December 18, 1996

Dear [working group member],

This letter is intended to update the working group members on the progress that has been made since draft 1.2 was circulated in August. Since then, I have been receiving feedback on draft 1.2 of the standard. To resolve any issues that came up, I have been working directly with the person generating the feedback on each specific issue. Enclosed with this letter is a copy of the feedback received from draft 1.2. This has been included so all reviewers are aware of the issues that have come up and what resolutions (if any) were incorporated into draft 1.3. Most of the feedback was straightforward errors and changes were made to address these. Any correspondence and eventual spec changes are included with each feedback issue.

Chris McKenna (formerly with ines inc.) responded with both an argument against making any changes to the IEEE 488.1 and also proposed a completely different method of changing IEEE 488.1 to achieve higher throughput rates. We are not sure which avenue Chris would like to pursue. Chris no longer works for ines inc. We have not been able to find a new phone number or email address for Chris. The IEEE is unable to provide current contact information for Chris. The new method proposed by Chris McKenna does not seem to address the issue of system configuration (that is, how devices in the system know whether they can use the new protocol and, if so, how fast to source data). I think this proposal would require major changes to address this issue, in detail, before it could be submitted to the TC-8 committee. Since then, James Bentley of ines has joined the working group. I have included Chris's comments (comments 9-12) with the other feedback enclosed with this letter along with my response.

Also enclosed with this letter is a copy of draft 1.3 of the higher speed extensions to the IEEE 488 Standard and a ballot for the draft. This draft includes some changes (indicated by change bars) generated from the feedback received on draft 1.2. Please take the time to review the draft and send any feedback to me by either mail, email, or fax. If you have interested in pursuing the Chris McKenna proposal, please indicate so on the ballot and also send in the details of how to address the system configuration issues. To confirm that each of you received draft 1.3, please fax back to me the attached form by January 31, 1997 indicating whether you approve of the draft as is, abstain from voting, or have feedback that should be resolved before we submit it to the IEEE. If there is sufficient negative feedback, I will call another meetring of the working group to resolve any issues. Otherwise, I will submit the draft to the IEEE and the next correspondence you will receive will probably be from the IEEE regarding the official ballot. NOTE: it is important to vote on this proposal since I will use the list of voting members on this draft (either for, against, or abstain) as my recommended list of voters to the IEEE. After I submit the draft to the IEEE, they will conduct a vote using the list of people I submit and others added at their discretion. At least, 75% of the people they poll must respond to their ballot. Thus if 25% or more do not respond they will declare it an invalid vote. Therefore, if you do no vote on this draft, I will assume you are no longer interested in this effort and I will not submit your name as a recommended voter to the IEEE.

Sincerely,

Robert Canik
Chairperson, Higher Performance IEEE Std. 488.1 Working Group