BUS&BOARD CONFERENCE – LONG BEACH, CA – January 16, 2006 – VITA, the international association of companies supporting the VME open standard for modular embedded computing systems, has launched the beginning of its jubilee year celebrating the success of the VME technology standard. VITA made the announcement today at the opening ceremonies of its annual Bus&Board Conference.
The VME technology open standard is the only open set of computing standards that enables the modular construction of embedded computers for applications ranging from commercial to extremely harsh environments.
According to VITA, VME technology is found in thousands of applications and has shipped more than 25 million products where precision, reliability and durability under extreme real-world conditions are mandatory requirements. The top markets for VME-based products are military and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) systems, high-end industrial controls, medicine and healthcare, transportation, scientific instrumentation, and communications equipment. Because it is an open specification, VME technology has found its way into a myriad of products ranging from missile systems and interplanetary exploration to sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
Ray Alderman, executive director of VITA, described the value of the VME standard, saying, “No open architecture in the history of the embedded computer industry has grown and prospered for 25 years except VME. Many other computing standards have come and gone because they no longer added value for the manufacturers and users of those technologies. VME continues to flourish worldwide because the specifications continually incorporate the newest technologies, thanks to the collective efforts of the members in the VITA Standards Organization.”
Success Attributes of the VME Technology
The VME technology creates and maintains an open architecture standard that evolves with technology to remain state-of-the-art. This allows companies to use the technology in products from generation to generation. This has a significant impact because it extends product life cycles and allows companies to save the costs associated with new-product development cycles.
The VITA organization sustains an ecosystem that strongly supports the standard. VITA provides technical expertise to evolve the standard and maintain a large base of industry recognized suppliers with broad VME technology product portfolios.
VME’s History
The VME technology open standard was launched on October 21, 1981 by Motorola, Mostek, Signetics/Philips, and Thomson CSF. The four companies joined together to announce a 16-/32-bit parallel computing bus that was loosely based on the 68000 processor bus. The goal was to have a cooperatively developed, public-domain standard for embedded computing that was backed by an independent organization to provide stewardship and strong promotion. VME has since been recognized as an embedded computing architecture of choice for applications ranging from commercial to military and from office to harsh, ruggedized environments.
VITA has ANSI and IEC accreditation for the development of standards for embedded computers, including critical applications and harsh environments, to enable VITA to be the steward of VME technology.
In 1983, 45 companies listed a total of 196 products in the first industry buyers’ directory. In 2006 there are more than 85 companies worldwide listed with thousands of products.
VME technology has evolved substantially over the years. Over 35 complimentary specifications have been approved which enhance performance and capability. VMEbus bandwidth has improved from the original 10 MB/s to over 300 MB/s in today’s products. The VME technology roadmap is supported by activities (VXS and VPX) with switch fabrics where the aggregate system bandwidth will exceed 100GB/s. VMEbus technology continues to evolve to be faster, more durable, and more system friendly than ever before.
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.
VME Technology Standards Application Examples
Aerospace
Automotive
Biometrics
DoD C4ISR
Data Acquisition/Control
Energy
Imaging
Industrial
Navigation/Guidance
Oil & Gas
Planetary Exploration
Robotics
Security
Simulation & Training