Huntsville, Ala. – February 23, 2006 – GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, a unit of GE Industrial, today announced that it has joined the board of directors of VITA, the trade association dedicated to fostering open systems architecture in a variety of embedded systems applications.
Jim Berlin, Vice President of Hardware Technology will serve as GE Fanuc’s primary representative on the VITA board. “GE Fanuc’s long standing commitment to the VMEbus standard is rooted in our focus on providing solutions for today and driving the technology of the future,” he said. “We look forward to remaining active on new committees and working groups to bring state-of-the-art technologies to the industry.”
GE Fanuc Embedded Systems has been designing and developing VMEbus products since 1986 and has been an integral part of industry standard activities on this platform for the past 20 years.
GE Fanuc Embedded Systems has been successful in promoting a new mezzanine standard working group referred to as “VITA 56.” VITA 56 enables a modular building block design for both industry standard and proprietary Host Boards. This specification enables larger markets with more unique functions and creates economies of scale that lower prices.
Ray Alderman, executive director of VITA said, “Our continuing goal is to unite manufacturers and users through the acceptance and implementation of open technology standards. The strength of our organization lies in the dedication of our membership and their commitment to the VME standard and the industries it serves. To that end, we are very excited that GE Fanuc Embedded Systems will be joining the board of directors of VITA.”
The VITA Standards Organization (VSO) provides its members with the ability to develop and to promote open technology standards. The VSO has created more than 30 standards in the past 10 years that promote open technology systems; all the VSO standards are extensions of or related to the original VMEbus standard of 1981. In military and defense embedded computing applications, VME is the most widely used open standard in existence.
About VITA
VITA is an incorporated, non-profit organization of vendors and users having a common market interest. Founded in 1984, VITA believes in and champions open system architectures as opposed to proprietary system architectures. VITA’s activities are international in scope. The functions performed by VITA are technical, promotional, and user-related, and are aimed at increasing the total market size, providing vendors with additional market exposure, and providing users with timely technical information. For information about VITA membership, or to find out how to obtain VITA specifications, visit the VITA website at www.vita.com, or call VITA headquarters at (480) 837-7486.
About GE Fanuc Embedded Systems
GE Fanuc Embedded Systems is part of GE Fanuc Automation, a joint venture between GE and FANUC LTD of Japan. GE Fanuc delivers automation hardware and software designed to help users reduce costs, increase efficiency and enhance profitability. With solutions and services catering to virtually every industrial segment, GE Fanuc Automation provides a diverse array of capabilities and products, including controllers, embedded systems, advanced software, motion control, CNCs, operator interfaces, industrial computers, and lasers. Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA, GE Fanuc Automation is a part of GE Industrial and combines the diverse global strengths of the GE family with the local presence customers need to design, develop and maintain their automation investments.
For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com/embedded or contact: GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, 12090 S. Memorial Pkwy, Huntsville, AL 35803, Phone: (800) 322-3616, Fax: (256) 882-0859, e-mail: [email protected].