VSO Meeting - Resort Suites, Scottsdale, AZ

Wednesday, Nov 15, and Thursday, Nov 16, 2006

McDowell Room

Subject	Presenter	Comments
Call VSO meeting to order Introductions, Agenda Review Announcements, Minutes Approval	Elwood Parsons, VSO Chair	The meeting mood was saddened by the news of the death of our technical director’s mother. He was unable to attend as a result, and we had to forge ahead without his usual highly valuable input and guidance.
IP Issues - Patent Policy Review - Call for Patent Disclosures	Elwood Parsons, VSO Chair	Elwood reviewed the ANSI and VITA patent policy and asked for disclosures. None were made.
Standards Report	John Rynearson, Tech Dir, VITA	No report was given.
Review and Vote on Proposed Changes to ANSI and VSO P&P as a Result of ANSI Audit Recommendations	Elwood Parsons, VSO Chair	The issue of reaffirmation of VITA 29 (PC-MIP) was discussed. It was reported that MEM and GE were not interested in reaffirming and a motion was made by Chris Eckert and seconded by Doug Patterson to withdraw this standard from ANSI accreditation and maintain it as a VITA specification. The motion passed 32-0-1. The proposed changes to the VSO PP and ANSI/VITA Procedures were reviewed and discussed. Doug Patterson moved to approve the proposed changes. Dean Holman seconded. The motion passed 32-0-0.
Ex Ante Report - (Vote on Ex Ante will take place at January VSO Meeting)	Ray Alderman, Exec Dir, VITA	Of key interest at this meeting was the ex ante proposals, which have been vetted and approved by the US Department of Justice and are being balloted by the VITA Board of Directors. This will be voted by the VSO at the January 2007 meeting. There was lengthy discussion of this issue and the only negative comments were from one representative who had a “what if” that concerned a company’s inability to determine the terms and conditions on “new or in development” technology. Most attendees were not concerned about this issue. In essence, this procedure will mandate public disclosure of IP terms and conditions when the IP is announced, mandate the disclosure of all IP relevant to the topic/standard, and forbid changes to the announced terms and conditions unless they are reduced. A lengthy discussion followed the presentation of the ex ante material. Ray and Elwood agreed that VITA would send an email to the membership that reiterated the ex ante voting rules (note that voting rights are determined by attendance at 2 of the PREVIOUS 4 meetings. Thus, voting eligibility for January has been determined by attendance at this – the November meeting – and the three meetings prior to that.). The email will also list, by name, the eligible voters. Anyone having an issue with the list must contact John or Elwood by December 31 to have it resolved.
*** BREAK ***
Working Group Reports	(10 Minutes Each)
VITA 17.2, 10 Gbit Serial FPDP Report	Ralph Barrera, Curtiss-Wright	See presentation.
VITA 41.6, VXS Control Plane	Michael Bonato, DRS-SS	See presentation.
VITA 41.7, Processor Mesh	Michael Munroe, Elma Bustronic	No progress in this effort.
VITA 42 Connector Issues	David Givens, Samtec
VITA 46, VPX Status Report	Stewart Dewar, Curtiss-Wright	See presentation. The primary decision to be made by the group was whether or not to send the documents on to ANSI balloting. There was significant dissent and the vote was deferred to a later meeting. There have been several people express interest in an optical backplane version of VITA 46. This would have a transceiver embedded on the rear of the backplane for optical cable hookup with the ability to plug a board with the appropriate interface onto connections on the front side of the backplane. This is in the very early stages at this point, but there is sufficient interest that the group has asked the originators for additional input.
VITA 48, REDI	Mike Gust, Mercury Computer	See presentation. Major issues concern discrepancies between conduction and air cooled backplane sizes and features and the inability to interchange them, ruggedness and stiffness of the backplanes, insertion/extraction handle incompatibility between the two cooling architectures, mechanical shielding of the connectors as part of the two level maintenance requirements, tool-less wedge clamps, fault indicators that remain active when system power is removed, and safety ground concerns. There was a lengthy review of the open issues. The base and the .1 subsidiary documents are nearing completion. Efforts are now concentrating on other subsidiary standards.
VITA 49, Digital IF	Aaron Kaiway, Spectrum Signal	This group has been holding weekly telecons and face to face meetings as needed. They are working to produce a new draft by December.
VITA 50, Cooling	Rex Harvey, Parker Hannifin	The material amassed to date will be assembled into a “best practices” document and balloted to become a VITA standard. It will not, at this time be put forth for ANSI approval. Additional cooling related information will continue to be collected and added on a regular basis.
VITA 51, Reliability Prediction	Charles Falardeau, Curtis-Wright	See presentation.
VITA 53, Market Surveillance	Stephen Cecil, CRANE	No report was given. It was announced, however, that the study group has signed up a third sponsor and is now an official working group.
*** LUNCH ***
VITA 55 Aurora on VME Report	Andy Reddig, Tek Microsystems, Inc.	The base and “.1” standards are still scheduled to be put into ballot and a plugfest is being considered.
VITA 56, EMC	David Slaton, GE	See presentation. This effort has slowed somewhat, but now seems to be viewed as a needed application. GE will proceed to develop the specification and are building physical models of the architecture.
VITA 57 Status	Malachy Devlin, Nallatech	No report was given.
VITA 58, Electronic Module Integration	Michael Humphrey, AP Labs	No report was given. Ray announced that progress has been impeded by legal (ITAR) issues. This may be resolved shortly and the group can resume working on their standard. The VSO meeting was adjourned
VITA 46 Working Group Meeting		See working group web pages for individual working group minutes.
VITA 48 Working Group Meeting
Adjourn Meetings

Thursday, Nov 16, 2006

Breakfast – 7:00 to 8:00 AM

Time	Subject	Presenter	Comments
8:00 AM	Call Meeting to Order Announcements, etc.	Elwood Parsons, VSO Chair	No announcements were made.
8:15 AM	Future Meetings	Elwood Parsons, VSO Chair	A general discussion of next years’ meetings was held. Many of the meeting locals are in flux because of uncertainty in the locations of the MEECC conference in May and because of reluctance by the Resort Suites to host us. Sentiments for future meetings were: · March -- either Phoenix (if MEECC is held in another location in May) or Florida · May – Long Beach with MEECC (if MEECC can resolve their hotel issues) or Phoenix if the March meeting is other than Phoenix · July – Vancouver is an overwhelming favorite. Other suggestions included Chicago (only one supporter) and an East coast locale. Salt Lake City received no support.
08:30 AM	VSO Meeting Adjournment		Gerry Thomas moved to adjourn. Andy Reddig seconded and the motion passed by acclimation. (Note that Gerry is retiring from Crane and this is his last meeting.)

Other Meetings

Time	Working Group	Conference Room	Comments
8:30 AM - 5 PM	VITA 51, Reliability Working Group Meeting	Main Meeting Room	See working group web page.
9 AM - 10 AM	VITA Marketing Group Meeting	TBD	Contact Jerry Gipper re: VMG activities.