Draft 0.2

Wednesday

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. Several changes were made to accommodate speakers who would not be available at their appointed time.

Call for Patent Disclosure

Dick Somes read the VSO Patent Disclosure Policy and asked for the disclosure of any patents. John Rynearson, VITA, presented a patent notification that he had received via the VITA reflector. The patent in question is No. 5,388,231 and apparently deals with a method of increasing the data transfer rates on a VMEbus backplane by transferring data on both edges of a strobe. John accepted an action item to get a copy of the patent and report to the group. The patent was filed in 1989 and issued in 1995. No other patents were disclosed.

VITA Congress Announcement, John Rynearson, VITA

John reminded attendees of this years VITA Congress scheduled for October 7-9 in Brussels. The technical program chaired by Chris Parkman, CERN, is almost complete and will cover a wide range of topics of interest to VMEbus manufacturers and users. Those interested in getting more details should contact the VITA office in the US or Lyndsey Carter with GGH Marketing in the UK, +44-1329 846166, (lyndseyc@gghnet.demon.co.uk)

General Announcements.

Paul Fischer, FORCE, noted that a BusNet task group meeting would be convened immediately in the Saguaro 2 room upstairs and asked all those interested to attend.

The following task groups announced meetings apart from the main VSO meeting: VITA 10 -- Skychannel, VITA 1.x -- 9U x 400 mm VME64 Format, and VITA 20 -- CCPMC.

Canvass Ballot Review, John Rynearson, VITA

John noted that two standards VITA 4, IP Modules, and VITA 13, HIC, have been recognized by ANSI as official standards. John congratulated Jerry Gipper, Motorola, and Kim Rubin, GreenSpring Computers, for their excellent work on VITA 4, IP Modules, and Colin Whitby-Strevens, SGS-Thomson, for his excellent work on VITA 13, HIC. Both standards are available from the VITA office. Recognition of these achievements are being planned for the November meeting.

John noted that VITA 10, Skychannel, is in negative ballot review. Richard Jaenicke planned to meet with available task group members off-line to go over negative ballot comments.

John stated that VITA 12, M-Modules was in pre-canvass ballot solicitation. Because a majority of the balloters were manufacturers the ballot was being delayed until more non manufacturers could be solicited. John indicated that the ballot should begin within four weeks.

Executive Director Report, Ray Alderman, VITA

Ray noted that an agreement has been reached with the IEEE regarding copyright issues on the VMEbus specification. See attached letter for specific details.

Ray stated the VITA has joined JTC1/SC26 committee with John Rynearson as the primary member and Dick Somes and the alternative member. JTC1/SC26 plays an important role in coordination of standards with various European groups.

Ray brought members attention to the current issue of Electronic Design magazine and its special VMEbus section.

Ray remarked that the business climate for VME remained favorable and that the total market for just boards in 1995 was probably over 1 billion dollars.

Ray noted that the Real Time Group was sponsoring a exhibit and technical session to take place in Santa Clara in January and that the VSO had the option of having its meetings on Monday and Tuesday of that week at the same location.

Ray stated the one of the agreements with the IEEE was that the IEEE would reaffirm IEEE 1014-1987. After discussion it was determined that the reaffirmation should be supported as is without recommending any changes -- even minor typographical ones. Ray noted that Chris Parkman, CERN, is chairing the IEC committee to update and harmonize IEC 821 with CENELEC and that eventually this effort will address the VME64 specification.

*** BREAK ***

VME2000 LLC Administrative Report, Ray Adlerman

Ray explained that the VME2000 LLC was a limited liability corporation whose purpose was to carry out a simulation of the VME64x backplane to insure reliable operation. The group is composed of 17 companies. Robert Cutler, AMP, has been contracted to carry out the simulation. Membership in the LLC is $3000 and membership is still open. Admittance of new members requires majority approval of current members. Contact Ray Alderman at VITA, 602-951-8866, (exec@vita.com), if you are interested in VME2000 LLC membership.

VME2000 LLC Technical Report, Wayne Fischer

Wayne noted that the simulation has identified signal edge rise times as an important contributor to overall system noise. Wayne stated that the LLC is still discussing how to deal with this issue and that he would report to the group on Thursday what the LLC had decided.

David Wright, Hybricon, asked to be granted voting privileges for the current meeting. David is a new employee with Hybricon, but has been involved with VME and Futurebus issues for a long time. After discussion in which several members spoke in favor of granting voting privileges to David, and hearing no objection David was granted voting rights for this meeting.

VSO Policies and Procedures Discussion, John Rynearson

At the previous VSO meeting an issue was raised regarding alternative standards paths. While researching this issue several other issues with VSO P&P became apparent and were presented to members.

The first issue was the lack of an explicit method to change the VSO P&P. Robert's Rules of Order states that a 2/3 majority is a common requirement for an assembly to change its bylaws. While all members agreed that a 2/3 majority was appropriate much discussion ensued regarding voting requirements. Some members felt that P&P should be voted on at a regularly scheduled meeting using the attendance requirement of 2 meetings out of the previous 4 while others felt that previous attendance to vote on procedural issues should not be a requirement. After discussion the following motion was introduced, seconded, and passed all-in-favor.

Resolved to have John Rynearson construct language for a method to change the VSO P&P. This method will be submitted for review at the next VSO meeting.

The next issue brought up for discussion involved the relationship between the task group and the main VSO body. The question discussed was "Does the main VSO body have the ability or right to impose binding direction on a task group?" If yes, then Dick Somes felt that language was required in the P&P stating how this binding direction was given and the consequences if such direction was not followed. John Rynearson presented an alternative view that some activities (e.g., VME64x) were of interest to everyone in the main VSO body and that when discussions were held on these activities the task group was essentially a "committee of the whole". John pointed out that this interpretation did not require a set of rules regarding the relationship of the VSO main body to task groups. John noted that task groups of limited interest to the main body of the VSO could always ask for guidance from the main body. Guidance could be considered binding or not. John reminded attendees that the task group ballot, open to anyone in the VSO, was the method used to reach consensus on the development of a standard. More discussion ensued. Another method proposed to resolve this issue, was to consider task group discussions within the main VSO body to be actual task group meetings. In other words, the main VSO meeting would be adjourned and the task group meeting would then be convened. When task group business was completed, the task group meeting would be adjourned and the main VSO body would be reconvened. This process would also eliminate the need for rules regarding VSO main body votes binding task groups. Dick Somes stated that he considered the consensus of the group to be that the main body did not desire language in the P&P binding task group direction by main body VSO action. John Rynearson noted that certain clarifications in the VSO P&P were required and that he and Dick would address these areas in the next update of the P&P.

The group also discussed task group ballot lists. Wayne Fischer noted that he was using the attendees list for VSO meetings as ballot and notification lists for the VME64x specification. Certain members who had not attended all meetings were not receiving new drafts and ballots for VME64x when they assumed they would. Wayne stated that he had a lot of trouble with non returned ballots. After more discussion it was decided to reconstitute the VME64x task group ballot list and to add an observer status to the task group list. Observers would receive all information except they were not required or expected to ballot.

*** LUNCH BREAK ***

VME64x Report, Wayne Fischer, FORCE

Wayne Fischer has put a copy of the draft for VME64x on FORCE's web site in PDF format and recommends PDF as a method for the inexpensive distribution of draft standards. Joe Bedard, HP, noted that there are some problems with different revisions of Adobe Acrobat Readers.

Wayne moved that the main VSO meeting be adjourned and that a VME64x Task Group meeting be convened. The motion was seconded and hearing no objection, Dick Somes declared the main VSO meeting to be temporarily adjourned. The VME64x Task Group was called to order by chair Wayne Fisher.

Wayne Fischer requested voting rights for Mike Hasenfratz, Micro Memory. After discussion and hearing no objection, Mike was extended voting rights for this meeting.

Wayne noted that bolding and capitalizing SHALL in rules seemed like overkill and caused draft standards to be hard to read. Therefore he asked for the group's approval to leave shall nonbolded and not capitalized. No objection was heard.

Wayne noted that Rule 2.21 currently specified a value of 100 ma and recommended that the value be changed to <= 1 ma. David Wright noted that lower values were being required by some European health organizations and suggested the group consider a lower value. After further discussion, the group decided to set the rule value at <= 1 ma and to follow that with a recommendation of <= 100 ua if possible.

Another request was to redraw Figure 6-1. No objection was noted.

Wayne raised the issue of whether or not ETL and 2eVME should be left in or removed from the VME64x draft standard. Much discussion followed. Some members felt that it was important to complete the draft standard as soon as possible and leaving 2eVME out would speed that process. Other members felt that the document must include a faster protocol and that leaving 2eVME out would cause the development of 2eVME to drag on. Paul Vena, CSPI, asked why it was important to keep 2eVME and ETL in the VME64x draft standard. Tad Kubic, Dawn, stated that his customers didn't feel comfortable adopting technology that was not standardized. Jerry Gipper, Motorola, noted that many companies produced and sold VME64 capable boards several years before the VME64 standard was approved.

Joe Bedard moved to take 2eVME and ETL out of the next draft of VME64x. His motion received a second. Additional discussion followed. Several members voiced their concern that for VME to remain viable, 2eVME was required. A motion to end discussion was received and seconded. Hearing no objection the motion on the floor was voted upon with the following results: 5 FOR, 15 AGAINST. Therefore the motion to remove 2eVME and ETL was defeated.

*** BREAK ***

Jing Kwok, DY4, asked to speak regarding the issue of keying on conduction cooled boards. He noted that he and several other members would negative ballot the next VME64x task group ballot unless a satisfactory interoperable method of keying could be found. Jing noted that using keying through the P0/J0 connector reduced the pin count to 80 and would make convection cooled boards and conduction cooled boards incompatible. He stated that conduction cooled applications also required as many I/O pins as possible and asked for help in finding another solution to this problem. Mike Munroe, ERNI, who was not at the meeting had provided some plastic keying parts that were currently used with 96 pin DIN connectors. However, most felt that this method was not possible because of the spacing required for the new 5 row 160 pin connector. Dave Robak, Harting, stated that a method of keying using a machined metal part on the side of the connector might be possible. He noted that it would prevent the card from being fully seated, but might not prevent pins from mating. The following members volunteered to work together on a "tiger team" to come up with a conduction cooled keying method. This group will report back to the group at the November meeting. Tiger Team members include: Joe Bedard, HP, Dave Robak, Harting, Elwood Parsons, AMP, and Roger Hinsdale, IBM.

Martin Blake, VERO, spoke regarding a backplane dimension problem with the new J0/P0 connector. See attachment for the issue and Martin's proposal. Martin noted that he is not asking for a vote today, but simply providing information for members to consider.

Wayne noted that updates to the CR/CSR chapter are still pending.

Bob Downing stated that the 2eVME protocols have been reviewed and that only one issue surfaced that requires resolution.

A motion was made to move VME64x to task group ballot. The motion was seconded and voted all-in-favor with none opposed. Wayne agreed to reconstitute the task group ballot list. A sign-up list was sent around and the task group ballot will be announced over the vita reflector. All vso members may ask to be on the task group ballot. Wayne stated that he plans on mailing the ballot by Monday, September 23. The 30 day ballot will be due Friday, October 25.

Wayne adjourned the VME64x task group meeting. Dick Somes reopened the VSO meeting.

Dave Robak, Harting, gave a status report on the 160 pin connector. See attachments for complete details. The IEC proposal to add this connector to the DIN spec will be discussed next week.

VITA 4.1 Report, Wayne Fischer

Wayne explained at the last VSO meeting that Ray Alderman has requested a statement from PICMG giving indemnification to VITA regarding references specifying certain user pins in the Compact PCI (cPCI) specification. Wayne noted that the PICMG board did not feel it could provide such indemnification, but instead would set up a registry for user pin assignments. As a result Wayne stated that he would remove all references to a cPCI pin assignment in VITA 4.1 and would work with the negative balloters to resolve any remaining issues.

VIPA Report, Bob Downing, UIUC

Bob explained that VIPA stands for VMEbus International Physics Association and that its goal is to provide commonality of use for VMEbus in physics applications. VIPA is made up of representatives from various physics labs around the world including Fermi, CERN, SLAC, Brookhaven, and KEK. The group has developed a recommended practices guide for VMEbus in Physics. The draft standard is available from the following web site: http://www-vipa.fnal.gov/vipa/doc2.htm.

VITAL Update, Brad Shaw, McDonnell Douglas

VITAL is a DARPA technology reinvestment project and is concerned with improving performance and reducing life cycle costs in airborne vehicles. One method of reducing life cycle costs is to use off-the-shelf technology. The VMEbus is viewed as a major component of the VITAL effort. For more information, see the attached presentation.

VITA 6.1, SCSA Extensions, Lou Francz, Dialogic

Lou reported the task group ballot results. Out of 18 ballots sent out, 14 (78%) were returned achieving the 75% requirement. Out of the 14 returned ballots, 13 were affirmative and 1 was negative, thus meeting the 75% or greater affirmative requirement. Lou thanks those in the task group for their participation and asked that VITA begin the canvass ballot process for SCSA Extensions.

VITA 22, CellBus on VME, Lou Francz, Dialogic, for Dan Upp, TranSwitch

Lou stated that Dan was unable to attend the meeting but was planning on being at the November meeting. Lou reviewed the goals of VITA 22 and suggested that interested individuals contact Dan for additional information.

VITA 21, V-Net

No report was given.

The meeting was adjourned for the day.

Draft 0.2

Thursday

Opening and Introductions

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

General Announcements

Wayne Fischer said that he had been asked by Warren Andrews to help with the technical program for the RTC conference being planned for the third week in January 1997. Wayne asked members who would like to participate to contact him.

The group then discussed future meeting locations. The next meeting will be held in San Diego at the Doubletree Carmel Highland Resort on November 13 and 14. The January 1997 meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, January 13 and 14. The bulk of the meeting is planned for Tuesday with Monday afternoon available as overflow time. The meeting will take place in Santa Clara in conjunction with the RTC conference.

The March meeting is planned for either the Orlando or St. Petersburg area. The May meeting will be held in Phoenix. The July meeting will be held in the north. Suggestions included Ottawa, New Hampshire, Minneapolis, and Vancouver.

VME2000 LLC Simulation Report, Wayne Fischer, FORCE

Wayne stated that the LLC met before the VSO meeting and discussed the next steps for the simulation. One of the goals for 2eVME is to achieve incident wave switching. Therefore, Robert Cutler has been ask to design a circuit that will be placed between ETL drivers and the backplane to ensure incident switching in all cases especially for strobes. This circuit will slow the signal edge insuring incident wave switching and will also reduce overall noise in the system.

VITA 11, Autobahn and VITA 14, CXC/Modpack

Hermann Strass, Technology Consulting, could not attend the meeting. John Rynearson noted that Hermann was continuing to resolve issues from the previous task group ballots and planned to attend the November meeting.

VITA 17, Front Panel Data Port, Jonathan Jones, ICS

Jon was not able to attend the meeting but will report on FPDP at the November meeting.

VITA 18, VME on SEM-E, Mary Mosier, NSWC

Mary noted that she had received no comments on the alternative pin assignments presented at the July meeting. She solicited comments and stated that a decision would be made by November.

VITA 20, Conduction Cooled PMC, Jing Kwok, DY4

An off-line task group meeting was held and the group submitted draft standard 1.1 for review.

VSO Procedural Discussion, John Rynearson

Continuing the discussion from Wednesday, John stated that at the July meeting the question had arisen regarding alternative standards paths. In other words, could a standard developed within the VSO be taken to another formal standards body such as ISO, IEC, CEN, etc. Additionally, did it make sense to have a standalone VSO or a VITA standard? Discussion ensued. Some members felt that it should be VITA's stated policy that all standards developed within the VSO be taken to ANSI. Other members felt that the door should be left open to other standards organizations. Similarly some members liked the idea of a VSO or VITA only standard while others pointed to problems with trade association or consortia developed standard. No clear consensus developed so no action was proposed.

IEEE P1101.10, P1101.11 Report, Frank Hom, Electronic Solutions

P1101.10 and P1101.11 are standardization efforts taking place under the IEEE. Status reports are provided to the VSO because of member interest. Frank noted that draft 5.1 of P1101.10 is currently in IEEE RevCom. Eike Waltz, Rittal, and chair of P1101.10, has received a letter from DASA stating their willingness to license certain technology referenced in IEEE P1101.10 for a reasonable and non-discriminatory fee.

Frank noted that P1101.11 draft 1.0 is available for review and asked individuals interested in being on the working group to contact him.

VITA 1.x, VME64 9U x 400 mm Format, Bob Downing

Bob reported on the completed task group ballot. Out of 24 ballots total, 18 were affirmative, 1 was negative, and 5 were not returned. The negative ballot concerned connector numbering. Paul Vena, CSPI suggested that separate numbers be used to distinguish DIN connectors from hard metric connector options. This suggestion was accepted and will be included in the next draft standard. Bob also noted that he had added an annotation to each rule, recommendation, etc. to improve readability. As a result of these changes, the 9U draft standard will be reballoted.

IEEE 1101.2 Report, Kim Clohessy, representing DY4

Kim noted that IEEE 1101.2 was up for reaffirmation within the IEEE and asked whether those present felt it should be reaffirmed or revised. IEEE 1101.2 is the conduction cooled standard for DIN style modules. Those interested in this effort should contact Kim Clohessy (kim_clohessy@oti.com).

High Availability VME Meeting, Lou Francz, Dialogic

Lou asked that the VSO meeting be temporally adjourned so that the H.A. VME meeting could be convened. Dick Somes hearing no objection adjourned the VSO meeting and Lou Francz called the H.A. Meeting to order.

Lou reviewed the of goals of H.A. VME. The goal is to provide an architecture that will allow system integrators to construct systems to whatever level of availability required for a specific application. For example, Lou noted that the telecom industry uses the four 9's requirement (i.e., downtime can only be 4 minutes per year, .9999).

One area discussed was the status of the utility communications channel (UCC). The UCC can be used to diagnose and potentially correct faults on the parallel VMEbus. A straw vote designated 1149.5 as the protocol for the UCC at a previous meeting. However, one of the provisions for acceptance of 1149.5 was the general availability of silicon. Bob McKee noted that Silicon Devices has decommitted from making an 1149.5 compliant device. Therefore, the use of 1149.5 for the UCC will be reconsidered. Other candidates are: USB, CAN, and Access Bus. Bob requested that terminology used by H.A. VME be consistent with ANSI/VITA 3-1995, BLLI. Doug Endo, Hughes, expressed concern that members keep in mind software requirements for H.A. VME. The group discussed the possibility of an inexpensive bus monitor card that would plug into the back of a VMEbus system and provide fault detection.

Lou asked that another H.A. VME meeting be held in November. Lou adjourned the H.A. VME meeting.

*** LUNCH ***

Dick Somes reconvened the VSO meeting.

VITA 19, BusNet, Paul Fischer, FORCE

Paul stated that the BusNet task group had met for the last two days. A number of house keeping issues were resolved. The group decided to break the effort into multiple draft standands: 19.0 summary, 19.1 busnet access (current draft standard), 19.2 logical link control. The task group plans to have a final draft available by January 1997. A breakout room will be required for the November meeting.

Study Group, VISION, Jim Pangburn, Fermi

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. Jim noted that LeCroy has expressed interest in sponsoring this effort. Therefore one more sponsor is required for task group status. Any VITA member that is interested in this effort should contact Jim Pangburn, Fermi, at pangburn@fnal.fnal.gov.

Action Items

John Rynearson and Dick Somes will put together a method for revising the VSO P&P and submit it to November attendees with 30 days notice for discussion at the November meeting. Task group ballots for VME64x and 9U VME64 will take place. There will be an VME2000 LLC meeting before the November VSO meeting. Wayne Fischer asked that the issue of non responding balloters be reviewed for discussion at the next meeting.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes submitted by John Rynearson