Introductions, minute approval, general announcements
Ray Aldermen, VSO Chair, opened the meeting at 8:30 AM and ask attendees to introduce themselves. Ray reminded attendees that the purpose of standards was to develop markets. The agenda was then reviewed and several changes were made. The agenda was accepted as amended. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as written.
Ray announced that the November meeting will be at the Airport Hilton due to space constraints at the McCormick Ranch. The dates for general meeting are November 15 and 16. A CEO meeting is planned for Nov. 13 and Nov. 14th is the H.A. VME meeting.
John Rynearson, VITA, announced that ANSI/VITA 1-1994, VME64 is available in PDF (Portable Document Format) for those who want VME64 in an electronic format. Interested individuals were asked to complete the Beta Request form.
Canvass Ballot Report
John Rynearson gave a report on standards that had been approved by ANSI. ANSI/VITA 1-1994, VME64 was approved April 10,1995 and is now available from the VITA office. ANSI/VITA 5-1994 Raceway Interlink and ANSI/VITA 6-1994 SCSA were approved on July 31, 1995, and July 24, 1995 respectively. They are being put into final form for publication and should be available within the next two weeks.
John announced that VITA 10-1995, Skychannel was currently in canvass ballot and asked those on the balloting committee to submit their ballots before November 13, 1995. VITA 3-1994, BLLI is in recirculation ballot which closes on September 21. Those who voted negatively on the first round were urged to review the revised document and change their ballot to affirmative if they no longer had objections.
Ray Alderman recognized Lou Francz, SCSA Task Group Chair, with a briefcase for his efforts in chairing the SCSA document. Bruce Wallace, Dick DeBock, Paul Vena, Frank Hom and Kim Clohessey received plaques for their efforts.
Ray Alderman recognized Bob Blau, Raceway Interlink Task Group Chair, with a briefcase for his efforts in chairing the Raceway. Ray Alderman, John Rynearson, Dick Somes, Mike Munroe, Dave Horton, Mike Hassenfraz and Bob McKee received plaques.
Ray Alderman advised that to maintain the document in future, the chair should save a disc copy in a safe place for revisions or updates.
Ray Advise that ANSI will audit VITA documents in first quarter '96 to determine if we are in accordance with ANSI procedures.
Connector Status Report, Mike Munroe, ERNI
Teradyne has lowered their proposal to $75K onetime charge plus royalty of 3% and 7% with a minimum of $10K/yr. royalty plus the AMP $10K plus 1%. A copy of the Teradyne proposal will be in the minutes. Alternate connector designs by EPT, Berg, AMP and ERNI will be presented later in the day at an ad hoc meeting of the connector committee to be chaired by Wayne Fischer, Force. Dave Robak of Harting has had discussions with Teradyne and will move forward with the present design if no alternate proposal is accepted.
John Rynearson noted Wade Peterson has provided invaluable support in evaluating and understanding the connector patents and thanked him for his support of this issue.
VME 64 Extensions report - Wayne Fischer, Force
Wayne reported there has been NO changes since the last meeting. Pinouts will remain the same unless the connector changes. Labeling recommendation will be added. Bruce Wallace, Nortel, feels more space is needed then the proposed 10mm space. Note. The label is a recommendation and not a RULE. 3 pins are allocated for 5V pins as VPC. Currently these pins are restricted to 250 mA to prevent sparking during insertion/extraction. A proposal was made to allow more current to these pins after load is established. This allows for more +5V power to the board. With new micro switch there is no problem to incorporate this design change. Lou Francz made a proposal for LI/I and LI/O pins to be defined. Wayne will update the Extensions draft for next meeting. As soon as the 2eMBLT section is completed, VME64 extensions will go out for ballot.
FMDC/VME Report - Wayne Fischer
A special meeting was held to discuss issues on Tuesday, 9/19. General consensus is that 1149.5 is preferred for the universal communications channel (UCC). Discussion is still open however, and alternatives will be presented at the next meeting. Draft will be updated before the next meeting. A formal report will be placed in the minutes.
2eMBLT - Bob Downing, VIPA/U of Ill.
A meeting will be held on Thursday at 2PM to discuss outstanding issues. Protocol and error detection are two issues still open.
9U - Bob Downing
This document was put on hold pending the outcome of the connector issue.
VIPA Report - Bob Downing
VIPA stands for VMEbus International Physics Association. Its goal has been to develop a set of recommended practices for the use of VMEbus in physics applications. VIPA document (Implementation Recommendations & Engineering Guidelines) will be made available to the VITA office when it is completed. It is a large document outlining many implementation issues.
P1101.10 - Wayne Fischer for Eike Waltz, Rittal
This is an IEEE standards document which include all the new mechanical specifications important to VMEbus. There are some minor differences in the European DIN standards and the proposed USA IEEE standards. IEEE balloting body has been formed.
Mike Thompson, Schroff, gave a report on the European issues. IEC has issue with P1101.10 in DIN K 662. They feel that P1101.10 is VME focused and not a universal standard for all non VMEbus mechanicals. DIN will present their own spec to IEC versus P1101.10. Issues concern front panel shielding, mounting of the PMC connector, keying and guidepins. Mike expects all issues to be resolved in the next month.
Bruce Wallace of Nortel submitted a patent, #4,631,641 for the VSO minutes related to chassis/front panel shielding.
SCSA Extensions - Lou Francz, Dialogics
Lou presented his proposal for the development of extensions to the SCSA specification. See attached presentation. Lou asked for volunteers to support this effort. John Rynearson advised that a reflector could be setup for this effort.
Bruce Wallace made a motion to adjourn the meeting until tomorrow morning with a second by Mike Munroe. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned.
Thursday - September 21, 1995
Introductions/General Announcements
Ray Alderman opened the meeting at 8:30 AM. The agenda was reviewed, modified, and accepted.
John Rynearson advised that the BLLI recirculation ballot closed as of today and asked that anyone who hasn't voted please do so.
Connector Status Review - Mike Munroe
Mike presented the results of the ad hoc connector meeting held yesterday after the VSO meeting had adjourned. The ad hoc task group voted overwhelmingly to stay with the presently defined 160 pin connector. It is full speed ahead with the connector Harting has prototyped and is about ready for full production. Mike thanked all the connector companies who presented alternative proposals for their efforts. The group requested that Ray Alderman contact, Ed Walsh, Teradyne patent attorney, re: clarification of certain terms of the proposed licenses, and to investigate the possibility of VITA holding the license rather than each connector company.
Mike asked that the connector manufacturers meet today to review the EIA specification.
Jim Koser, BERG, advised there is a 70 pin for P0/J0 connector in the specification. Do we keep it in the EIA spec? It was accepted there is a need for the 70 pin.
The EIA specification MUST specify that there is a patent issue as stated below.
"Note: The user's attention is called to the possibility that compliance with this standard may require use of one or more inventions covered by patent rights.
By publication of this standard, no position is taken with respect to the validity of such claims or of any patent rights in connection therewith. The patent holders have, however, filed a statement of willingness to grant a license under these rights on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions to applicants desiring to obtain such a license for use of this standard. Details may be obtained from the publisher."
VITA 4-199x, IP Module - Jerry Gipper, Motorola
Jerry stated that Version 1.0 had been completed and indicated that he would provide the VITA office with the latest draft shortly. A formal task group ballot take place soon.
VITA 7-199x, QuickRing, - Paul Vena, CSPI
Paul indicated that the specification has not changed since May. He noted that production boards using QuickRing are being shipped to customers. The latest chip from National will be available in December. The document will be ready for ballot early '96.
VITA 10-199x, SkyChannel - Richard Jaenicke, Sky Computer
SkyChannel is in the middle of a 90 day canvass ballot. The ballot will close November 13, 1995. 14 people are on the ballot list. Six ballots have been returned so far. Sustained speeds of 300Mb/s have been achieved.
VITA 11-199x, Autobahn - Ray Alderman
Herman Strass is taking over the specification. 200 Mb/s may require a new layout. 50 & 100 appear to be working fine with good yields.
VITA 12-199x, M-Modules - John Rynearson
Nothing new to report. Comments from previous task group ballot are being added to draft document. Another task group ballot will begin when revisions are finished. A number of European manufacturers are discussing the need for a new mezzanine standard based on PCI for industrial use.
VITA 13-199x, HIC - John Rynearson for Colin Whitby-Strevens, SGS Thomson
The protocol is being standardized as IEEE. P1355. Effort in the VSO is to standardize pinout for VMEbus. Last task group ballot. was successful. The Task Group ballot has closed with the following result: Positive: 8, Positive with comments: 2, Abstain: 1, Negative: 0, No response: 3, Total members: 14. All the comments are accepted. They are
1) Refer to the new ANSI/VITA VME64 Specification
2) Ensure that electrical integrity is preserved using the pinouts - a remark has been inserted drawing attention to the recommendations in IEEE 1355 for achieving this
3) Provide initialization example - An example has been included, using one of the configuration topologies already in the draft.
Colin asked that draft be moved to Canvass Ballot. Hearing no objections, VITA 13-199x, HIC was approved and moved to Canvass Ballot.
VITA 14-199x, CXC & Modpacks - Ray Alderman
This mezzanine is also being handled by Herman Strass. A new draft should soon be available from the VITA office.
VITA 16-199x, MVIP - Bob Grochmal, Xircom
Bob gave a short presentation on MVIP's goals and objectives. See attachments. MVIP is an existing industry standard that is being brought to the VSO for formal standardization. It is a protocol used in the telephony call processing industry. The existing specification has been put into draft form and submitted to VITA. The first task group ballot will be held within the next several weeks.
VITA 17-199x, FPDP - Jonathan Jones, ICS
Jonathan presented a report on the FPDP effort. Front Panel Data Port is an existing industry method of using front panel interconnects to provide high speed data transfer. The next draft of the specification should be available by November 1, 1995. Jonathan indicated that he would like to hold a task group ballot before the end of the year. Issues being addressed include: setup and hold times, clock skew, signal naming convention, maximum frame size, allowing interface to either transmit or receive under program control. See attached presentation.
VME on SEM-E - Mary Mosier, NAWC
A second draft 0.3 has been prepared and sent out to those interested. Mary presented draft 0.3. See draft in minutes of meeting. Comments from MITRE on draft 0.2 were presented. Recommendation from the floor was that pin layout be reevaluated to provide better mix between ground and signal pins.
Profibus Study Group Update - Ray Alderman
Ray indicated that the user group in Europe and USA is growing. PTO (Profibus Trade Organization) is a member of VITA and will decide if we (VITA) take document to ANSI for USA standard. ANSI board is reviewing the issues under DIN 19249. Legally VITA is on sound ground.
PMC update- Wayne Fischer
PMC is being standardized under the IEEE. Wayne indicated that there has been no change in document. There are several additional companies who have announced they will build the connector. AMP and Elco will tool. PMC compatible products update is in VITA office and will be put on the VITA web page.
WWW (World Wide Web) Update - Ray Alderman
Ray gave an overview on how the VITA www can link to member home page for interest in the product list. VITA needs member URL code to be able to hot link. The question on how to update the directory was raised. John Rynearson indicated that product updates can now be done on-line using forms input.
SPCI Form Factor Update - Jim Koser, BERG
Jim gave a brief report on the status of SPCI. See attached. Jim advised that Joe DiMartino of IBM is chair of the work group. Joe can be reached at (919)543-9795. Draft 1.5 of the SPCI standard is in the PCI office for publication and SIG circulation. Joe's E-mail address is Joe_dimartino@vnet.ibm.com
Meeting Wrapup/Future Meetings/Presentations
Next meeting is at the Phoenix Hilton Airport Nov. 15 & 16. H.A.VME is Tuesday the 14th. There will be a CEO meeting on Nov. 13th. Make your room reservations asap.
January VITA meeting is in Reno, Nevada on the 17th & 18th. There will be a Future bus meeting in the same hotel on the 15th and 16th.
Tentative places for future meetings were discussed. Suggestions are listed below.
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1996
March (Orlando/New Orleans/St.Petersburg,FL)
May - Phoenix
July - (Jackson Hole/Williamsburg, Virginia)
September - Phoenix (Ottowa/Portland N.H)
November - Phoenix
1997
January - Salt Lake City
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1131 Presentation, Bob Lyons, Transys
Bob gave a overview of the 1131 programming standard.
DIN 19249 (Profibus) Overview, Bernard Junger, ProfiTec
Bernard gave an overview of Profibus.
There being no further business, the meeting was formally adjourned.
Submitted by Jim Koser, BERG.
Edited by John Rynearson, VITA