(Editors's Note: All links are to PDF files unless otherwise noted.)

Bob Downing called the meeting to order at 8:15 AM and asked members to introduce themselves. The minutes from the May meeting were approved as written. The agenda was reviewed and a VITA 35 task group meeting was scheduled for 9 AM on Thursday.

Bob Downing asked for general announcements.

John Rynearson noted that Bob Downing was the 1999 recipient of the CANPS (Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Sciences) Award. The honor was conferred at the Real Time Conference in Santa Fe, NM, June 14-18, 1999. The membership congratulated Bob on his accomplishment.

John reviewed the VSO Patent Policy (see attached overheads) and asked members if they had any patent information re: ongoing standards that they wanted to present. No patents were presented.

Ray Alderman noted that several companies had received new letters from Nortel regarding their patents, but that no other action had taken place.

John Rynearson discussed VITA's intentions for providing on-line standards and standards on CD-ROM's. John said that he plans to have standards on-line by the end of Q3.

John reported on standards in the ANSI process. VITA 29 has passed the VSO 75/75 rule and will be moved to ANSI canvass ballot. Holly Sherfinski, Harting, and chair of VITA 1.6 stated that she is working on revising the draft for a recirculation ballot. She said she expects to have the revisions completed within several weeks. VITA 5.1, Raceway Interlink, has completed it public review. The canvass ballot period has been extended until July 31 to give more time to balloters. So far all ballots received have been affirmative. VITA 18 is in ballot review and is awaiting an update to some drawings before a recirculation ballot can begin. See attached overheads.

John reported on the status of IEEE P1386 and P1386.1. Wayne Fischer, chair of the working group for P1386 notified John that he will not be able to work on revising the drafts until sometime later in the year and asked John to ask for volunteers at the VSO meeting. Completing P1386 involves revising the draft based on the last working group ballot and then putting the draft forward for sponsor ballot within the IEEE. John asked anyone interested in completing the draft to contact him.

Hermann Strass, VITA Europe Technical Coordinator, reported on recent European activities. Hermann noted the need for a marketing brochure to promote VME to new users. Hermann discussed recent and upcoming European electronic shows, conformance issues, and presented an update on CE certification. Hermann pointed out that PFC (Power Factor Correction) becomes mandatory on January 1, 2001. PFC should be built into new designs, re-designs or demanded in contracts for power supplies. This is much cheaper than last-minute add-ons. See attached material.

Gerry Thomas, NWSC, Crane, gave a presentation on CRANE's "Product and Technology Surveillance Initiative" program. Gerry has put together a program to help the Navy do a better job with product planning and handling end-of-life issues. One of the biggest problems with running the program is getting data from manufacturers in a timely and efficient manner. Usually companies are willing to provide such information, but many telephone calls and follow-ups are required. Gerry asked the membership how they would feel about providing this data via web based forms. In exchange Gerry would be willing to provide the company with the Navy's product procurement forecasts for their products. Some members expressed concern with the data getting old and important decisions being made on it. Gerry explain that the goal was to update the information every 3-6 months in an effort to avoid this problem. If you are interested in participating in this program, contact Gerry Thomas at thomas_g@crane.navy.mil. See attached overhead presentation.

*** BREAK ***

Ray Alderman noted that he had found a large number of web sites that provide electronic parts information. He also discussed how members should use the press release reflectors to increase the chances that editors would pick up their new product announcements. Ray discussed the issue with the .18 micron process used by Intel that is RAD hard because of its small geometry. Wade Peterson noted that encryption is becoming an issue when trying to export electronic technology.

Wade Peterson, Silicore, gave a presentation titled "System-on-a-Chip (SOC) and Its Effect on Microcomputers Bus Products". Wade noted that SOC technology is still in its early stages, but that it will have a tremendous impact on how engineers design future board products. Wade has developed several IP core products and he discussed his plans for VMEbus interface cores. Contact Wade at peter299@maroon.tc.umn.edu for more information or see his web site at: http://www.silicore.net. See attached overhead presentation.

*** LUNCH ***

After lunch Bob Downing adjourned the VSO meeting for individual task group meetings.

Mike Thompson called the VITA 31, Serial Interconnects on P0, task group meeting to order and reviewed the draft document. Most of the discussion centered around the optimum arrangement of signals on the P0 connector. Danny Cohen presented his ideas. Dennis Terry asked why signals should be staggered if the connector had to support a full load of signals. Steve Pavola suggested that four and eight ports would be the most common implementations. Mike will collected the suggestions via the vita31 reflector and put them into the revised draft. See attachments.

Ed Barsotti and Bob Downing discussed their ideas for a next generation architecture based on high speed serial interconnects. Bob discussed the reasons for requiring a new architecture to meet future needs and Ed presented some of the ideas for this new architecture. See attached overheads.

After discussion the membership decided to move this activity to task group status and several members indicated that they would act as sponsors. Once three sponsor letters have been received, this activity will be designated as a task group and a task group number will be assigned. A signup list for this activity was circulated.

Other task group meetings held included: VITA 20, VITA 30, VITA 30.1, VITA 30.2,

VITA 30, VITA 32, and VITA 36.

Task group chairs are responsible for keeping minutes of their respective task group meetings.

The VSO meeting was called to order at 8:10 AM. Bob noted that two more task group meetings were scheduled and then the plenary would start at 10 AM. The VSO meeting was adjourned.

Mac Rush called the 2eSST task group meeting to order and discussed comments from the previous task group ballot. Open issues include geographical addressing and drivers.

Ed Barsotti discussed the efforts of the VITA 2.1 task group and how they related to 2eSST. See attached overheads.

Jing Kwok called the VITA 35 task group meeting to order and discussed the comments received from the task group ballot. All issues were resolved except for one authored by Holly Sherfinski. Jing will discussed this issue with Holly.

*** BREAK ***

Bob called the VSO meeting to order at 10:05 AM and asked for task group reports.

VITA 1.5 - Mac stated that he would like to resolve open issues by the September VSO meeting.

VITA 2.1 - Ed Barsotti noted that a teleconference meeting was tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 28 to further define overall strategy.

VITA 20 - Hans Ohman, DY4, reported that the task group met yesterday and resolved a number of issues. The draft will be revised and re-balloted for review at the September meeting.

VITA 27 - Mike Thompson gave a short update on P2CI status. A P2CI backplane has been tested running both PCI and VMEbus signals on P2 at the same time. It was originally intended to run P2CI at 33 Mhz but it runs fine at 50 Mhz. Neither VME or PCI signals seem to interfere with each other. A more formal report is expected at the next VSO meeting.

VITA 29 - Herman Strass noted that he introduced small form factor PCI two years ago in July when the VSO held its last meeting in Vancouver. This idea evolved into PC•MIP and now was being submitted to ANSI as a proposed standard. Hermann thanks all those for their efforts and noted that PC•MIP products were now available and information about actual applications was submitted. See attached material..

VITA 30 - Elwood Parsons noted that VITA 30 has passed the VSO 75/75 voting rule and he asked that it be moved to ANSI canvass ballot.

VITA 30.1 - Dick Somes reported that the task group had reviewed a number of issues. A new draft will be created and circulated via the cc2mm reflector for comment. This draft will include the 3U form factor. A task group ballot will be held after the September meeting. See attachments.

VITA 30.2 - Elwood Parsons noted that this effort is just getting started. A preliminary draft should be available by the September meeting.

VITA 32 - Mac Rush reported on VITA 32 for Greg Novak. The current draft is at 2.1. A new draft should be available within two weeks for balloting and review before the September meeting.

VITA 33 - Ron Taulton stated that a preliminary document is being developed.

VITA 35 - Jing Kwok stated that VITA 35 has been revised based on comments received from the task group ballot. The draft will be re-circulated and assuming no negative responses will be moved to ANSI ballot.

VITA 36 - The task group discussed several issues including power pins and where power will come from. A preliminary draft will be posted on the VITA web site next week.

The membership reviewed future meetings for 1999 and John Rynearson ask them to think about locations for July 2000. Bob Downing adjourned the meeting at 10:48 AM.

Respectively submitted,

/s/ John Rynearson, VITA Secretariat