VITA, the trade association dedicated to fostering American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited, open system architectures in critical embedded system applications today announced the formation of the VPX Marketing Alliance. The purpose of the VPX Marketing Alliance is to continue the work done by the OpenVPX Marketing Working Group in promoting OpenVPX (www.openvpx.com) and establishing an ecosystem of interested parties who will promote the VPX architecture and drive widespread adoption of the VPX specifications and technology. The alliance comprises VPX technology suppliers developing products based on the VPX family of specifications, a list of whom can be found at www.vita.com/vpx.html.
“VPX technology builds on the extended legacy and enormous ecosystem built by VME over more than a quarter of a century, and VPX has now reached a critical stage in its technical development,” said Ray Alderman, executive director of VITA. “The time is therefore right to ensure that all those developers and users who can take advantage of its unique benefits are aware not only of what it can do for their business, but that VPX is ready for prime time. The VPX Marketing Alliance is a major effort by VITA members to ensure that the significant effort that has gone into the technical development of VPX is matched by an equally significant effort to bring it to market.”
The VPX Marketing Alliance is focused on the advancement of the VPX family of technologies, a family which includes VPX, VPX REDI, OpenVPX, and other related activities on the VPX roadmap such as fiber optics and RF.
“Our mission is to spread awareness of the value VPX and OpenVPX interoperability brings to electronic critical embedded systems applications said Hybricon’s Neil Peterson, chairman of the VPX Marketing Alliance. “At the same time, we are promoting the VPX product and service offerings of our member companies.”
Work has been underway on the VPX family of specifications since its introduction in January 2004. The most recent achievement was the completion of the work done by the OpenVPX Working Group that developed the VPX Systems Specification, leveraging the work of the individual VPX standards committees to create better interoperability. This specification was submitted to the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) on October 19, 2009 as VITA 65 and it is undergoing final comment, ballot, and ratification as an ANSI/VITA standard. Ratification of VITA 65 is expected to occur by the end of Q1 2010.
VPX is a broadly defined technology utilizing the latest in a variety of switch fabric technologies in 3U and 6U format modules. OpenVPX is the architecture framework that defines system-level VPX interoperability for multivendor, multimodule, integrated system environments. The OpenVPX framework delineates clear interoperability points necessary for integrating module to module, module to backplane, and chassis. OpenVPX recommends but does not specify development systems to assist in VPX system evaluation, prototyping, and development. OpenVPX will evolve and incorporate new fabric, connector, and system technology as new standards are defined.
The VPX Marketing Alliance has relaunched the VPX website at www.vita.com/vpx.html. Here you will find the latest information on VPX Technology. Also check out the latest products introduced by the members at (www.vita.com/proddir/productsearch.php)
About VITA
Founded in 1984, VITA is an incorporated, non-profit organization of suppliers and users who share a common market interest in critical embedded systems. VITA champions open system architectures. Its activities are international in scope, technical, promotional and user-centric. VITA aims to increase total market size for its members, expand market exposure for suppliers, and deliver timely technical information. VITA has ANSI and IEC accreditation to develop standards (VME, VXS, VPX, OpenVPX, XMC, FMC, etc) for embedded systems used in a myriad of critical applications and harsh environments. For further information, visit www.vita.com .
