VSO Minutes – July 2002

Vancouver, BC

Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Elwood Parsons, VSO Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:32 AM and asked members to introduce themselves. Elwood reviewed the agenda and several additions were made. The agenda was approved as amended. Elwood called for announcements.

Announcements

John Rynearson noted the passing of Ted Prosser and read an email from Richard Mack of Harting noting the circumstances of Ted’s death. Ted was chair of the VITA 1.7 working group and his presence in the VITA community will be missed.

Patent Policy Review

John reviewed the VSO patent policy and called for patent disclosures. None were made. John also discussed two patent related issues: ballot pledges and time limits for presenting terms and conditions for licensing agreements. An example of a ballot pledge used by the Optical Interface Forum (OIF) was shown. Every time a member casts a ballot they pledge that they are observing the patent policy of the OIF. The membership discussed implementing something similar in the VSO Policy and Procedures.

John discussed the issue of releasing terms and conditions within a reasonable timeframe. After discussion the membership decided that rather than setting a specific number of days, the term “reasonable time” would be used. After a “reasonable time” was deemed to be passed, the requester could petition the working group to rescind the technology.

VITA Standards Report

John reviewed the status of standards in the ANSI process and several IEEE standards. See presentation.

*** BREAK ***

New Mezzanine Standard

Greg Novak, Motorola, reviewed the need for a new mezzanine standard. See presentation. Michael Franco, Artesyn, expressed his interest in developing a mezzanine standard with hot swap capability. The group discussed the different market needs and decided to form a study group to look into what currently exists, what is planned, and what the market needs are. Greg Novak and Michael Franco will co-chair the study group. The goal is to make a report at the September meeting.

VITA 41, VXS

Bob Tufford, Motorola, gave a status report on VITA 41 and noted the changes to the latest drafts. See presentation.

Bob Patterson, Tyco, gave an update on VITA 1.7. Another conference call will be held next week and then the draft will be sent to working group ballot.

Bob gave the status report for VITA 41.10, Live Insertion Update, for Steve Pavola who could not attend.

Henry Wong discussed the keying/alignment component and whether or not it would cause damage in legacy systems. See presentation. More work will be done, but initial studies show it should not be an issue.

Larry Thompson, CRANE, talked about the mil testing. So far all tests have passed with the final visual inspection remaining to be done.

Jim Fedder, Tyco, report on the shock and vibration testing. See presentation. No discontinuities of 10 ns or greater were recorded.

Jim discussed the new pin assignments. Noise was greatly reduced by going to staggered rather than adjacent pairing. See presentation.

Jim presented a letter stating that FCI will second source the Mutigig RT connector assuming it is selected for the VITA 41 draft standard. See letter.

*** LUNCH ***

VITA 34, A New Modular Framework

Frank Hom, APW, discussed the status of the VITA 34 project. He is still working on various schemes to implement a satisfactory injector/ejector system that will work between the backplane and the module. Several concepts were discussed. One suggestion was to consider putting the latching mechanism in the chassis rather than the module. Frank will continue to work on the injector/ejector and report at the September meeting.

VITA 39, PCI-X on PMC

Michael Franco, Artesyn, reported on the results of the simulation being done by Tim Minnick, Tyco. Mike has compiled the results into a table. Several issues remain to be resolved and some additional simulations may need to be run. Mike will contact Tim. Once the draft is complete it will be submitted for a working group ballot.

VITA 32, Processor PMC

Greg Novak reported on the changes made to the draft as a result of addressing comments from the working group ballot. There were no objections to the changes so the draft will be moved to the ANSI process.

*** BREAK ***

VITA 40, Status Indicator Standard Report

Danny Cohen, Sun, gave the report for Craig Hartly who was not able to attend the meeting. Several issues remain to be resolved. When they are taken care of, the draft will be circulated for ballot.

Danny gave a short presentation on optical communications. See presentation.

There being no more business for the day, the meeting was adjourned until Thursday morning.

Thursday, July 18, 2002

The meeting was called to order at 8:36 AM. Elwood presented the minutes from the May VSO meeting for approval. The minutes were accepted as written.

No working group meetings were held.

Status reports for each working group were given.

VITA 1.5, 2eSST

The best way of including the TI part in the draft was discussed. Once a decision is reached, the draft will be subjected to the ANSI process.

VITA 1.7, Increased Current DIN Connector

The draft is almost ready for a working group ballot. The working group will hold a teleconference after the VITA 41 teleconference to resolve any final issues.

VITA 17.1, Serial FPDP

The draft will be subjected to a working group ballot and the results will be reported at the September VSO meeting.

VITA 30, 2mm Connector Practice

New connectors are being included in this standard. The draft has been revised and will be posted for comment.

VITA 30.2, 2mm Conduction Cooled

All issues have been resolved. The results of the VITA 30.2 ANSI canvass ballot will be forwarded to ANSI for recognition.

VITA 31, Serial I/O on 2mm Connector

VITA 31.1, Gbit Ethernet on VME64x

The VITA 31 and VITA 31.1 draft standards have been updated from the previous working group ballot. The ballot committees are being reformed and a new working group ballot will be held.

VITA 32, Processor PMC

Final issues with the working group ballot have been resolved. VITA 32 will be submitted to the ANSI canvass ballot process.

VITA 34, New Framework

Frank Hom continues to work on a satisfactory solution for the injector/ejector mechanism.

VITA 36, PIM

Greg Novak will review the status of VITA 36 and determine what needs to be done next. This effort has been inactive while Greg completed VITA 32.

VITA 38, System Management for VMEbus

The draft has been completed and will be submitted to the ANSI canvass process.

VITA 39, PCI-X on PMC

Several issues remain with the simulations. Mike Franco will contact Tim Minnick and determine what else need to be done.

VITA 40, Status Indicator Standard

The draft is almost ready for release to the working group.

VITA 41, VXS

The base level draft will be released to a working group ballot.

New Mezzanine Study Group

Mike Franco and Greg Novak have been named co-chairs. They will produce a report for the September meeting with proposals for a new mezzanine standard.

John discussed the meeting schedule for 2003. Suggestions were reviewed for July and September. John will investigate these venues and report at the September meeting.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.

Submitted by

/s/John Rynearson, VITA Secretariat