VSO Minutes, Phoenix, AZ

September 1997

Wednesday, September 17, 1997

Bob Downing called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM. Bob asked the members to introduce themselves. After introductions the minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and accepted as submitted. The agenda was reviewed and several changes were made to accommodate members schedules.

Bob stated the VSO's policy on early patent disclosure and asked if any member wished to disclose a patent. Drew Berding, Arizona Digital, noted that the patent for VME320 has been granted. Drew noted that the time between the granting of a patent and the issuing of a patent is usually six months.

Holly Sherfinski, HARTING, stated that a patent search on the concepts embodied in VITA 1.6, Keying for Conduction Cooled VME, revealed only one patent that was potentially of concern. However, Holly stated that in the opinion of the task group the concepts in VITA 1.6 were not material to this patent. The patent in question is 5,030,141.

No other patent issues were discussed.

Bob asked for announcements.

Jinq Kwok, DY4, announced that IEEE 1101.2 was up for reaffirmation ballot. Jing observed that Kim Clohessy the previous chair of the 1101.2 working group is no longer involved with 1101.2 activities and will not chair the working group. The current status of 1101.2 is that it will be reaffirmed as is. Jinq stated that anyone who is interested in modifications to 1101.2 should contact the IEEE and volunteer to chair this working group. IEEE 1101.2 is an IEEE standard for conduction cooled VME and is a standards activity carried out under the auspices of the IEEE. Announcements concerning IEEE standards are provided to VSO members for informational purposes only.

Eike Waltz, Rittal, stated that IEEE 1101.11 has been submitted to sponsor ballot. Eike also reported on the status of these standards at an IEC meeting that he recently attended.

John Rynearson, VITA, reminded members to contact Hermann Strass, VITA's European Technical Coordinator, with questions regarding European VME issues. Hermann has been working to raise the level of VMEbus awareness in Europe by writing articles and presenting papers at trade shows. Hermann is also a good source for information regarding European CE compliance issues. Hermann can be contacted via email at: techcon.hstrass@t-online.de.

John noted the March 1998 VSO meeting will be held on Friday, March 27 after the SysComms '98 exhibition being held in Geneva. Members are encouraged to contact Chris Parkman at CERN if they wish to present a paper. Also see the SysComms '98 web site at: http://www.cern.ch/ESONE/Syscomms98 for additional info.

John Rynearson gave a short report on the status of the following VSO standards that have been submitted to the ANSI canvass ballot process.

VITA 4.1, VME pin assignment for IP Modules completed its initial ANSI ballot. The ballot review committee was able to turn all negative comments to positive. A recirculation ballot of the revised standard will take place within the next several weeks.

VITA 10, Skychannel, completed its recirculation ballot and received one negative ballot. The ballot review committee was unable to resolve this ballot before final submission to the ANSI Board of Standards review. BSR review normally takes 4-6 weeks.

VITA 14, CXC/Modpacks, has completed its task group ballot and is currently in the ANSI canvass ballot solicitation phase.

VITA 19, Busnet, has been submitted to the ANSI canvass ballot process and is currently in the ANSI ballot solicitation phase.

Ray Alderman gave a report on current VITA activities. VITA will sponsor an event at the Real Time Computer show in Santa Clara in January 1998. In addition VITA plans to expand its web site during Q4 of this year and will wave registration fees for the November 1997 VSO meeting. Ray also discussed with members VITA's plans to provide electronic copies of standards via the web. Implementation of these plans should take place during Q1 of 1998.

John Rynearson standing in for Wayne Fischer, FORCE, announced that VITA 1.1, VME64x has completed a task group ballot receiving 100% support and will therefore be moved to ANSI canvass ballot. John thanked Wayne for his efforts and congratulated all the VSO members who had worked over the past two years on the development of VME64x. The ANSI canvass process takes approximately 6 months to complete.

John also reported on the restarting of the VITA 2, ETL task group. Wayne Fischer, task group chair for VITA 2, is currently cleaning up the document and will conduct a task group ballot soon. The goal of this effort is to standardize currently existing ETL parts.

Tad Kubic, DAWN, presented a connector solution allowing rear I/O access using an ERNI shroud for the 160 pin Harting connector. The solution provides for both latched and non-latched rear shrouds. Contact Tad Kubic for more information regarding this solution.

Holly Sherfinski, HARTING, reported on the status of the 160 pin connector. See attached report. After discussion the membership suggested that HARTING maintain a FAQ (frequency asked questions) web document regarding the various configurations used with the 160 pin connector.

The VSO meeting was adjourn for a VITA 1.4 task group meeting.

Lou Francz, chair of the VITA 1.4, Live Insertion for VME64x, called the VITA 1.4 task group meeting to order. Lou reviewed the general goals of the task group and proceeded to discuss various live insertion issues. One issue discussed in detail was whether or not a switch was needed on the front panel of a module to indicate that a module was going to be extracted. The group also discussed the various methods of using an LED to indicated that a module was running, static, or ready for removal. Lou asked task group members to review the current document and decide whether or not it was ready for an initial task group ballot. The VITA 1.4, Live Insertion for VME64x task group meeting was adjourned.

The VSO meeting was called to order. Jonathan Morris, Tundra, gave a report on VITA 1.5, 2eSST. The initial draft is almost ready for task group ballot. Chau Pham, Motorola, offered to take over document editor duties and help complete the draft. Jonathan noted that Chris Parkman, CERN, requested that a broadcast function be added to 2eSST. The group discussed the most appropriate way to add this capability. Jonathan indicated that Chris preferred a symmetric approach to avoid having to reconfigure each module. After further discussion the group suggested that an asymmetric approach be investigated that would meet Chris's requirements, but be simpler to implement.

*** LUNCH ***

Lou Francz, Dialogic, gave a report on the status of VITA 6.1, Extensions to SCSA. Lou reported that both negative ballots to VITA 6.1 had been resolved and that VITA 6.1 would be submitted to ANSI recirculation ballot shortly.

Holly Sherfinski, HARTING, gave a report on the status of VITA 1.6, Keying for Conduction Cooled VME. The document is ready for task group ballot. It will be made available on the VITA web site. Members are asked to email comments to Holly by October 10. Holly noted that Harting has a new domain name for their email addresses: harting.com.

John Rynearson reported on the status of VITA 11, Autobahn, and small PMC. VITA 11, Autobahn will be reballoted after forming a new task group. MEN Mikro is presently developing support for Small PMC and expects to achieve task group status soon.

Jonathan Morris, Tundra, discussed the vPCI concept with members. Tundra is studying the feasibility of adding features to their next chip that would allow PCI to PCI bridging across the VMEbus. Jonathan noted that three issues need to be addressed: interrupts, latency, and complexity. Jonathan discussed these issues and received input from the group.

Jim Waggett, CSPI, invited members to participate in a task group meeting to take place after the VSO meeting. Jim outlined the specific areas that the task group would discuss.

John Rynearson gave a short report for Jonathan Jones of ICS and task group chair for VITA 17, Front Panel Data Port. VITA 17 is currently in task group ballot.

The VSO meeting was adjourned for a VITA 1.3 task group meeting.

Bob Downing, task group chair of VITA 1.3, 9U for VME64x, called the VITA 1.3 task group meeting to order. Bob discussed the results of the latest task group ballot. All comments have been included in the revised document and VITA 1.3 will be moved to ANSI canvass ballot.

The VSO meeting was called to order.

Bob Downing gave a report for VITA 23, VME for Physics. Comments from the previous task group ballot have been incorporated into the latest VITA 23 draft and the draft has been submitted to another task group ballot.

There being no further VSO business, the VSO meeting was adjourned until Thursday morning.

Thursday, September 18, 1997

Bob Downing called the VSO meeting to order at 8:45 AM.

Gerard Boudon, IBM, gave a presentation on their VMEbus interface chip. The chip was developed in conjunction with CETIA. See attached presentation.

John Rynearson reported for Jim Pangburn that VITA 25, VISION, was currently in task group ballot. The results of the ballot will be discussed at the November meeting.

Steve Pavola, CETIA, gave a report on the status of P2CI. The task group has been organized. CETIA is willing to chair the task group and provide a document editor. See attached presentation.

John Rynearson discussed a request from Jim Fowlie, Pentland, for AM codes for BLT and MBLT for A16 address space. After much discussion the group consensus was not to make such an assignment because of its impact on currently existing master boards. The group suggested that user defined codes continue to be used for BLT and MBLT transfers in A16 space. The group invited Jim to attend the November meeting to present his argument in person if he wishes to pursue this request.

The membership discussed future meetings. The November meeting will be held in Phoenix on the 19th and the 20th. The January meeting will be held before the RTC show in Santa Clara on the 20th. The March meeting will be held after the SysComms '98 show in Geneva on the 27th. The May meeting will be held in Phoenix either on the 13/14 or the 20/21 and the July meeting will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, dates and hotel to be announced later.

There being no further business, the VSO meeting was adjourned.

Submitted by:

John Rynearson