BOSTON, 22 Oct. 2009. The OpenVPX Industry Working Group, an alliance of VITA member defense and aerospace prime contractors and embedded computing systems suppliers focused on addressing VPX (VITA 46) system-level interoperability issues in avionics computing and mission computing, has announced the completion of the OpenVPX specification and its release to the VITA 65 working group for quick ratification.
The OpenVPX working group was formed in January 2009 to develop a system level specification that addresses interoperability improvements for the VITA 46 specification. At the initial meeting, the steering committee established objectives such as:
-improving interoperability of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) 3U and 6U VPX single board computers achieved by implementation of predefined system topologies;
- lowering the risk of adoption, expand the addressable market for VPX solutions, increase the market opportunities, and accelerate the deployment of VPX solutions into defense related applications; and
- completing the work no later than October of 2009.
Engineers and officials from 28 VITA member companies worked on the specification, which has now been released to the VITA 65 working group, with the objective of the VITA Standards Organization's (VSO) ratification before year's end.
The OpenVPX System Specification is nearly 400 pages, describing technical implementation details for 3U and 6U VPX payload and switch modules, backplane topologies, and chassis products, which will provide clear guidance to the Defense primes and suppliers on how to build interoperable computing and communication platforms.
VPX is an ANSI standard (ANSI/VITA 46.0-2007) defined by the VME bus International Trade Association (VITA) in Scottsdale, Ariz. The VPX standard was developed to define a new generation of computing systems that will utilize high-performance switch fabrics over a new high-speed connector, as well as operate in harsh environments.
For more information on the OpenVPX Industry Working Group, visit www.openvpx.org.
