME64 has been submitted to the fast track process by the British Standards Institute. Chris Parkman, CERN, is the project editor.

John Rynearson gave a report on projects in the canvass ballot process. VITA 4.1, IP Module Pin Assignments is in ballot solicitation and will shortly go to ballot. VITA 10, Skychannel, is being revised and will be submitted to a recirculation ballot. The ballot period for both VITA 12, M-Modules, and VITA 6.1, SCSA Extensions, was extended until March 31, 1997 to give balloters additional time. VITA 6.1 has 2 negative ballots that need to be addressed. VITA 12 does not have any negative ballots and will be submitted to ANSI shortly.

John Rynearson presented a letter to VSO members from Robert Cutler, AMP, stating his opinion after review of Berding's VME320 technology. In Robert's letter, he stated: "It's my opinion that the techniques used are sound from an interconnection standpoint. Drew's design will result in the slow but first incident edges seen in his simulations." See attached letter.

Ray Alderman, VITA, presented Hermann Strass with a certificate acknowledging Hermann's contributions to the VMEbus industry.

VITA Report

Ray Alderman reported on current projects underway at VITA. Sara Killingsworth was hired to support ESOFTA, the Embedded Software Association. The first project for ESOFTA will be the development of a comprehensive product directory. Ray also announced that VITA is working with a major publisher to enlarge the distribution of the VMEbus Product Directory. Current plans call for the November VMEbus Product Directory to be printed and distributed to over 25,000 board and system specifiers. Ray noted that there is also interest in a new magazine focusing on Chips, Boards, Buses, and Systems. More detailed information on this magazine will be announced in the future.

Election of Officers

This year's nominations committee consisted of John Rynearson, VITA, Paul Vena, CSPI, Lou Francz, Dialogic, and Bob McKee, MITRE. John, acting as chair, thanked the committee for their efforts and presented the following slate of candidates to the members.

Chair

- Robert Downing, FERMI

Vice Chair

- Jing Kwok, DY4

The floor was opened for nominations. No nominations were received. A motion was made and seconded to accept the presented slate as officers for 1997. The motion passed with unanimous support. Therefore, the officers of the VSO for 1997 will be: Bob Downing, Chair, and Jing Kwok, Vice Chair.

*** BREAK ***

VME64x Connector Update

Holly Sherfinski, Harting, discussed the status of the 160 pin connector. See attached overheads.

Simulation Report

Ulrich Wallenhorst, Harting, discussed both measurement and simulation results from tests that they had done on the 160 pin connector. See attached presentation.

VME320 Presentation

Drew Berding, Arizona Technology, revealed the technology behind his VME320 backplane. While all backplanes to this point have connected slot 1 to slot 2 to slot 3, and so on, Drew's backplane connects all slots in a 21 slot backplane to slot 11. So that slot 1 is connected to slot 11, slot 2 is connected to slot 11, etc. The topology of the backplane is that of a star and electrically the backplane looks like a lumped load. Signals on the backplane appear much quieter and are monotonic. Thus the backplane provides incident wave switching. Drew distributed a white paper with the technical details of the backplane. See attachments.

*** LUNCH ***

P1101.11 Report

Eike Waltz, Rittal, gave a report on P1101.11. He presented a letter he received from Harting outlining several technical issues. He also discussed concerns expressed by an individual from Sun regarding lightning and telecom safety issues. Investigation revealed no issues with lightning, but they did reveal a requirement for a safety ground. The current alignment pin can be used for this purpose and 1101.11 will be modified to address this issue. Eike indicated that he would have test results by May. See attachment.

At this point the VSO meeting was temporarily adjourned by chair, Dick Somes.

Wayne Fischer called the VME64x Task Group Ballot Review Committee (TGBRC) meeting to order. Wayne noted that only those on the current task group ballot list could vote on issues brought up for discussion.

Wayne indicated that he wanted to go through the standard page by page asking for issues to be brought up at that time. He also indicated that he would address all issues brought up as a result of the task group ballot. See task group ballot summary for a list of specific issues.

Holly Sherfinkski, Harting, presented a method for keying 1101.2 compatible modules. Such modules cannot use the VME64x front panel keying method. See attached overheads.

The VME64x TGBRC meeting was adjourned.

The VSO meeting was reconvened for a presentation by Rick O'Connor, Tundra. Rick is the chair of the SST (Source Synchronous Transfer) tiger team. Rick noted that the purpose of the tiger team is to develop a high performance synchronous protocol to take advantage of VME320 backplane technology. The group has been meeting once a week on a teleconference call that usually lasts 1.5 to 2 hours. Rick presented the results so far and indicated that the group is currently trying to reach consensus on the skew budget. See attachments.

The VSO meeting was adjourned at 4:55 PM.

The VME64x TGBRC meeting reconvened until 6:30 PM, when it was adjourned for dinner. The VME64x TGBRC agree to reconvene at the end of the VSO meeting on Thursday to finish their work.

Introductions

Dick Somes called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM and ask members to introduce themselves.

Raceway Extensions

Barry Isenstein, Mercury, gave a brief review of Raceway Interlink and discussed extensions that are being proposed to take advantage of the 160 pin connector. Another Raceway port will be made available. A proposed pin assignment was presented. The group hopes to complete the work by September. See attached presentation.

Autobahn

Hermann Strass, representing PEP, gave a report on Autobahn. He noted that the effort had been on hold since July, but was now being restarted. He indicated that most of the commercial interest in Autobahn was for an intercrate connection. The spec will be revised with the results of the previous task group ballot and a recirculation ballot held if required.

CXC/Modpacks

Hermann Strass, representing PEP, gave a report on the status of CXC/Modpacks. CXC/Modpacks is primarily oriented towards 68300 processors. The specification will be updated with the results of the previous task group ballot and a recirculation ballot held if required.

CE Mark Presentation

Hermann Strass gave a presentation on the current status of CE mark program in Europe. He noted that the program is self policing. Vendors report competitors who are not in compliance. CE is not required on equipment sold to an OEM, but is required for equipment sold to the end users. CE certification in one country is good in all countries so there is competition between countries as to which country is the best place to get certification.

FPDP Report

Jonathan Jones, ICS, gave an update on the status of FPDP. FPDP is a simple parallel bus that is routed in a VMEbus system via the front panel. FPDP was an existing industry practice. Most of the draft standard development effort has gone into clarifying signal definitions. Revisions are being made to the draft standard and a task group ballot will be held shortly.

VME on SEM-E

John Rynearson briefly reviewed the goal of VITA 18. He presented a letter from Mary Mosier, NAWC. Mary indicated that she no longer has funding to support this effort. However, she indicated that Bob McKee, MITRE, and Harry Andreas, Hughes will take over.

CCPMC Report

Jing Kwok, DY4, gave a report on CCPMC. The task group held a meeting on Tuesday and discussed several technical issues. When the draft is completed the group will hold a task group ballot. See attachment.

Cellbus Report

Javier Berrios, Transwitch, briefly reviewed the goal of Cellbus. A letter meeting ANSI patent requirements was presented and entered into the minutes. A new draft of the spec is available. Javier noted several technical changes that have been made in the latest draft. See attached presentation for more information.

Myrinet Report

Paul Vena, CSPI, briefly reviewed status of Myrinet and distributed an updated draft. The group hopes to be able to hold a task group ballot this summer.

VITA23, VMEbus in Physics

Bob Downing gave a status report. The group had a meeting on Mon/Tue to review the document. The group is revising the document to make it more readable and will release a new copy soon.

9U Format on VME

Bob Downing noted that the task group ballot was completed in Jan 1997. Due to time commitments, Bob has not yet reviewed comments from the ballot. The results will be summarized and presented at the May meeting.

Busnet Report

John Rynearson gave a busnet report for Paul Fischer. The draft standard is made up of three parts: 19.0, 19.1, and 19.2. All three parts are available on VITA web site for review. Task group members are ask to download these drafts and review them. A task group ballot will be held shortly. See overheads.

VISION Report

Jim Pangburn, FERMI, gave a report on the status of VISION. Draft 0.2 is now available. See overhead for status.

Future Meetings Discussion

The May meeting will be held in Phoenix at the Safari Resort. The July meeting is scheduled for Vancouver. The September meeting and the November meetings are still open with possible locales being Phoenix or Scotland.

Board Test Controller

Pat McHugh, Logicvision, made a presentation on board test controllers. See attachments.

The VSO meeting was recessed.

The VME64x TGBRC meeting was reconvened and continued until lunch.

*** LUNCH ***

The VSO meeting reconvened at 1:15 PM.

Live Insertion on VME64x

Lou Francz, Dialogic, gave a report on the VME64x Live Insertion draft standard. The task group is being reactivated and Lou asked that an email reflector be set up for the group. A sign-up list was circulated. Lou noted that for the present some cards in a system will support live insertion and some will not.

Dick Somes, as the outgoing chair, thanked the VSO members for their participation during the past year and noted that since there was no further business for this meeting - "That's All Folks"....(i.e., the meeting was adjourned at 2:45 PM).

The VME64x TGBRC meeting reconvened to complete the VME64x ballot review. The meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM. Wayne indicated that he will complete the negative ballot review summary and provided a revised draft by the May