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Wednesday, November 18, 1998
Introduction
Bob Downing, chair of the VSO, called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM. Bob asked members to introduce themselves. The September 1998 meetings were approved as written. The agenda was reviewed and several changes were made based on members schedules.
Announcements
Bob called for announcements from the floor.
Holly Sherfinski, Harting, requested that anyone with issues re: connecting 3 row rear transition modules onto 5 row backplanes meet with her at 1:15 PM.
John Rynearson, VITA, announced that three IEEE standards were up for five year review. These standards are IEEE 1301.2 Metric Recommended Practice, IEEE 1101.3 SEME, and 1101.4 10SU. Anyone interested in the reaffirmation of these standards should contact Joe George at Clearpoint. Joe's email is: jgeorge@clearcore.com. If no action is taken these standards will be withdrawn.
John Rynearson noted that although ANSI/VITA 1.1-1997, VME64 Extensions, in rule 3.13 specifies IEEE 1149.5 that no integrated circuits exist for this standard. John Andrews, representing National informed John via a phone call that an alternative was IEEE 1149.1 with multidrop capability. See attached for information re: contacting John Andrews.
Jim Koser, FCI/Berg, noted that he could now provide 2mm hard metric connectors and presented a slide with appropriate part numbers. See attached.
John Rynearson presented the obligatory VSO/ANSI patent policy overheads. Members are urged to disclose patents affecting draft standards as soon as they become aware of such patents. See attached overheads.
Patent Issues
Ray Alderman, VITA, discussed with members the status of patent issues related to IEEE 1101.10. Ray noted that he had called a Special Meeting of the VITA Board to review this issue during lunch and that he would report back to the membership.
VITA Report and Awards
Ray announced that awards were due to Danny Cohen, Wayne Fischer, and Jim Pangburn, for their efforts in chairing the task groups for VITA 26, Myrinet, VITA 1.1, VME64x, and VITA 25, VISION all which have achieved ANSI recognition. Ray stated that appropriate awards would be presented at the next VSO meeting.
Ray discussed the upcoming Bus&Board Conference jointly sponsored by VITA and PICMG. The conference will take place on January 11 and 12 at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose, CA, and will feature industry speakers and editors. Carrying through the Board&Bus theme, Ray noted that VITA's product directory will become the Bus&Board product directory and the VITA Journal will transition into the Bus&Board Magazine.
Answering a question from Jonathan Morris, Tundra, Ray stated that it was his goal to broaden the base of the trade association beyond VMEbus technology.
Jon Postel Tribute
Danny Cohen, Myricom, discussed the early days of standardization on the Internet and reflected on Jon Postel, who died in October. Jon was a friend of Danny's and a true pioneer in Internet standards. See the attached text of Danny's tribute.
Canvass Ballot Report
John Rynearson, VITA, reported on the status of draft standards in the ANSI canvass ballot process. The following standards have received approval: ANSI/VITA 1.1, VME64 Extensions, ANSI/VITA 25, VISION, and ANSI/VITA 26, Myrinet-on-VME Protocol. VITA 17, FPDP, VITA 18, VME on SEME, VITA 19.1, Busnet, and VITA 23, VME64x for Physics, are in the ballot review phase. See attached overheads.
VITA 5.1 Report
Tony Lavely stated that the task group ballot had ended and that the draft would be revised based on comments received. When the new draft is ready, a second task group ballot will be held.
*** BREAK
VITA 1.5 2eSST
Mac Rush, Motorola, reported that the revised draft is now available on VITA's web site. Mac discussed some of the changes and asked members to review the draft. Another task group ballot will be held shortly.
VITA 32, PPMC
Greg Novak, Motorola, reported on a new activity called PPMC which stands for Processor PCI Mezzanine Card. The initial draft is available on VITA's web site and Greg asked members to comment on it. Greg suggested that interested parties meet with him at 1:15 PM to discuss the new draft.
VITA 1.4, VME64x Live Insertion
John Rynearson noted that Lou Francz, Dialogic, could not attend the meeting. John asked the members how they would like to proceed with this effort. After discussion it was decided that Mike Thompson will update draft with a daisy chain solution within the next week. John will reconstruct the task group ballot list and a task group ballot will be held.
VITA 29, PC*MIP Report
Hermann Strass, Technology Consulting, gave a report on the status of PC*MIP. Hermann showed the pin assignment for PC*MIP. Kim Rubin will add some final drawings to finish up the draft. The initial work has been completed and the task group will hold a task group ballot within the next several weeks. A signup list for the task group ballot was circulated. See attached supporting material.
Mike Thompson, Scroff, presented front panels available for PC*MIP.
VITA Europe Report
Hermann Strass, Technical Coordinator for Europe, reiterated to members his duties as technical coordinator for Europe. In addition Hermann reported on the upcoming "Embedded Systems Exhibition scheduled for March 2-4, 1999 in Nurnberg. Papers must be submitted by November 25, 1998. In the past the event has been very successful and usually draws 7,000 to 10,000 attendees. See attached.
Hermann discussed requirements for Power Factor Correction (PFC) - do not feed energy back into the mains. EN 61000 part 3-2 for all power < 16 Amps. See attachment.
And Hermann submitted various articles that he had published in European press representing the industry and presented several electronic industry market graphs. See attached.
John Rynearson urged members to contact Hermann anytime they had questions regarding European issues.
Tad Kubic, Dawn, presented some information regarding issues with back panel I/O and backplane stiffeners. He presented a modification that was made to the Harting rear I/O shroud that allows an ERNI connector to mate. He also showed a stiffing bar that can be used on backplanes with the J0 connector.
Bob Downing adjourned the VSO meeting at 11:45 AM for lunch.
The VSO meeting was reconvened at 2:05 PM and Ray Alderman reported to members re: patent issues related to the IEEE 1101.10 standard that were discussed at the Special Board Meeting. Ray reported that the board had authorized him to requested a legal opinion regarding the patents. VITA expects the opinion to be completed within 30 days. Once the opinion is issued the board will decide further action regarding its members interests.
Hermann Strass, Technology Consulting, discussed the CE mark. CE applies to all product areas, not just electronics. CE applies to products brought to market. CE implies that the product meets appropriate standards common in that industry. CE experts are used to guide people to appropriate requirements for specific areas. Records are kept on file for 10 years and certification can be done internally. Records must be available for inspection. Competitors keep each other in-line. Hermann doesn't see CE as a great technical issue. Companies must document that they are continuing to measure their products against appropriate industry compliance standards.
Jon Jones, ICS, asked if VME boards must be compliant. Hermann says that CE only applies to a product that works on it own. This requirement puts the responsibility on the integrator. Martin Blake says that obligation stops with end user. If he puts a modular system together for in-house use, then CE is not an issue. Dennis Terry stated that CE may be a defacto requirement on boards because integrators might only purchase a board if they knew that it would pass certain tests when put into a specific environment.
*** BREAK ***
VITA 31, High Speed Serial Architecture
Bob McKee, MITRE, was not able to attend the VSO meeting. Ray Alderman reported on his goal re: VITA 31. Ray stated that VITA 31 is high speed serial architecture based on NGIO (Next Generation I/O) architecture which is being promoted by Intel. In Ray's opinion, NGIO gets rid of bridging problem. He stated that it is not a replacement for PCI, but an interconnect. Intel's goal is to design an architecture that will last for 40 years and connect 64,000 points. Ray noted that IBM announced an architecture called Future I/O based on the S390 channel architecture which seems to be very similar to the Intel approach. Intel is tying NGIO to I2O driver architecture. A signup list for additional task group members was circulated.
Future Architectures - BANs, RANs, CANs, and LANS.
Danny Cohen, Myrinet. Discussed future architectures in terms of networks. He noted that the concept of a board is not well defined. What does it refer to? Software is the bottleneck. Danny recommended that attendees see a recent (11/98) Computer magazine on the network interface bottleneck. Danny considers serial versus parallel to be a minor issue that should be determined at the physical layer. The important consideration is the switch. See attached presentation.
Gigabit Serial FPDP
Tom Bohman, Systran, presented an approach for implementing a high speed long distance extension to FPDP that he calls "Serial FPDP". See attached overhead presentation. A signup list to determine interest in study or task group formation was circulated.
Bob Downing adjourned the VSO meeting at 5:04 PM until tomorrow morning.
Thursday, November 19, 1998
Bob Downing called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM.
Announcements
John Rynearson discussed the need to resolve the status of VITA 2, ETL. John stated that Wayne Fischer who was not in attendance asked that VITA 2, ETL be put to task group ballot so that any remaining issues could be resolved. Drew Berding questioned whether or not the TI parts met the ETL specification due to fast slew rates. Bob Downing suggested that this issue be brought up in the task group ballot. A sign up list was sent around to solicit members for the task group ballot to be held within the next two weeks.
160 Pin Connector Update
Holly Sherfinski gave a brief update on the standardization of the 160 pin connector. The official number for the connector is IEC 60176-4-113. Holly also thanked those who spoke with her yesterday and asked that anyone with issues regarding using rear 3 row transition modules with 5 row backplanes contact her. Harting is working on this issue.
VITA 30, 2mm Connector Practice
Elwood Parsons, AMP, reported on the progress made on VITA 30 since the Sep meeting. A revised draft has been posted and is available for comment. Issues to resolve include rear transition boards with staggered connector pin lengths. See attached overheads.
VITA 1.1 Mechanical Issues
John Rynearson noted that IEEE 1101.10 did not contain a reference to a 2 mm P0 connector layout. The layout referred to in IEEE 1101.10 is for a 0.1 inch spacing P0 connector. After discussion it was decided to include a layout section in VITA 30 that would reference the correct layout for P0 on a VMEbus module. Mike Thompson volunteered Frank Hom to make the drawings.
VITA 17 FPDP
Jonathan Jones reviewed comments from the canvass ballot of VITA 17. See attached overheads. A recirculation ballot is planned within the next month.
VITA 20, CCPMC
Ivan Straznicky, DY4, gave a report on VITA 20, CCPMC. Ivan discussed requirements for insuring compatibility and providing increased thermal capability. The group decided that the new thermal interfaces should be mandatory. See attached overheads.
Ivan noted that no activity has taken place on CCIP.
VITA 27, P2CI
Paul Linares, CETIA, gave a report on VITA 27, P2CI. Backplanes are expected shortly from Schroff and Trenew. The backplanes will allow actual testing results to be compared to simulated results. See overheads.
Ray Alderman gave a tutorial on market strategies. Ray stated that there are only two viable strategies. They are to trade margin for market share or to trade market share for margin. An article containing Ray's ideas will appear in the upcoming December RTC magazine.
Bill Spreen, Fairchild, announced the availability of the V320 8-Bit Registered Bus Transceiver designed for interfacing with the VME320 high speed backplane. For more information, contact Bill Spreen at William.Spreen@fairchildsemi.com and see attached data sheet.
John Rynearson reviewed future meeting dates. The January meeting will be held in conjunction with the Bus&Board Conference scheduled for January 11-12 in San Jose. The VSO meeting will be held on January 13-14 in the same hotel. The Orlando meeting has been confirmed. Other meetings will be confirmed shortly. Members are asked to refer to the VSO page on the VITA web site for confirmed dates.
There being no further business Bob Downing adjourned the meeting at 11:40 AM.
Submitted by;
/s/ John Rynearson, VITA