Happy 25th birthday, VME!

Hello readers:

Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006, is VME’s 25th birthday! No other architecture in the history of technology-based capitalism has ever made it to 25 years. The original founders of VME gave us an amazing legacy, and a billion-dollar-per-year industry that has prospered for all those years. The present members of VITA and VSO have done a stellar job of continuing the goals of the original founders, and the next 25 years are bright with promise.

The basic foundation of VME is backward compatibility from generation to generation of new products. That is the cornerstone of VME’s popularity and prosperity. We have integrated 25 years’ worth of new technology into VME products, and they all still interoperate. That is the value proposition customers appreciate and expect from VITA’s follow-on standards and VITA-compliant products.

As we start the next 25 years of VME, I am very excited about the tremendous opportunities for VME, VITA members, and their products. Markets have shifted, technology has changed, and VME is still the primary open architecture in the world in sales and market share. VME is the only open architecture that made it to $1 billion in sales per year, and has been able to maintain the $1 billion sales mark for more than five years. Many other buses have come and gone during the past 25 years, and they rest in obscurity on the scrap heap of technology. And, we will see other existing architectures wilt and die in the next few years while VME continues to grow and prosper.

Starting Monday, Oct. 23, you will be seeing a number of press releases abut VME’s 25th birthday. And you will also see releases on numerous new Web activities, special publications coverage, and many new Web services from our VITA Media Partners. We will kick off the next 25 years of VME at B&B in January in Long Beach, California and continue the VME celebration through next year.

So, to all of you who continue to design VME products and support your VME customers, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!