REDI for VPX?

Despite being old enough to qualify for the technology ‘old folk’s home’, the VMEbus continues to survive and remains the backplane technology of choice in some applications. In order to keep the technology as up to date as possible, the standard has been revised a number of times over the last few years. The great – and continuing – attraction of VME is that, almost without exception, those revisions to the standard have maintained backwards compatibility. This means that something produced for the early stages of VME could still be used today. The standard is developing under the watchful eye of VITA, the VMEbus International Trade Association. One of the projects which is making its way from the committee room to the ‘real world’ is VITA 46, also known as VPX. Basically, VITA 46 is a break away from previous incarnations of the VMEbus in favour of the latest connector and bus technologies. The aim, says VITA, is to ensure a long technology cycle for the approach.