VSO Minutes – March 2001

Orlando, Florida

(Editor’s Note: Links in this document are either pdf files or links to other websites.. References to presentations without highlighted links means that the presentation is not yet available, but will be posted as soon as it is received.)

Call to Order

John Rynearson called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM. John noted that Bob Downing, the outgoing VSO chair, could not attend this meeting. John asked members to introduce themselves. The minutes from the January 2001 meeting were reviewed and accepted as written.

Agenda Review. Call for Patents, and Election Results

The agenda was reviewed and several changes were made. John presented the VSO patent policy and asked for patent disclosures. No disclosures were made. John reported on the results of the VSO election for the positions of chair and vice-chair. Based on the results Elwood Parsons was elected chair and Mike Thompson was elected vice-chair for the 2001/2002 term. As called out in the VSO Policies and Procedures, Elwood will take his position at the May meeting.

Standards Report

John gave the standards report. See attachment.

VSO Productivity

John discussed possible changes in the meeting format for the May meeting to allow more time for actual work on documents plus other internet tools that could be used to discuss issues between meetings. See attached presentation.

ANSI/VITA 1, VME64, Revisions

John discussed the revisions for ANSI/VITA 1-1994, VME64. A reference will include the new transceivers being developed by TI and will point to VITA 2.1. The +/- 12 volt power supply requirements will be modified to reflect available products and other editorial corrections will be made. John will compile a list of revisions and incorporate them into a revised draft of ANSI/VITA 1 which will then be put out for canvass revision ballot. Ray Alderman requested that patent issues be discussed in the standard. After discussion it was decided that such information could be put on a VITA web page.

Mike Thompson, Pentair, asked about the status of IEC 821. John said he didn’t know, but would find out and report at the next meeting.

Elwood Parsons, Tyco, presented a bounce back form that he suggested should be included in all VSO documents. Users would use the form to report and request changes to documents. The membership agreed that this was a good idea.

PCI-X on PMC

Steve Krueger, Artisyn, proposed to start a working group to add PCI-X capability to the PMC mezzanine card. A sign-up list for the working group was circulated. Employees of VITA member companies with an interest in this activity should contact Steve Krueger for additional information.

Spray Cooling Update

Gerry Thomas, CRANE, and David Tilton, ISR, gave a report on spray cooling. Gerry discussed a report he had written for CRANE comparing various cooling techniques. See attached presentation. David Tilton, ISR, reported on ISR’s approach to spray cooling and the work that they had done for the Marines AAAV (Advanced Amphibious Assault program.

Setting a New Interconnect Standard

Elwood Parsons, Tyco, and Joe Svetina, ERNI, gave a presentation on a new high-speed, differential, board to backplane electrical connector for the telecommunications and computer industries. This connector is an extension of the already established IEC 61076-4-101 Hard Metric connector family, providing a differential solution for applications in the range of 3-5 gigabit/second. Tim Minnick, Tyco, reported on the electrical, simulation and testing aspects of the connector.

*** LUNCH ***

Power Blade Connector

Mark Schell, FCI, gave a presentation on the FCI powerblade connector. See attached presentation.

Reverse 2mm Connector

Jim Koser, FCI, gave a presentation on the a reverse 2mm HM connector developed by FCI to address the issue of bent pins in the backplane connector. The reverse 2mm HM puts the pins on the board and the receptacles on the backplane connector. See attached presentation.

SERARC, PHOTARC, SERMEZ and PHOTOMEZ

Ray Alderman, VITA, discussed his ideas for new architectures employing serial and optical technologies. He challenged the VSO to develop new embedded archtitectures that could be shown at the January 2002 Bus&Board conference. He stated that VITA funds could be used to develop these concepts and that the VSO should develop a statement of work as soon as possible to start these projects. Ray also discussed his idea to add value to standards by providing a “build” package along with each standard. The “build” package would be free to VITA members, but would cost non-members. The membership discussed this idea and decided that it would be best to separate the two items so that the standards document would be free while the build package would cost nonmembers. The funds generated from selling build packages to nonmembers would be used to fund future projects.

*** BREAK ***

Elwood Parsons presented some information on dripless connectors, heat pipes, and how Compaq used the “skunkworks” approach to develop a new product. This article is recommended reading because it tackles a problem of size reduction to an existing product and deals with issues such as cooling. In addition, Elwood presented slides showing Bob Downing’s list of areas of interest for VITA 34, A New Embedded Framework. See attachments. Doug Patterson asked if this effort was limited only to serial architectures. The answer was that parallel architectures were not precluded. Frank Hom discussed the interest in 4U and 8U form factors and depths of 220 mm. Doug noted that the 6U x 160 mm size was popular in the military in that it fit into ATR boxes.

The membership decided to table the discussion until Thursday morning so that the rest of the items on the agenda could be completed.

VITA 31, Serial I/O on 2 mm Connectors

Mike distributed a connector sample and discussed how we could take advantage of the work being done on PICMG 2.16. Mike showed a prototype draft of VITA 31.1. Mike Macpherson, MITRE, will take over as chair of VITA 31.1.

VITA 1.4, System Level Live Insertion

Mike noted that VITA 1.4 will go out for a working group ballot shortly.

VITA 38, System Management Bus for VME

Mike stated that VITA 38 was ready for a working group ballot.

VITA 32, Processor PMC

Greg Novak, Motorola, noted that he will be revising the current draft based on comments from the last meeting with hopes of having a working group ballot before the next VSO meeting.

The meeting was adjourned for the day.

Thursday, March 22, 2001

John Rynearson called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM. No announcements were made. John suggested that the agenda be changed to have the plenary reports before any discussion on VITA 34.

IEC/ITA Presentation

John Rynearson reviewed the VSO’s interest in IEC Industry Technical Agreements. A subcommittee of Elwood Parsons, Dick Somes, and Bob Downing developed a memorandum of understanding that was discussed with Jack Shelton of the IEC re: their new ITA program. The memorandum was used to develop a contract and was agreed to by the IEC so that the VSO may be an ITA submitter. John thanked the subcommittee for their efforts. See attached slides.

John discussed the process of rewriting the VSO Policies and Procedures to include this new capability. The initial draft is posted on the VITA website at: http://www.vita.com/vso/vsoppr1dot4.pdf. The idea is to maintain all the previous rules, but to put the document in a form that makes it clearer that VSO documents may go several routes after being approved within the VSO.

Plenary Reports

VITA 1.4, System Level Live Insertion, Mike Thompson – Pending possible revisions the current draft will go to working group ballot.

VITA 2.1, Extended TTL Transceivers – The draft document needs to be written to match specs of chip being developed by TI. Ed Barsotti will develop a draft based on the original VITA 2 document. Manny Soltero, TI, reported that TI is still tweaking the final design of the chip. Based on chip design constraints certain changes in the final specs may be needed. If such changes are required, TI will review these changes with the VITA 2.1 working group before proceeding.

VITA 17.1, Serial FPDP - Ron Taulton has released a new draft for comments. A working group ballot will be held soon.

VITA 29, PC•MIP – Larry Smith, SBS, reported that agreement has been reached on the EMI gasket negative ballots and that the draft document has been changed. A re-circulation ballot will begin within two weeks.

VITA 30.2, Separable Power Connector – the latest draft has received 75/75 VSO approval. After discussion, and upon motion duly made and seconded, and approved with no objections, it was RESOVED to submit VITA 30.2 as an IEC/ITA.

VITA 31, Serial I/O on 2mm Connector – Draft 0.5 has been posted on the VITA web site for review.

VITA 31.1, Gigabit Ethernet on VME64x Backplanes – This draft was written by Mike Thompson based on work done on PICMG 2.16. Mike Macpherson, MITRE, will take over chair of this activity.

VITA 32, Processor PMC – Greg Novak will update the latest draft and get it ready for a working group ballot.

VITA 36 – PMC Interface Module – This activity is on hold until Greg completes the work on VITA 32.

VITA 37 – PIRMA, This activity will be tabled due to lack of activity.

VITA 38 – System Mgmt Bus for VME – This draft will go to working group ballot.

VITA 34 Discussion

John Rynearson presented his thoughts on the process to be used to develop a new embedded architecture. See attached slides. Asking the right questions sometimes provides the right solutions. After a rather far ranging discussion, the membership decided to divide the task up into four areas and assign teams to each area. Each team will be responsible for defining market requirements and possible solutions for their particular area. VITA’s VSO web page contains an updated list of areas of interest, team leaders, and team members. The first day of the May meeting will be devoted to reports and discussions in an attempt to develop firm recommendations for each area which will then be blended into one coherent statement of work.

There being no further business, John Rynearson thanks the members for a very productive and interesting meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 11:28 AM.

Submitted by

/s/ John Rynearson, VITA Secretariat