Leading COTS embedded board, subsystem and backplane and enclosure vendors, including Curtiss-Wright Controls, Elma Electronic, Carlo Gavazzi, and X-ES Inc have issued a joint statement of support for the proven open standard approach to the development of bus and board system architectures. The companies wish to reiterate and reinforce the importance of maintaining the integrity and openness of the VITA Standards Organization (VSO), an arm of the industry’s most successful and long-lived trade association of which each of the companies is a member.
The companies jointly issued the following statement:
“The cooperative work of the members of the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) resulted in the creation and evolution of VME, for over 25 years the de facto board architecture of choice for the aerospace and defense market, and, more recently, VPX (VITA 46/48), a higher performance, more flexible enhancement to VME. The spirit of ‘coopetition’ and openness that brought VSO’s members, including competing vendors and users, together for the common good of the industry reflects and embodies the standards body’s basic principles that ensure fairness, inclusion and consensus for all participants. These principles have fostered and guided the success of VITA since its inception in 1984, then under the stewardship of VITA’s founding director Lyman C. Hevle, and the VSO one of the electronics industry’s most respected standards body, since its formation in 1993.
We recognize the importance of defining an open specification for system-level VPX interoperability, but we also believe that this work is best done within the existing, proven model of the VSO Working Group system. The open forum provided by VITA is the right and best place for the industry to cooperatively develop the critical new VPX initiatives destined for use by important customers such as the US military.
We recommend the formation of a VSO Working Group on VPX interoperability for VITA 46 (VPX) to help resolve issues and speed the development of a common VPX backplane architecture while ensuring that no single company or selective group of companies is able to exert undo influence on the specification and unfairly benefit from the cooperative work of all the member companies who have contributed resources and efforts over many years to the standard’s development.”
The VSO’s fundamental principle, as stated on VITA’s website is: “Within the VSO no one individual holds the power to decide what technology may become a standard — that power belongs solely to the membership.” The joint statement above is made in the spirit of this principle.
Ray Alderman, Executive Director of VITA stated “VITA welcomes the formation of systems-level standards committees in the VSO. Gathering and comparing documents within, and from outside organizations, the new VSO working group can come to a consensus on the specification content, within the traditional open-standards process. The VSO must serve the user community’s needs by completing the specification quickly”.
“One claim we’ve heard is that VITA does not move fast enough,” said Mike Hornby, Director of Marketing, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing. “I think everyone who has participated in a standards body knows that its far less the standard body’s processes and policies that cause delays than it is the time each participating member has available to dedicate to writing and editing a specification in progress. Another key factor that determines the speed of standards development is the ability of working group members to facilitate and move forward on a reasonable time frame.”
“To help speed the standards process along, a new VSO Working Group to define VPX interoperability should be established. This subcommittee should openly and proactively report their progress and their significant achievement milestones to VITA members at large,” said Justin Moll, Director of Marketing at Elma Bustronic and Marketing Manager of Elma Electronic Inc. “This approach would encourage constructive feedback about progress and timetables for completion, both from participating working group members and the general VITA membership. It would also ensure that the standards process remain open, fair, and consistent with the procedures as prescribed in the VSO charter.”
About Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is the defense and aerospace industry’s most comprehensive and experienced single source for rugged embedded computing solutions. Our complete portfolio of products includes processing, data communications, digital signal processing, video and graphics, recording and storage, analog acquisition and reconstruction, radar and integrated subsystems. All our quality products are architected with the most advanced technology for a rugged environment and are enhanced by services such as life cycle management and custom engineering. As part of the Motion Control division of Curtiss-Wright, our focus on engineering excellence is based on more than a century of innovation that includes some of the most important advancements in aviation pioneered by our founders, Glenn Curtiss and Orville and Wilbur Wright. For more information about Curtiss-Wright visit www.cwcembedded.com
About Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Curtiss-Wright Controls is the motion control segment of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW). With manufacturing facilities around the world, Curtiss-Wright Controls is a leading technology-based organization providing niche motion control products, subsystems and services internationally for the aerospace and defense markets. For more information, visit www.cwcontrols.com.
About Elma Electronic
Elma Electronic Inc. is a leading manufacturer and supplier of enclosures, backplanes, cabinets, cases, and “ready-to-run” packaging for ATCA, CPCI, MicroTCA, Rugged COTS, VME/64x, VXS, VPX, and custom bus structures.. Elma’s component product line offers a wide selection of top quality switches knobs and LED arrays. The company has been a worldwide supplier of dependable, high performance products for over 35 years. Elma operates three facilities in the continental United States plus has locations in Switzerland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Israel. For more information visit www.elma.com
About Carlo Gavazzi
Based in Brockton, Mass., Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions is an innovative leader in system architecture for computing platforms. The company engineers solutions for the military, industrial and telecom industries and offers core product lines in electronic packaging, serial I/O and system expansion. All products are manufactured in the United States and comply with VITA, PICMG and PCI-Sig standards.
Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions is a sister company of Carlo Gavazzi Automation Components and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carlo Gavazzi AG, a publicly-traded, global electronics group. For more information on Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions, visit www.gavazzi-computing.com
About X-ES Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc. (X-ES) designs and builds single-board computer and I/O products within the embedded computer industry. X-ES offers cutting-edge performance and flexibility in design plus an unparalleled level of customer support and service. For further information on X-ES products or services, please visit our website: www.xes-inc.com.