draft 0.3

Introduction

Bob Downing 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

Bob Downing reviewed ANSI's patent policy and the early disclosure policy adopted by the VSO. Bob noted that all task group chairs should ask for patent disclosure at the beginning of each meeting and that any patents disclosed should be noted in the minutes.

No patents were disclosed.

Wade Peterson suggested that a web accessible database be kept of all disclosed patents. John Rynearson indicated that he would set up such a database.

Announcements

John Rynearson asked members to adopt a set of numbers for the 1.x series of VITA standards. The numbers proposed for these standards are:

VITA 1.1 - VME64x

VITA 1.2 - High Availability VME (H.A. VME)

VITA 1.3 - VME64 9U x 400 mm Form Factor

VITA 1.4 - Live Insertion for VME64x

VITA 1.5 - Source Synchronous Transfer (SST) Protocol on VME64x

VITA 1.6 - Keying for Conduction Cooled VME

No objections were voiced so the above numbers will be used to reference the listed standards.

Paul Fischer, FORCE, noted that VITA 19 was out for task group ballot and asked all task group members to return their ballots by May 23.

Drew Berding, Arizona Digital, announced that he would have a VME320 demonstration available for viewing during the break and invited VSO attendees to take a look at it. Drew displayed a picture of his 320 Mbytes/second demonstration showing it running across a 21 slot backplane connected via an extender card to a nine slot backplane. Drew said the transfer ran without any problems. He also announced that a consortium of manufacturers supporting the VME320 backplane technology was being formed and asked interested VSO members to contact him. The consortium goal is to increase the VME320 transfer rate to 528 MB/s with announcement and demo at the January 1998 VSO meeting and RTC Conference in Santa Clara, CA. The consortium now consists of Arizona Digital, Bustronic Corp, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Chrislin Industries. Others are welcome.

Wayne Fischer, FORCE, noted that his company will be announcing a new SPARC based product with 2eVME protocol capability. He will post a short notice on the VME reflector pointing to the press release at the time of announcement.

John Rynearson gave a report on projects in the ANSI canvass ballot process. VITA 4.1, IP Module Pin Assignments has completed ballot solicitation and will go to ballot. VITA 10, Skychannel, is being revised and will be submitted to an ANSI 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. No additional ballots were returned. VITA 6.1 has 2 negative ballots that need to be addressed. VITA 12 does not have any negative ballots and has been submitted to ANSI.

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 which will be published in August. 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.

Tab Kubic, Dawn, asked when approved standards will be provided in electronic form. Ray noted that ANSI/VITA 1-1994, VME64 is currently available in electronic form and that VITA is working to make other specs available in electronic form in the future.

John Rynearson, VITA, has developed a new system to provide monthly ping reports in a more efficient manner and Ray has been providing some members with domain name information from ping requests to see if this information is of value.

Ray asked Dick Somes, previous chair of the VSO, to step forward. Ray presented Dick with a Certificate of Recognition for his duties as 1996 chair of the VSO and thanked him for his efforts. In addition Ray acknowledged Dick's new duties in the PICMG organization and presented him with several items including a copy of Robert's Rules of Order signed by all VSO members to assist him in his new duties.

VITA 6.1, Ballot Review, Lou Francz

Lou Francz, Dialogic, presented his response to the negative ballots cast in the VITA 6.1 ANSI canvass ballot. Lou noted that one negative ballot questioned the method of providing redundant clocking used in VITA 6.1 suggesting a method currently being promoted by the ECTF group in the H.100 standard.

Lou noted that the method stated in VITA 6.1 was based on assumptions that he felt better characterized certain failure modes and that hearing no objection he would reject this negative comment. No objection was received from the floor. The other negative ballot contained requests for clarification and editorial comments which was accepted.

*** BREAK ***

VITA 1.4, Live Insertion for VME64x, Lou Francz

Lou announced that draft 0.2 is available and discussed the need for a method to handle daisy chain lines. Use of a 650 ohm resistor was discussed, but rejected when it was pointed out that resistors in previous and succeeding slots would cause a voltage divider effect. Lou asked members to think about this problem and provide possible solutions.

VME64x 160 Pin Connector Update

Holly Sherfinski, HARTING, discussed the status of the 160 pin connector. Transition connectors should be available by June. HARTING will make an announcement at the July meeting about the availability of their switching connectors (with daisy chain auto jumpering). Holly also annouced that HARTING has a new address and has also changed their name in the US to HARTING, INC. of North America.

Simulation Report

Ulrich Wallenhorst, Harting, presented additional measurement and simulation results from tests that he had done on the 160 pin connector. Presentation will be made available on VITA's web site (http://www.vita.com/) when received from HARTING.

VITA 1.5, SST Protocol, Rick O'Connor

Rick noted that the SST task group teleconference meetings were complete and that Drew Berding had volunteered to be the draft editor. The goal of the group is to complete the draft spec so that a task group review can take place at the July VSO meeting.

P1101.11 Report

Eike Waltz, Rittal, noted that IEEE 1101.10 was now in print and should be obtained from the IEEE office. Several issues are being discussed with P1101.11, but it should go out for ballot soon. Also, Eike noted that a table of references to 1101.1, 10 and 11 will be added to VME64x for clarification.

*** LUNCH ***

After lunch Tony Lavely, Mercury, moved that the VSO meeting be adjourned until Thursday morning. A second was provided by Elwood Parson, AMP. Hearing no objections the VSO meeting was adjourned by chair, Bob Downing.

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 noted that all issues from the previous task group ballot had been reviewed with responses provided in the VITA 1.1, VME64x Task Group Ballot review document. See attached document. Wayne asked if anyone had specific issues regarding draft 1.7 that would prevent them from voting affirmatively on the next task group ballot. While no specific issues were brought forward, several members indicated to Wayne that they first wanted to review draft 1.7 before commenting. Therefore, Wayne indicated that he would go through the standard page by page asking for issues to be brought up at that time.

The VME64x TGBRC meeting continued until 5:00 PM at which time the task group meeting was adjourned. Wayne stated that he would revise the current draft based on comments received today and start a new task group ballot by mid June. The goal is to complete VITA 1.1 at the July VSO meeting and move it to the ANSI canvass ballot process.

Introductions

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

VITA 5.1, Raceway Extensions

Tony Lavely, Mercury, stated that the task group had formed and would shortly review specific extensions to the Raceway specification.

VITA 10, Skychannel

Richard Jaenicke, Sky Computer, indicated that he had completed the revisions to the document and would be submitting the revised document to VITA for an ANSI recirculation ballot.

VITA 11, Autobahn

John Rynearson noted that Hermann Strass was unable to attend the meeting. He reported for Hermann that based on the results of the task group ballot a recirculation ballot would be required to meet the 75% approval rule for VSO task group ballots.

CXC/Modpacks

John Rynearson reporting for Hermann Strass noted that all negative ballot comments were accepted and thus the ballot would meet the VSO 75/75 rule. Hence CXC/Modpacks will be moved to ANSI canvass ballot.

VITA 17, FPDP

Tony Lavely, Mercury, stated that the group was revising the document and would release a new copy soon.

VITA 18, VME on SEM-E

Bob McKee, MITRE, has taken over this effort. Bob stated that a new pin assignment would be available at the next meeting.

VITA 19, Busnet

Paul Fischer noted that Busnet is currently in task group ballot. Copies of 19.0, 19.1, and 19.2 are available on both VITA's and FORCE's web sites. Paul urged balloters to review the documents and get their ballots in by May 23, 1997.

VITA 20, CCPMC Report

Jing Kwok, DY4, gave a report on CCPMC. The revised draft of the document is complete and will be made available shortly.

VITA 1.3, 9U x 400 mm Format on VME

Bob Downing stated that the drawings in the 9U document had to be recreated due to a problem in transferring them from Word on the Mac to the latest Word on the PC. Bob stated that he planned to have the drawings recreated shortly and would then complete the task group reballot of the document. A sign-up sheet was circulated soliciting balloters for the next task group ballot.

VITA 22, Cellbus - No Report

VITA 23, VMEbus in Physics

Bob Downing noted that the group plans to hold a task group ballot shortly. A sign-up sheet was circulated soliciting balloters for the upcoming task group ballot.

VITA 25, VISION Report

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

VITA 26, Myrinet Report

Jim Waggett, CSPI, gave a brief report on the status of Myrinet. Jim has taken over the task group chair position from Paul Vena who is no longer with CSPI. Jim indicated that a draft was available for comment and ask for suggestions on how best to mount rear modules to the P0 connector. A sign-up sheet was circulated soliciting task group members.

VITA 1.6, Keying for Conduction Cooled VME

Holly Sherfinski, Harting, stated that this effort had received four VITA sponsors, Harting, FORCE, DY4, and Hughes. The draft of the document had been started and stereo lithography of the parts had been provided by AMP. The goal of the group is to finish the first draft and hold a task group ballot by the July meeting. See attachments.

Future Meetings - Structure and Location

Bob Downing suggested that future meetings schedule specific time for task group meetings. The members discussed this suggestion and asked that Bob work with John Rynearson to develop a schedule to accommodate task group meetings and to avoid conflicts with parallel meetings where possible.

The July meeting is scheduled for 16th and the 17th in Vancouver, BC. The September meeting (17,18) and the November meetings (19,20) are scheduled for Phoenix.

The VSO meeting adjourned at 10:50 AM.

Submitted by: John Rynearson, VITA