Bob Downing, VSO Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM and asked the members to introduce themselves. After introductions the minutes of the February meeting were reviewed and accepted as published. Bob reviewed the posted agenda for the meeting and asked members if any changes were required. The agenda as accepted as posted.
Bob called for general announcements. No general announcements were made. John Rynearson, VITA, presented the VSO Patent Policy statement. John asked members if they had any patents to disclose. No disclosures were made.
Elwood Parsons, Tyco/AMP, discussed whether or not hardcopy of the minutes and overhead presentations were required to be sent to members since all material was now posted on VITA's web site. Elwood noted that other standards groups required presenters to submit their presentation in electronic format before the meeting for posting so that attendees could produce their own hardcopy if needed. After discussion the membership voted to dispense with sending paper copies of the minutes.
John Rynearson presented the results of the annual VSO election. Bob Downing was reelected as chair and Mike Thompson, Pentair, was elected as Vice Chair. John congratulated the new officers and thanked Jing Kwok, DY4, previous vice chair for his efforts while in office. Jing did not stand for election this year.
John Rynearson presented the canvass ballot report. After discussion the membership voted to withdraw VITA 18 from the ANSI process.
One of the members inquired about the status of several ballots taking place in the IEEE. Of specific interest are ballots on the reaffirmation of IEEE 1101.2 and sponsor ballot of IEEE P1386 and P1386.1. John stated that he would determine their current status and report back to the membership.
John asked Holly Sherfinski, Harting, about the status of the 160 pin IEC standard. Holly reported that it was currently being translated into French and once that was complete it would move to the next stage of the standardization process.
Ray Alderman, VITA, reported on current VITA activities. The 2000 Bus&Board Conference was well attended and received. Plans for the 2001 conference will be announced soon. Attendees liked the San Diego location. Ray noted that switched fabric I/O was becoming very popular and noted the recent announcement of Rapid I/O as one example. Others include Starbridge, switched PCI, and of course Infiniband. Members expressed interested in a Rapid I/O presentation at the next VSO meeting. Ray stated that he had nothing new to report regarding patent issues.
System Management Bus
Mike Thompson, Pentair, presented a proposal
to develop a system management bus for the VME framework based on the
work done on the Compact™ system management bus. Originally,
JTAG, 1149.5, was to be used for a VME system management bus, but no
commercial chips have been developed to support 1149.5. The PICMG
system management bus is based on I2C protocol and a number of
commercial chips are available to support this protocol. One issue
that must be investigated is the 400 pf cap budget and whether or not
this would support a full 21 slot VMEbus backplane. A task group
formation signup sheet was circulated for members to indicate
interest. Mike will server as initial chair of this
activity.
VITA 1.4 Update
Mike Thompson, Pentair, discussed the current status of VITA 1.4. The
last task group ballot took place almost two years ago and the draft
has not been revised since then. Jim Botte, Nortel, expressed
interest at the February VSO meeting in reactivating VITA 1.4. The
latest draft of the VITA 1.4 specification has been revised and
posted on the VITA web site at: http://www.vita.com/vso/draftstd/vita_1.4d0.6.pdf
for members review. Mike noted interest by several companies in VITA
1.4 and that one had found an error which he had helped correct. Mike
suggested that members review the current draft and that it be
submitted to another task group ballot. He also suggested that
further standardization for system level hot swap would require the
completion of the VITA 1.2, High Availability standard.
*** BREAK ***
Gabe Suranyi, Lucent Technology, gave a presentation on power requirement issues for modular board level architectures. Gabe has worked on these issues at Lucent for over 30 years.
*** LUNCH ***
Gabe continued his presentation and took questions from members. Gabe submitted the following application notes for members interest.
Technical Note - Aug 1996, TN96-001EPS, The Value of Distributed Power
Technical Note - June 1997, AP97-037EPS, Appl Guidelines for On-Board Power Converters
Technical Note - Jan 1997, TN93-012EPS, Bus Voltage Level Comparisions for Distributed Power Architectures
VITA 34, New Modular System Architecture, Bob
Downing , Consultant to Fermi
Bob thanked Gabe for his presentation and asked members for other
interest areas to cover at the May meeting. Suggestions included
Rapid I/O and high speed connectors. Bob asked enclosure
manufacturers for suggestions regarding how to proceed with more
substantial mockups that the balsa wood models previously done. Mike
Thompson suggested that currently existing modular board enclosures
might be one solution.
VITA 31, P0 Serial Interconnects, Mike
Thompson, Pentair
Mike gave a presentation on FCI connectors (see three attachements -
HBcable,
HBGigabit
Cable, METRAL
HS&HB) that might be an alternative
to the current 2mm connector. These connectors are made specifically
to support high frequency use via twin coax cable.
VITA 1.5, 2eSST, Mac Rush, Motorola
Mac noted that Drew Berding has asked for modifications to VITA 1.5
to deal with a possible lock-up issue. Mac asked for additional
clarification from Drew and will discuss the issue at the May VSO
meeting.
VITA 2.1, Enhanced ETL, Ed Barsotti, Fermi
Ed reported that work with TI regarding a new VMEbus driver chip
continues. Layout and pin assignment were discussed. Contact Ed for
more information on this effort.
VITA 32, Processor PMC, Greg Novak,
Motorola
Greg reported on the results of the task group ballot. The draft will
be updated shortly and a recirculation ballot will be held so that
results can be presented at the May VSO meeting.
The VSO meeting was adjourned until Thursday morning.
Thursday, March 23, 2000
Bob Downing called the meeting to order at 8:32 AM. No announcements were made. Plenary reports were given.
VITA 17.1, FPDP, Ron Taulton, Systran
Ron reported that work continues on the draft.
VITA 20, CCPMC, Mike Macphearson, MITRE
Mike reported that a new draft has been posted on the VITA web site
for members review.
VITA 30.1, Conduction Cooled Eurocard with 2mm
Connectors, Dick Somes, Force Computers
Dick reported that draft 0.5 incorporates most of the input from the
last task group meeting. Jing Kwok asked to include some additional
information and then the draft will be submitted to a task group
ballot.
VITA 30.2, Power Connectors, Elwood Parsons,
Tyco/AMP
Elwood discussed the results
of the latest task group ballot. Some revisions
will be made and another task group ballot will be held.
VITA 36, PIM, Greg Novak, Motorola
Greg will update the draft.
John discussed upcoming meeting venues. All meeting dates and places have been confirmed for the rest of the year. See VITA's VSO web page for dates and places. Venues for next year will be discussed at the May meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 AM.
Submitted by:
/s/John Rynearson, VITA