The November VITA Standards Organization (VSO) meeting was hosted by Xilinx at their Longmont, CO facility. Over 30 people were in attendance to participate in status updates and several working group discussions. This update is based on the results of this meeting. Visit the VITA website (www.vita.com) for details on upcoming VSO meetings.
ANSI accreditation
Accredited as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developer and a submitter of Industry Trade Agreements to the IEC, the VSO provides its members with the ability to develop and to promote open technology standards. The VSO meets every two months to address embedded bus and board industry standards issues.
VSO study and working group activities
Standards within the VSO may be initiated through the formation of a study group and developed by a working group. A study group requires the sponsorship of one VITA member, and a working group requires sponsorship of at least three VITA members.
Several specifications reached ANSI/VITA accreditation recently:
ANSI/VITA 42.0-2008 (R2014), XMC: Switched Mezzanine Card Base Specification
Objective: This specification defines an open standard for supporting high-speed, switched interconnect protocols on an existing, widely deployed mezzanine card form factor.
Status: Re-ratified by ANSI and VITA.
ANSI/VITA 42.3-2014, XMC: PCI Express Protocol Layer
Objective: The objective of this standard is to define an open standard for supporting PCI Express switched interconnect protocol on the XMC form factor.
Status: Ratified by ANSI and VITA.
ANSI/VITA 61.0-2011 (R2014), XMC 2.0
Objective: This specification, based highly upon VITA 42.0 XMC, defines an open standard for supporting high-speed, switched interconnect protocols on an existing, widely deployed form factor, but utilizing an alternate, ruggedized, high speed mezzanine interconnect.
Status: Ratified by ANSI and VITA.
ANSI/VITA 48.7-2014, VPX REDI: Mechanical Specification Using Air Flow-By Cooling Applied to VPX
Objective: Defines a detailed mechanical implementation for Air Flow-By cooling and sealing technologies applied to plug-in modules, backplanes, and sub-racks as defined in VPX (VITA 46) and VPX REDI (VITA 48).
Status: Ratified by ANSI and VITA.
Work in progress
Several working groups have current project work underway; the following roundup summarizes those projects.
VITA 46.11: System Management on VPX
Objective: This standard defines a system management architecture for VPX systems.
Status: Currently in “VITA Draft Standard for Trial Use” status. Input from the first round of interoperability testing is being incorporated into the specification with plans to move to ANSI ballot in 2015.
ANSI/VITA 49.0: VITA Radio Transport (VRT)
Objective: The VITA Radio Transport (VRT) standard defines a transport-layer protocol designed to promote interoperability between RF (radio frequency) receivers and signal processing equipment in a wide range of applications. The VRT protocol provides a variety of formatting options that allow the transport layer to be optimized for each application. The ANSI/VITA 49.1 VITA Radio Link Layer (VRL) standard specifies an optional encapsulation protocol for VITA-49.0 (VRT) packets.
Status: The working group has reopened this specification for requested updates.
VITA 57.4: FMC
Objective: The goal of this project is to develop a next generation specification calling for a new set of connectors to support higher speed serial interfaces.
Status: The working group has reviewed connector options and is working on a draft specification.
VITA 62: Power Supplies for VPX
Objective: Defines the power generation requirements for a module that can be used to power systems that support a VITA 62 slot on the VPX backplane.
Status: The working group is nearing VSO balloting.
ANSI/VITA 65: OpenVPX Architectural Framework for VPX
Objective: The OpenVPX architectural framework specification is a living document that is continuously being updated with new profile information and corrections.
Status: The working group is currently receiving input on new profiles for the next edition.
VITA 66: Optical Interconnect On VPX – Half Width MT
Objective: The VITA 66 base standard defines physical features of a stand-alone compliant blind mate Optical Interconnect for use in VPX systems. This standard defines a Half Width MT style contact variant.
Status: The working group has completed VSO balloting.
VITA 67.3: VPX: Coaxial Interconnect, 6U, Four Position SMPM Configuration
Objective: This specification details the configuration and interconnect within the structure of VITA 67.0, enabling a 6U VPX interface containing multi-position blind mate analog connectors with up to four SMPM contacts.
Status: The working group has begun work on the draft specification.
VITA 78-NGSIS: SpaceVPX Systems
Objective: This document describes an open standard for creating high-performance, fault tolerant, interoperable backplanes and modules to assemble electronic systems for spacecraft and other high availability applications. Such systems will support a wide variety of use cases across the aerospace community. This standard leverages the OpenVPX standards family and the commercial infrastructure that supports these standards.
Status: Completed final VSO balloting and is preparing to go to public ANSI ballot at the start of 2015.
VITA 80: Interoperability
Objective: This working group is chartered with developing interoperability testing for products within the OpenVPX community. The working group has defined a set of tests and released test software for comments.
Status: The working group completed the first round of interoperability testing in September. The results are being used to improve the test suite for the next round of interoperability tests.
VITA 83: Advanced Rugged Power Supply Standard
Objective: The project will provide guidelines to building a high power, high input voltage power supply module that can be used to power VPX chassis, as well as other Eurocard-sized platforms, and as a standalone network-compatible unit. This draft will also provide guidelines for battery blades, super capacitor/hold up modules, and power conditioning/booster modules.
Participating in these working groups is a great way to influence the direction of the next generations of technology important to the critical embedded computing industry. Contact VITA if you are interested in participating in any of these working groups, and for details on upcoming VSO meetings.
Copies of all specifications reaching ANSI recognition are available from the VITA website. For a more complete list of VITA specs and their status, go to www.vita.com/Specifications
www.vita.com