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RapidIO Connections - January 2003

• Word from the President
• In the News
• It's Cool to be Hip
• Technical Working Group Update
• Marketing Working Group: A look back at 2002, and a peak forward to 2003
• Membership Spotlight: A Closer Look

Technical Working Group Update

January brings with it an opportunity to look back to the past year and forward to the next. What stands out as I look back over the interconnect landscape is a remarkable admission by competing interconnects that RapidIO sets the bar technically for the Netcom and embedded industry. 2002 brought announcements from the HyperTransport and PCI-Express standards bodies of major upcoming additions to their specifications in an attempt to pull themselves up to the technical capabilities of RapidIO.

As the acknowledged leader, this presents the Technical Working Group with an opportunity to focus on the future. Over the past year, we have discussed future technical activities. At our most recent Face-to-Face, the Technical Working Group met jointly with the Marketing Working Group to discuss the state of the marketplace and what capabilities would be needed in the future. This discussion is an ongoing one as the Technical Working Group focuses on meeting future customer needs.

With more and more RapidIO-enabled devices shipping this year, one key customer requirement is interoperability. This past quarter, the Technical Working Group released the Hardware Interoperability Platform Document to the public. It describes in detail a hardware platform for rapid prototyping and test of RapidIO devices that leverages existing PC mechanicals.

Already demonstrated at trade shows, this platform allows a customer to evaluate and test RapidIO hardware and software products from multiple vendors in their own labs. Because it was developed and approved by the Trade Association, this platform is well positioned to achieve widespread support from vendors of RapidIO products.

The technical foundation of RapidIO is solid. Adding to this foundation, the Technical Working Group will soon complete enhancements that make RapidIO even more compelling as a dataplane interconnect. To broaden the market further, the Technical Working Group has and will continue to support efforts by member companies to bring RapidIO support to a variety of mechanical standards.

I expect 2003 to be a year of transition as RapidIO sees widespread support and adoption. The Technical Working Group will continue its work to support this transition and enable the future.

Greg Shippen
Chair, Technical Working Group
RapidIO Trade Association