Airport Hilton, Phoenix, AZ.

Wednesday, November 15, 1995

Introduction

Ray Aldermen opened the meeting at 8:30 AM. First item on the agenda was introduction of attendees. Welcome to all. There being no additions or corrections, minutes were accepted. The agenda was reviewed and amended as shown.

General announcements

Ray presented a plaque to Bob McKee for his effort on Raceway standard.

Ray presented a Market survey that indicated that worldwide sales in bus boards in 1994 was $1.89B with VME being 50% of the sales. VME is growing at about 20% in 1995. EISA is declining and PCI is picking up in growth. See attached charts.

Ray discussed the high price of standards from other standards groups. ANSI Global engineering documents announced latest price list for standards. Prices are from $300-500 per copy.

Discussions ensued about VITA supplying CD ROM vs. paper copy of standards. The other possibility is putting standards on the Internet and ftp sites for downloading. Ray noted that VITA is getting an average of 9000 pings per week.

Ray discussed new role of Technical/Business Committees based on input from the CEO meeting.

Ray stressed that attendees should book the rooms for the January 1996 Reno meeting as soon as possible. Room rates are only $49/night. The BASC will be meeting on Friday after the VSO meeting here at the Hilton. There will be a BASC meeting Monday-Wednesday prior to the VSO meeting in Reno in January. There will be a H.A.VME meeting on Tuesday prior to the Wednesday-Thursday January VSO mtg.

Canvass Ballot Reports - John Rynearson

ANSI/VITA 3-1994 BLLI has completed its recirculation ballot. Comments will be reviewed on Thursday. After review it will be submitted to ANSI Board of Standards Review.

ANSI/VITA 10-1995 Skychannel closed ballot on Monday, November 13. Only one negative comment received. Task group committee will be convened to review ballots.

ANSI/VITA 13-1995, (H.I.C.) on VME - Standard has moved to ballot and paperwork is in ANSI. Ballot will start in late Dec. for a 90 day ballot.

esse_io report - Kim Clohessy, OTI

Focus has been on Uniform Device Interface. UDI has been meeting with POSIX group. esse_io will follow this effort.

esse_tools report - Mark Edwards, Motorola

A lot of activity has taken place via reflector. PowerPC ABI with PowerPC specifics removed will be presented at the next meeting.

Busnet Presentation - Paul Fischer, Force

See attached presentation. Task group status was granted to this effort.

Connector Status - Mike Munroe, ERNI, Sherry Johnson, Harting

Currently we have agreement from Teradyne on patent. EIA effort going forward.

EIA-E700A,draft 0.6 - Jim Koser, BERG

Draft 0.6 was circulated and will be revised based on new connector review meeting. Goal is to go to ballot in February '96. John Rynearson presented the BERG Electronics letter re. their patent on the 160 pin connector.

VME64 Extensions - Wayne Fischer, Force

VME64 Extensions is clean. Total buy-in on protocol for 2eMBLT should be completed in December. Balloting will be early 1996. A request for ballot review work group was circulated. Three non-VITA members will vote on the ballot.

H.A. VME Report - Wayne Fischer, Force

Good progress on tie in to 1149.5. 3U board will be resolved in January. BERG has a proposal for the connector for the 3U board that is a (5) row shielded 2mm connector (5x48 + shields) see attached drawings.. This will be reviewed during the January meeting in Reno.

Bob Downing discussed CR/CSR space, options for 4K blocks vise pointers as discussed.

1149.5 Update and Bus Analyzer - Pat McHugh, Army Res. Lab

2eMBLT Report - Bob Downing, Fermi

This effort is completed and will be combined with VME64 Extensions. See attached timing diagrams.

VME64 9Ux400mm - Bob Downing, Fermi

Eike Waltz stated a number of problems he saw with the appendix on transition module. Wayne Fischer, Force, proposed that we create separate standard for transition modules. Kim Rubin, Greensprings, seconded Wayne's proposal. Motion to set up task group to address overall transition module issues passed all in favor. Eike to form task group. Eike asked that connector group address issue with EIA. Mike Munroe to get people together.

P110.10 Report - Eike Waltz, Rittal

Has been submitted to IEEE for ballot. Keying and inter-changeability of the keys issue was not resolved. See attached key proposal.

VIPA Report - Bob Downing, Fermi

VIPA is writing a recommended practices document for use of VMEbus in physics. This is only a recommended practices document and is not a standard. There are descriptive guidelines on how to implement certain functions. The document will be available via FTP on the Internet. The document is being restructured for the web.

VSB Status Report - John Rynearson, VITA

John received a letter from Dave Gustavson re: the status of IEEE 1096, VSB reaffirmation vote. See attached. He is looking for someone to chair this activity within the IEEE MSC. VSO will decide whether to support this effort or start a new separate activity within the VSO.

Transition Module Report - Mike Munroe, ERNI

A motion was made by Mike and seconded by Bob Downing to dissolve this task group and move to the new effort that Eike Waltz is chairing in IEEE/EIA. Motion was carried unanimously. Mike thanked Joe Norris, Technobox, for his work in getting this effort started. All those interested in joining Eike's working group should contact him.

SCSA Extensions Task Group - Lou Francz, Dialogics

See attached proposal. A copy of the draft was available for all interested in this document. Additional features such as time slots were added.

The meeting was adjourned for the day.

Thursday, November 16, 1995

Ray Alderman opened the meeting at 8:30 AM.

Introductions and announcements

The agenda was reviewed, modified, and accepted.

The group discussed future meeting dates. January is set. Locations and dates were tentatively set for March and May. July, September, and November locations will be determined. See schedule below.

January 17 Flamingo Hilton, Reno (702)785-7000

March 20- Sheraton Plaza @ Florida Mall Orlando (407)859--1500

May 8 - Regal McCormick Ranch(602)948-5050

Ray suggested that someone should tie all the standards together in a recommended practices document to point to the VME standard. Bob McKee has agreed to chair this effort. This will be a living document to point to how all the standards inter-act and not be an ANSI document. Ray Alderman made a motion to develop this document with a second from Jim Koser. The motion was unanimously approved.

VITA 4199x, IP-Modules - Kim Rubin

Formal replies in from ballot. Detailed report turned into VITA office. There were 22 members total in ballot with 18 approvals, 2 no responses and 2 conditional approvals. The official name of the specification is VITA 4-1995, IP-Module Interface Specification. Kim Rubin made motion to move to canvass ballot within ANSI, Seconded by John Rynearson and unanimously approved.

VITA 07-199x, QuickRing, - John Rynearson

No new inputs. There are software issues per Dennis Terry, however Heurikon will continue to work with CSPI on the standard.

VITA 12-199x, M-Modules - John Rynearson

This is an existing industry practice that was developed in Europe for mezzanine standards. See attached presentation. Key contact at MEN is Susanne Glania, phone +49 922 99 33 50, fax +49 911 99 33 595. First task group ballot is completed. Draft 0.2 available. Second task group ballot will begin shortly.

VITA 14-199x, CXC & Modpacks - Hermann Strass

See attached. Document has been cleaned up and made part of the minutes in hard copy or disc format. Industry practice in use in Europe for about 10 years. Connectors are 96 pin DIN.

VITA 11-199x, Autobahn Update - Hermann Strass, Technology Consulting

Revised spec. at VITA office with electrical/protocol now in spec. Chips are now available from Motorola for both 50 & 100 Mbyte versions. 200 Mbyte not ready. All comments are encouraged to respond to the documents.

VITA 3-1994, BLLI - Bob McKee

All comments back are editorial. Bob will clean up document and send back to VITA office for submission to ANSI before end of the year.

TMbus and AN/WSC-3(V)XX - Bob McKee, MITRE

TMbus will be developed under the H.A. VME task group and will be a separate standard. This could be incorporated as part H.A. VME if so desired.

AN/WSC-3 has become part of another effort and this committee effort has been put on hold.

VITA 16-199x, MVIP - John Rynearson for Bob Grochmal, Xircom

This is out for 30 day ballot. Only 6 ballots are in at this time. Please get your ballot in by Nov. 20th.

VITA 17-199x, FPDP - John Rynearson for Jonathan Jones, ISC

See attached presentation. Draft 1.1, Oct. 20, 1995 is complete and in VITA office.

There will be a task group meeting in Boston area on Nov. 28.

VME on SEM-E - Mary Mosier, NAWC

See attached. A copy of the new draft was added to minutes. There were questions from Framatome re. the connector. The dimensions of the connector will be removed and reference back to the mil-spec on next draft. The purpose of this document is to specify the VMEbus on the SEM-E mechanical form factor. It was suggested that modeling/testing/ simulation be done before going forward. Mary advised that funding is being worked on to detail capability at this density. Mary encourages all comments before the January meeting so a new draft can be worked out.

Profibus Update - Ray Alderman

ANSI has been advised of VSO's recommendations and intentions re this effort. Ray has taken these recommendations to the Exec. Counsel & BSR in ANSI. VITA is awaiting results of the ANSI review. Validation vs. anticipatory standards is the issue. Example: Industry pack is a proven validation product that has been implemented. Profibus is a European implementation of field bus. DIN 19245 needs a proposal from Europe to VITA to support the standardization effort. If this comes to fruition, VITA will go direct to sponsor ballot based on Europe sending a document to VITA in ANSI format with letters to support this effort. The whole issue is that US manufacturers do not want this standard. Dick Somes made a motion to kill this effort in VITA as it does not relate to VITA standards and was seconded by Wayne Fischer.. Discussions followed. per Ray Alderman, Force, PEP, EKF, Motorola and others wrote letter to pursue this effort. There were (8) companies that are VITA members that requested this effort in VITA. Major concern of members is that we do not want VITA to get tied up in a costly legal battle. Per John Rynearson, the scope of the VSO allows us to support this standard in ANSI. Other issue is ANSI position on harmonization. Does this effort get support from the working group. The vote on the motion to stop this effort was as follows:

2 - For the motion

9 - Against the motion.

Therefore the motion failed to pass.

Ray will report back to the VSO at the next meeting on what progress is being made to support this effort.

PCI Study Group Report - Mike Munroe

Mike gave an overview of the PICMG. They are bridging on a passive backplane. Compact PCI mezzanine was pulled out of the PICMG standard. Per Wayne Fischer PICMG advised that VITA received compliments on how to standardize documents. Wayne feels that VSO should stay focused on VME and not PCI. There are other groups that are called Industrial PCI that differ from PICMG. Mike Munroe made a motion to discontinue the PCI study group with a second by Wayne Fischer. Motion was withdrawn until Mike can poll the study group.

PMC update- Wayne Fischer, Force

See attached proposed pinout for mapping PMC to 5 row VMEbus connector. All comments are positive for mapping on the P0/J0. Proposal for "z & d" rows are attached to the minutes.

SPCI Form Factor Update - Jim Koser, BERG

Jim Koser advised that the PCI SIG had the draft 1.5 for a (30) day review. There were no negative comments from the SIG to the chair of SPCI or to the PCI office. The document is waiting for the PCI Steering Committee to make a formal announcement to the membership on the approval of the document and publication of same. Note: A PAR has been taken out in IEEE BASC to implement SPCI format on Futurebus '95 cards. For copies of the draft you can contact Joe's DiMartino. His E-mail address is Joe_dimartino@vnet.ibm.com

Proposal to amend VSO P&P to include early patent disclosure policy

John Rynearson presented the VSO policy which follows the ANSI patent policy.

Proposed amendment to VSO Policy was presented. Wayne Fischer made a motion to accept the proposed change, seconded by Dick Somes. Discussions followed.

Vote for inclusion into policy and procedure was unanimous.

ESSE Status Reports -

Embedded software system environment - UDI (Uniform driver interface) was adopted. They are working with the POSIX community as well as VSO. VSO may point to this document as a support. OSAPI is the second group. They need a common hardware platform to go forward. Two proposals will be made in January with a European telecom outlining a framework. Motorola will propose another API/EABI platform. It appears that they have (3) platforms. Tools chain is the other issue. There will be a session in Reno meeting in January.

VITA standards costs - discussion

Kim Rubin proposes that we provide standards at minimal cost. The group discussed the issue. John Rynearson indicated that VITA intends to provide standards at minimal cost and is exploring electronic media distribution via CD-ROM, diskette, and the Internet.

Meeting was adjourned .

Submitted by Jim Koser, Secretary

Edited by John Rynearson, VSO Administrator