VSO Minutes
September 2002
[EditorÕs Note: All material submitted for the VSO meeting is available for download at the following URL: http://www.vita.com/vso/vso200209/ or through the links in the minutes. Most of the downloads are in PDF. Several are in Powerpoint (*.ppt) because they generated very large PDF files.]
Elwood Parsons, VSO chair, called the meeting to order at 8:25 AM and asked members to introduce themselves. The agenda was reviewed and several additions were made. The agenda as revised was accepted.
No announcements were made.
Patent Policy
John Rynearson, VITA, presented the VSO and ANSI patent policies and asked for patent disclosures. No disclosures were made.
VITA Report
Ray Alderman gave the VITA report. The 2003 Bus&Board conference is scheduled for January 20-21 in Long Beach, CA. Several sponsor slots are still available. Manufacturers interested in attending should contact Ray. Ray discussed company acquisitions and the current state of the telecommunications industry. While the telcomm market is down, medical and mil-cots VME markets are up. Ray noted VME interface chip sales have doubled in the last four quarters.
John Rynearson reported on the status of current standards. See presentation.
John Rynearson discussed the issue of connector licensing and standards. See presentation.
VITA Europe Report
Hermann Strass, VITA Europe Technical Coordinator, gave a report on VITA European activities. Hermann noted that his son is a patent attorney in Europe and that much more effort is put into determining whether a new idea is actually Ònew and non obviousÓ before the patent is granted. Hermann discussed why VMEbus continues to be a popular technology. See attachment.
New Mezzanine Report
Greg Novak, Motorola, gave a report on the information he had collected since the last meeting. See presentation. He discussed coordinating efforts with the RAPIDIO trade association which is interested in developing an enhanced PMC module with RAPIDIO capability.
John Rynearson presented slides for a hot swap mezzanine prepared by Mike Franco, Artesyn who was unable to attend the meeting.
After discussion the group decided to circulate two signup sheets. One was for an enhanced non-swap mezzanine approach and the other was for a hot swappable mezzanine.
Jim Robles, Boeing, gave a presentation titled ÒSome Thoughts on a High Power Module Form Factor/Cooling Standard for an ÒOpen SystemÓÓ. See attachment(ppt).
*** LUNCH ***
Spray Cooling
Rex Harvey, Parker Aerospace, gave an overview of their companyÕs capabilities in microflow technology and presented some concepts for using this technology to implement spray cooling.
VITA 34 Cooling Update
Dave Tilton, ISR, gave an overview on spray cooling techniques, reviewed the VITA 34 cooling simulation, and explained the ÒdesificationÓ program at ISR. See presentation(ppt).
Larry Thompson, CRANE, stated his desire to restart the VITA 34 cooling effort. A signup list was circulated.
Bob Downing reviewed the history of VITA 34. Frank Hom, APW, discussed the current work on the injector/ejector. See presentation(ppt).
Gino Nanninga, Positronics, discussed the status of the power connector.
Elwood Parsons, Tyco, talked about the High Speed Backplane Initiative. More information can be found at the following URL: http://www.hsbi.org/
VITA 39 PCI-X on PMC Draft Review
Greg Novak, discussed the changes he has made to the latest draft based on the conclusions reached in the PCI-X PMC simulation. Greg will clean up the draft and it will be posted for a working group ballot.
VITA 40, Status Indicator Standard
Danny Cohen, Sun, reviewed the features of VITA 40 and commented on recent progress. See presentation. The current draft will be posted and a working group ballot will be held shortly
VITA 41, VXS
Jeff Harris, Motorola, gave an update on the status of the VXS drafts. Currently Henry Wong is investigating a mechanical alignment issue. When this issue is resolved (within several weeks) a recirculation of the previous working group ballot will be held.
Dick DeBock, Thales, asked to form a working group to put StarFabric on VXS. The effort would be known as VITA 41.5. See proposal. A signup list was circulated for VITA 41.5.
Jim Fedder, Tyco, reviewed the connector layout changes which were circulated on the VITA 41 reflector. The new drawings will be included in the draft as soon as the alignment issue has been resolved.
There being no more business for the day, the VSO meeting was adjourned until Thursday morning.
Elwood Parsons called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM. No announcements were made.
Dick Debock discussed the need to define differential routing from pn4 on a PMC module to VMEbus P0. He noted that ANSI/VITA 35 defines pn4 to P0 mapping, but it doesnÕt work well for differential pairs. Dick Somes stated that a PICMG committee was working on mapping pn4 on PMC to the CompactªPCI connectors. A signup list was circulated to form a study group. Dick will investigate the issue and report back at the next VSO meeting.
Working Group Reports
VITA 1.5, 2eSST. The working group will be reformed to resolve the issue of how to add a reference to the new TI transceiver. After a successful working group ballot the draft will be moved to the ANSI canvass process. See sign-up list.
VITA 1.7, Enhanced Current DIN Connector. All comments from the recent working group ballot were accepted. Having met the VSO 75/75 rule in the previous working group ballot, VITA 1.7 will be moved to the ANSI canvass process.
VITA 17.1, Serial FPDP. Tony Lavely, Mercury, gave the VITA 17.1 report provided by Ron Tauton, Systran, who could not attend the meeting. See RonÕs report below.
1. First task
group ballot completed. Out of 20
potential voters, 11
actually cast ballots, with 4 approves and 7 disapproves.
2. I sent out
a request for anyone who didn't vote to let me know if they want to stay on the
ballot, and I received 1 affirmative.
3. It is my
plan to limit the next task group ballot to 12 -- the 11 who voted and the 1
who requested to remain on the ballot.
4. I have
complete draft 0.8, which includes the comments / recommendations for the
balloting process.
5. My plan was
to do a short review within the task group prior to
publishing draft 0.8.
This would allow me to make any small changes prior to the next
ballot. I attempted to email via
the reflector (VITA17dot1) the new draft plus some supporting documents to
initiate this review, but was not able to because of file size
limitations. (I then emailed the
message plus attachments directly to John Rynearson and asked if he could sent
it out to the group -- this was on Friday evening.
6. My intent
is to have the internal task group review -- with changes due back to me by
September 27.
7. I will then
publish the draft and immediately conduct another task group ballot. If the draft doesn't get distributed
until I return, the process may be delayed a week or so.
ANSI/VITA 30, 2mm Equipment Practice on Euroboard. The working group is examining adding more connectors to this standard. ERNI has provided the drawings for the 2mm ZD connector. Mike Thompson will update the draft. The group discussed whether or not to include the VITA 41 P0 connector and additional form factors.
VITA 31, Serial I/O on 2mm Connectors
VITA 31.1, Gigabit Ethernet on VME64x Backplanes
Results from the previous working group ballots have been incorporated into both drafts. A signup list was circulated to reform the working group. Another working group ballot will be held and then the drafts will be forwarded to the ANSI canvass process.
VITA 32, Processor PMC
This effort has been moved to the ANSI canvass process. Ballot participants are being solicited. Contact John Rynearson techdir@vita.com if you wish to participate in the canvass ballot. Membership in VITA is not required. The ballot will begin at the end of October.
VITA 34, A New Framework for Modular Embedded Processing
The working group discussed how best to proceed with VITA 34. Larry Thompson, CRANE, indicated that providing high capacity thermal management options has become very important to the military. A signup list for VITA 34 cooling was circulated. The group also discussed whether or not the VITA 34 4U form factor was adequate for military needs. Bob Downing discussed the concept of VITA 34 as being a box or module standard rather than a board standard. The group will continue to review these issues and report their results at the next VSO meeting.
VITA 36, PMC IO Module Standard (PIM)
Greg Novak, Motorola, will clean up the VITA 36 draft and it will be submitted to a working group ballot.
VITA 39, PCI-X on PMC
Greg Novak will revise the draft. A working group ballot will be held before the November VSO meeting.
VITA 40, Status Indicator Standard
A working group ballot will be held within the next two weeks to solicit comments on the VITA 40 draft.
VITA 41, VXS
A recirculation ballot will be held as soon as the alignment pin and connector tolerancing issue has been resolved.
VITA 42, High Speed Processor PMC
This new working group will coordinate with the RAPIDIO trade association to develop a modified PMC standard to accommodate the use of high speed fabrics.
John Rynearson reviewed the tentative meeting calendar for 2003. Confirmed dates will be listed on the VSO web page and announced at the next VSO meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 AM.
Submitted by
/s/John Rynearson, VITA Secretariate