One area clearly supported by OpenVPX is a DoD-specific Quick Reaction Capability (QRC), where the development and deployment cycles demanded by the market are significantly reduced to achieve critical program needs.

Government programs are putting the squeeze on prime contractors to develop more war fighting capability faster. Consequently, the primes are calling for open standards and the end of proprietary architectures to help them meet these challenging requirements within shorter and shorter timeframes.

OpenVPX expands on the VPX[] Base and Dot Specifications and provides a System Specification to address interoperability issues between VPX modules and Chassis. OpenVPX is an extensible specification that addresses the current and future needs for computing in harsh environments.

This whitepaper provides the reader with a strategic update on the state of the VME Technology industry, in particular, and a view of the board industry in general, from the perspective of Ray Alderman, the executive director of VITA. VITA is the trade association dedicated to fostering American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited, open system architectures in critical embedded system applications. The whitepaper reviews application markets, technology, mergers and acquisitions, forecasts and legal issues impacting VITA and its members in 2008.

In this article the author looks at the health of VMEbus and what will happen in the future.