Draft 0.1

Opening and Introductions

Dick Somes, DEC, called the meeting to order and asked members to introduce themselves. After introductions the minutes from the previous meeting were reviewed. There being no changes a motion was made, seconded, and passed all in favor to accept the minutes as written.

Agenda Review

The agenda was reviewed. One change was made to add Jim Pangburn, Fermi, to discuss software standards on Thursday at 1:30 PM. The agenda was accepted as amended.

Call for Patent Disclosure

Dick Somes read the VSO Patent Disclosure Policy and asked for the disclosure of any patents. No patents were presented. Mike Munroe, ERNI, asked if previously disclosed patents needed to be reviewed again. Dick Somes stated that one disclosure was sufficient.

General Announcements.

Rick O'Connor, Tundra, announced that DY4 and Tundra Semiconductor would sponsor an evening on the town in honor of the VSO's visit to Ottawa. Flyers were made available in the back of the room.

Canvass Ballot Review, John Rynearson, VITA

John noted that two standards VITA 4, IP Modules, and VITA 13, HIC, have gone through the ANSI canvass ballot process and have been submitted to ANSI for process review. Normally, ANSI will respond within 4-6 weeks after submittal. John stated that he expected to hear from ANSI within the next several weeks.

VITA 12, M-Modules, has completed the first phase of pre-ballot solicitation. Only 8 balloters are currently on the list. More will be solicited in order to provide balance between users and manufacturers.

VITA 10, Skychannel is in negative ballot review. Richard Jaenicke, Sky, stated that he hoped to have the review completed shortly so that a recirculation ballot could begin if required. John noted that he had asked and been granted from ANSI an extension through the end of 1996 for this proposed standard. A recirculation ballot is required if significant changes are made to the specification as a result of the negative ballot review.

Executive Director Report, Ray Alderman, VITA

Ray noted that ANSI had recently completed an audit of the VITA standards development process and asked John Rynearson to report on the results. John stated that the audit had gone well and that ANSI had questioned only four minor issues. In all, the ANSI auditor, Jay Moskowitz, was very please with the audit and commended the VITA staff and the members of the VSO for their positive spirit in the development and promotion of standards.

Ray noted that VITA continues to develop its web site to provide value to the members and noted the distinction between commercial and non commercial parts of VITA's web site.

VME2000, LLC - Corporate Activity Report, Ray Alderman

VME2000 has been set up as a limited liability corporation, LLC. Ray is the manager. Membership in the LLC is $3000 and the singular goal of the activity is to carry out a backplane simulation of the VMEbus to ensure the success of the VME64x efforts . The group is still accepting members.

VME2000 Preliminary Simulation Report, Wayne Fischer, FORCE

Phase I of the simulation has been completed. At this time the report is for VME2000 members only. The results of the final report will be folded into the VME64x document. Joe Bedard, HP, asked whether or not the group should take 2eVME out of VME64x document to allow more time for analysis. Dennis Terry, Heurikon, asked for agreement that the VSO membership decouple 2eVME from VME64x if all 2eVME protocol and electrical issues are not resolved by the September VSO meeting. The VME2000 LLC group scheduled a breakfast meeting for Thursday, July 25, at 7:30 - 9:00 AM to further discuss the preliminary report.

ETL Update, Wayne Fischer

Wayne stated that he will wait for the VME64x task group ballot and will do the ballot on ETL at that time.

VME64x Report, Wayne Fischer

Wayne distributed a new draft and passed out an edit proposal to the 1.2 draft. Wayne discussed changing the name to VME64x. No objections were heard. Wayne discussed front and rear board orientation and connector pin labeling. See figure 8-1. The goal is to keep pin labeling the same. Members asked that the view be specified and noted that labeling doesn't match how the connector is labeled. Roger Hinsdale, IBM, voiced concern regarding whether rework staff would understand the labeling. Discussion continued regarding in-line layout. Rear boards must be mirror images of front boards. Wayne presented 1.2 edit changes to Chap 3. Added VME64x backplane end dimensions. Mike Thompson, Schroff, noted that we can't mix existing and new backplanes. These changes will be incorporated into 1.3. Paul Fischer, FORCE, updated the CR/CSR section. More edits will be accepted. Good comments have been received from Dick DeBock and Ed Barsoti. Wayne plans another draft iteration by September meeting. A task group ballot will be held after September for November review. John Rynearson will look at how to form the ANSI ballot group as quickly as possible, perhaps in parallel with task group process. Dennis Terry asked if we couldn't do a ballot review in real time over a one or two day period. John Rynearson asked if we don't need an interim ballot before the September meeting. Dick Somes asked that members get issues into Wayne as quickly as possible.

*** BREAK ***

2eVME Protocol Update, Bob Downing, UICC

2eVME protocol was included in draft 1.2 of VME64x. Bob discussed several issues and asked members to carefully review the protocol and provide him with comments. One member asked a question regarding the address phase. Bob notes that the protocol is trying to provide information for H.A. VME. Geographical addresses comes from the source. Chau asked for a plan on timing diagrams.

IP I/O Mapping (VITA 4.1-199x), Wayne Fischer

Wayne discussed the need for standardized pin assignment for I/O out the rear on both VME64x and CompactPCI. A task group has been formed to develop this standard. Supporters are Motorola, FORCE, and Greensprings. A preliminary draft was distributed. The technical expert is Kim Rubin, Greensprings. One task group ballot has been held. Only one ballot was received. Wayne will go out for another task group ballot. Ray raises concern regarding mixing of CompactPCI and VME64x in the same standard. Shouldn't the CompactPCI pin assignment standard goes to PICMG? Wayne argued that it makes logical sense to include this into VITA 4.1. Dick Somes asked how BASC feels about CompactPCI pin assignment being added to P1386. Joe George said that he isn't concerned about it. More discussion followed. Wayne noted the different between specifications and standards. Eike Waltz noted that standards organizations are more willing to accept and build on consortia developed standards. Harry Andreas, Hughes, suggested that we separate standard based and non standards based information in the document. Ray noted that only PICMG owns the pins on the CompactPCI specification and that we cannot define the use of these pins. Dick Somes suggested we look at it in the opposite light. Compliance to VITA 4.1 requires acceptance of the pin assignment. Rays stated that PICMG must provide indemnification to VITA for standardizing these pins. Wayne noted that the pins in question are user defined pins and that they belong to the user. Ray claimed that we must receive permission and legal indemnification from PICMG. Wayne said that he and Dick Somes can get such a letter from PICMG. Dick Somes stated that we should asked that they not define some other pin assignment for IP in conflict with VITA 4.1. John Rynearson stated that the issue depends on how PICMG specification defines the user i/o pins. Ray stated that we are a body of manufacturers and that this is different than users. Joe George noted that IEEE uses the process of coordination to alert all of these potential issues. Bob McKee, MITRE, asked if we shouldn't have two standards. Chau Pham, Motorola, suggested that VITA 4.1 only contain pin assignments for VME64x and that PICMG do their own standard. Tim Marchant, Spectrum Signal, asked Wayne why he chose to put them together. Wayne explains that VME64x and CompactPCI have much in common and he wanted to combine efforts.

VME64 Connector Update, Dave Robak, Harting

Dave discussed production availability. Prototypes are no longer available since production is now available. Literature will be available in one week. Rear I/O schedule has been modified. Shroud should be available in 8 weeks or less. Transition connector should be available at the end of October. Backplane connectors are press fit. R/A(right angle) connector is solder technology. It can be wave soldered or reflowed. It is a high temp polymer. There will be a press fit R/A perhaps in mid 1997. Harting is going through qualification testing with Bellcore, IEC 603.2, and specific military specs. Harting is working with 603.2 chair to put this into IEC arena. Jim Koser, BERG, questioned whether or not EIA effort should be discontinued. Minor assembly improvements are being made and will be completed by August. Harting will support simulation. 5x5 multi-line model is available. A non-disclosure agreement is required. Will provide results of simulation within 2 days of request.

Wayne Fischer notes that P0/J0 specified at 250 insertions/extractions. Should this be changed to 400 or 500. Mike Munroe asked how many need class 1 500 cycles. Dave Robak states that DIN and IEC are really the same test even though different numbers are used. Dave Robak will coordinate a discussion through the VITA reflector on this issue and Wayne will put information into next VME64x document.

P1101.10 and P1101.11 Report, Eike Waltz, Rittal

IEEE 1101.1 has been reaffirmed until 2000. A PAR has been opened for editorial corrections. Editorial changes can be made any time within the next four years.

IEEE Draft P1101.10 in process for September IEEE Standards Board approval.

IEEE Draft P1101.11 will have a working group ballot in September. Most issues have been resolved. Eike hopes to complete sponsor ballot by the end of the year.

Eike noted that there are patent issues which he is trying to get resolved.

*** Lunch ***

VIPA Report, Bob Downing, UICC

Bob discussed the development of the VMEbus for Physics Applications document. Currently the document is draft 0.1, 11 July 1996. The goal of the document is to develop standard recommended practices to cover a number of common physic uses of VME. See the following web site - http://www-vipa.fnal.gov for a draft of the document. VIPA will be having a meeting the second week of August to review and hopefully make the document available. VITA will be the caretaker of the document.

There will be a Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Image Processing Conference in November. Bob passed out information. See attachment.

Bob reported on the 9U Format task group ballot. Only one negative was received. Only 48% of the ballots were returned. Bob will try to get more of the ballots turned in. One comment was of concern regarding 2 mm connectors and a Bellcore standard. Bob asked Elwood Parsons to review concerns. These issues will take more study to determine if the problems noted are valid. Elwood noted that older requirements were developed around 10 mm trace usage and may not be valid in today's sub 10 mm trace environment.

VITA 6.1, SCSA Extension Review, Lou Francz, Dialogics

The document and Lou's cover letter were sent out, but the task group ballot was not included. The VITA office will send out a ballot next week for a 30 day task group ballot. Lou will report on the results at the next VSO meeting.

Cellbus™ on VMEbus Presentation, Daniel Upp, TranSwitch

TranSwitch would like to make Cellbus a VME P2 standard. Cellbus is based on ATM technology. Certain technology in Cellbus is patented. TranSwitch will provide a license on a fair and non discriminatory basis. Cellbus is a shared bus with synchronous operation and uses central arbitration. It supports unicast, multicast, and broadcast cell transfers. See attached presentation. Cellbus uses GTL on the backplane. Primary target market is telecom. Power dissipation is a concern. Clock is not GTL. Clock rates up to 25 MHz are achievable. Sign-up interest sheet was sent around. Contact John Rynearson at VITA office, techdir@vita.com, or Daniel Upp at TranSwitch, dan@txc.com, if you are interested in this effort.

Study Group Formation, Harry Andreas, Hughes

Harry presented a proposal for an airflow VME module. Airflow provides up to 2x cooling potential with this technology. Based on Harry's request official study group status was granted. A sign-up interest sheet was sent around. Contact John Rynearson at VITA office (techdir@vita.com) or Harry Andreas, Hughes, handreas@msmail4.hac.com, if you are interested in this effort.

Software Standard for VME, Jim Pangburn, Fermi

Jim is asking to form a task group. Fermi is moving from Fastbus to VME. They are interested in a "plug and play" environment with commercial support. Hardware requirements are met by VME64 and VME64x. Software requirements are still to be met. A software standard would provide users with interoperability and expand market for producers. Jim is proposing work that has been going on at Fermi within the VIPA/VME-P Specification. The name of the spec is VISION. The Fermi implementation is FISION. This effort is not the same as ESSE effort which is more global. VISION specifies an API for software running on a master. VISION is object based and network-enabled. "Components" are used to implement slave access mechanisms. Sign-up interest sheet has been sent around. Contact John Rynearson at VITA office (techdir@vita.com) or Jim Pangburn, Fermi, (pangburn@fnal.fnal.gov), if you are interested in this effort. General discussion of software standards followed. Group suggests that Jim accept study group status and report back to members in September regarding overlap with ESSE.

P1386, P1386.1 Report, Wayne Fischer

Wayne gave an update on PMC. The P1386.2 S-Bus defined form factor is being dropped. Wayne indicates that there is no interest in Futurebus options. Those references are being removed. CompactPCI will be added. Ballot body will be reconstituted. Otherwise mechanics have not been changed. Dennis discussed the function of the PRESENT pin. Some manufacturers are implementing it and some are not.

H.A. VME, Wayne Fischer

This effort is on the back burner until VME64x is completed. Wayne indicated that he will not have time to work on this effort for another 4-5 months. Lou Francz will take over chair and Bob McKee will take vice chair position.

Wayne noted that there is great interest to do hot swap in PCI. He states that we can learn from their effort. Some chips appear to be hot swappable while others are not. Intel will support an effort to develop hot swap PCI cards. Wayne notes that much of the effort is in the software.

QuickRing Report, Dennis Terry

Dennis indicates that he is standing down as chair. No other individual has indicated interest in picking up the chair position. Therefore this study group is disbanded.

The meeting was adjourned until Thursday morning.

Introductions, Dick Somes

Dick Somes called the meeting to order and asked members to introduce themselves.

2eVME Break Out Meeting Report, Bob Downing

The group reviewed specific timing issues regarding 2eVME. The group noted that the two strobe lines are critical in achieving incident wave switching. Two reserved pins could be used as 2eVME only strobe lines instead of trying to use current strobe lines.

VME2000 LLC Breakfast Meeting Report, Wayne Fischer

Wayne reported that as currently configured a VME system will not support incident wave switching for boards in the middle of a system. Two new lines could be used for strobes. These lines do not have legacy issues. VME2000 will go back to Robert Cutler with this scenario for simulation. If ETL doesn't work for these lines, then BTL drivers for these lines only will be investigated. The VME2000 LLC will have a conference call in about two weeks to review the results. The simulation will focus on resolving issues to achieve 20 Megatransfers/second.

Autobahn Report, Hermann Strass, Technology Consulting

A task group ballot has been completed. Twelve ballots were sent out. Six were affirmative, one vote negative, and five abstained. Hermann will respond to the negative ballot.

CXC Modpack Report, Hermann Strass, Technology Consulting

A task group ballot has been completed with eight balloters. Two were negative, five were affirmative, and one abstained. Hermann will respond to the two negative ballots.

MVIP Status, John Rynearson

John noted MVIP was in the midst of a negative ballot review for their last task group ballot. Several issues remained to be resolved before MVIP can be moved out of the task group ballot stage. One issue of major importance is that MVIP has lost one of its sponsors. Natural Microsystems membership in VITA has lapsed. VSO Policies and Procedures require either that a new member be added, that the task group petition the VSO membership to continue with only two sponsors, or that the task group move back to study group status. John will write a letter to Charlie Snell, Xircom, informing Charlie of the remedies.

Busnet Status, John Rynearson for Paul Fischer, FORCE

John Rynearson submitted an email report from Paul Fischer for the minutes. See the following.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An update regarding BusNet for your upcoming VITA meeting in Ottawa, Canada.

A working group mail alias has been established for the purpose of

electronically distributing proposals and discussion associated with

those proposals. Only the working group members are on this alias.

(This is not an automated list-server that one can automatically join,

it is a simple forwarding alias.)

Work is in progress to create a web-based discussion thread/forum for

the working group on the FORCE www server. This effort is in progress

and it is not clear how long until it is ready. I hope before the end

of this year!!

Additional background information regarding BusNet is available on the

FORCE web page. Is it possible to provide a link from the VITA page titled:

http://www.vita.com/vso/std-tabs.html

to the FORCE page titled:

http://www.forcecomputers.com/technology/busnet/busnet.html

If you check the above link you will find the published information that

is available today. As additional information becomes available it will

be added to this page.

Nine proposals have been submitted to the mail alias

(busnet-wg@force.de) and discussion is now beginning. I expect the

working group to be present at the September VITA meeting in Phoenix (?)

so we may discuss these issues directly and vote on these proposals.

Will you be able to accommodate us at the Phoenix meeting?

There are nine working group members. They are:

tbarr@fci.com (Terrence Barr, FORCE Computers)

tbrown@homer.nwscc.sea06.navy.mil (Tim Brown)

donaghey@apollo.hp.com (Bob Donaghey, Hewlett-Packard)

pfischer@force.de (Paul Fischer, FORCE Computers)

franczl@dialogic.com (Lou Francz, Dialogics)

mag@sysgo.de (Marius Groeger, SYSGO)

stku@force.de (Stefan Kuntz, FORCE Computers)

pangburn@b0su01.fnal.gov (Jim Pangburn, Fermi National Acc. Lab)

nps@radstone.co.uk (Nigel P Street, Radstone Technology)

I expect most members to attend the September. Please provide me with

the information I must send to these people for the purpose of

registering, etc. ASAP! I will be on vacation the first three weeks of

August so please also CC "busnet-wg@force.de" so all members of the

working group will receive this important information.

Sincerely,

Paul

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paul Fischer voice: +49/89/608-14-334

FORCE COMPUTERS GmbH fax: +49/89/608-14-276

Prof.-Messerschmitt-Str. 1 e-mail: pafi@force.de

D-85579 Neubiberg/Munich, Germany

http://www.forcecomputers.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Procedural Question Discussion

Wayne Fischer asked what the status of a standard is between the time it is approved within the VSO and when it is recognized by ANSI. Does it maintain its draft status. Is it a VITA standard and if so what does that imply. Wayne asked if the task group must maintain three members through the ANSI process. A general discussion followed. John Rynearson offered to research this issue and recommend a course of action via the VITA reflector. Ray Alderman voiced his concern about requiring general VSO approval beyond the task group. He stated that he felt that this put the task group into double jeopardy. More discussion followed. Dick Somes stated that he felt we should not imply that a standard that has VSO approval is a standard. It should remain a draft. Dick Somes offers to work with John on this issue. Ray will provide input. A straw vote on this issue was taken. The vote was 11 for changing the procedures and 14 against changing procedures.

The group continued to discuss whether or not there should be VSO or VITA only standards. Jing Kwok, DY4, stated that he felt that people did not understand the importance of the addition of the ANSI term to the final standard. More discussion followed. Ray cautioned the group not to raise unnecessary barriers that created more work for the task groups. Dick Somes noted that we require negative ballot comments to contain requirements for turning the ballot positive and that this requirement helps keep the process positive. The current naming standard will be reviewed also.

Front Panel Data Port, Jonathan Jones, ICS

This concept came out of work by Sky and Mercury. ICS further developed the concept that is called Front Panel Data Port. It is a 32 bit parallel data flow synchronous bus. No addressing is done. Original design was point to point. Some manufacturers currently support multidrop capability. Good for applications that need additional bandwidth. Supporters are Mercury, Sky, and ICS. Two drafts have been produced to date. The task group is currently trying to get some timing and loading numbers. Current plans are to have the next draft by October 1996. A number of manufacturers currently support some form of FPDP. Some manufacturers provide FPDP through PMC modules. A VMEbus interface with a FibreChannel to FPDP bridge is being developed by Atlantic Aerospace Corp. An ATM bridge to FPDP is also being worked on. FPDP is an existing industry practice. The task group's goal is to create a formal standard based on the existing industry practice.

VME on SEM-E, Mary Mosier

Mary presented two possible pin assignments for 372 pin and 396 pin connectors. The options in the draft are for the 396 connector. This connector will be worked on first. Mary showed how additional traces can be used to provide ground shielding on the backplane. This is a new pin assignment and does not reflect previous pin assignments. Wayne Fischer advised Mary to have a simulation done to determine potential noise problems. Mary agreed that a simulation was needed. She asked members to provide her with their input.

SPCI Update, Jim Koser

Revision 1 May 1996 has been released by the PCI SIG. It is available from their office.

CCPMC Report, Jing Kwok

The words are done. Drawing remain to be created. Shock and vibration testing is being done. These tests need to be done with the 160 pin connector VME base level board.

Meeting Wrap-up

Action Items

Wayne Fischer and Dick Somes will contact PICMG regarding the specification of CompactPCI user i/o lines in a proposed ANSI/VITA standard.

John Rynearson, Ray Alderman, and Dick Somes will draft a proposal for discussion regarding clarification of the status of a specification after it receives final task group approval and before it receives final ANSI approval. The proposal will also discuss the status of specifications that receive task group approval within the VSO but are never submitted for ANSI recognition.

Wayne Fischer will mail out the next VME64x update before the September meeting.

Ray Alderman noted that the VXI consortium would like to come to the VSO and discuss their efforts in the area of "Plug and Play". Ray will asked them to attend the next meeting.

Discussion Items

SHALL vs. MUST, Wayne Fischer

Wayne feels that we need a consistent style. A discussion followed. Wayne suggests we put the style and tool issue on the agenda for the next meeting.

Keymark, Hermann Strass

The Keymark is a way to mark that your product meets all appropriate European standards. It is being done by CEN and CENELEC. Keymark is optional and not a requirement. The Keymark is for consumers while CE mark is for authorities. Use of Keymark does not eliminate the need for the CE mark.

Hermann noted that this year is the 15th anniversary of VMEbus. He notes that Oct. 16 was the announcement date at Systems 81 in Munich.

Ray Alderman noted that RTC is offering double pages for companies which desire to advertise and document their history in VMEbus. The VITA Journal will also be highlighting the anniversary. Ray also discussed the US and European editors email reflector "wire" service that he is creating for use by VITA members. These services will be available shortly.

Future Meeting Dates

The group discussed future meeting dates. The September meeting will be the 11-12 at the Airport Hilton in Phoenix.

The November meeting will tentatively be held in Del Mar, California on November 13-14. Several hotels are still being considered.

The January meeting is tentatively scheduled for the 15-16 in Salt Lake City. No hotel has yet been selected.

The March meeting is scheduled for either the 19-20 or the 12-13 for Florida. The meeting will most likely be held in either Orlando or St. Petersburg.

There being no more business to conduct Dick Somes adjourned the meeting.

Minutes submitted by Jim Koser, BERG, and John Rynearson, VITA.