Welcome, fellow electronics professionals, to a special TC-8 meeting on the proposed High-Speed Revision of IEEE-488.1, the Standard Instrument Bus. I thank each of you very much for making the trip to be at this meeting. Your opinions on these complex issues are crucial to the resolution of this project.
We have a specific primary goal here: to discuss the technical issues involved in the negative ballot comments from the summer 1999 ballot. Can we complete such a discussion in four hours? Probably not, but we should be able to make a good dent. The discussion will continue on the P488.1 website, with the additional participation of several of our interested colleagues who couldn't make the trip to Anaheim. The minutes of our meeting, and our pre-prepared documents, and the text of the web discussion will be included in the ballot recirculation and will be used by TC-8 to draft official rebuttals to the negative comments. The voters will get a pretty thorough discourse of the pros and cons of this revision, and they'll be able to make an informed decision whether or not to change their vote.
We have a secondary goal: to bring to the table and respond to complaints of improper procedures throughout the project, complaints made in the negative ballot comments, in e-mails, and in a formal letter from three members of the ballot group to the IEEE Standards Association. Our investigation of these complaints may affect a future decision of the Standards Board.
The special rules for our meeting are:
1) No vote shall be conducted at this meeting on
the fate of the proposed standard revision P488.1.
2) Motions changing the agenda or meeting rules
or changing the wording of the latest draft shall be passed only
by unanimous vote (excluding the Chair).
3) Speakers shall be limited to five minutes and
may not speak until recognized by the Chair, and discussion on a
topic may take place only during that topic's time slot in the
agenda. Time slots may shift back if discussions finish early.
We have to cover many items in this meeting, each item getting a 10 to 20 minute time slot. When you speak, please be brief and to the point, and try not to take a full five minutes. The shorter our speeches, the more back-and-forth dialogue we'll have, and it's for this that we are meeting face to face.
Five months ago, my colleague Mike Ellis and I were appointed co-chairs of TC-8. We are excited to re-establish annual committee meetings and all the activity that stems from them. I'm new to the P488.1 project, and I'm honored to be part of it. As you know, IEEE-488 is one of the most widely used and important IEEE standards. This proposed revision has avid supporters and detractors, with good points made on both sides of the issue. Designing test and measurement equipment is a fun profession, and debating with our fellow professionals is part of the fun. I hope we keep our sense of humor and accomplish our meeting goals.