The VMEbus Market – A Changing Landscape

As the landscape in the embedded board space continues to change because of consolidations and emergence of new bus and switch fabric architectures, the pace of End of Life (EOL) announcements has also accelerated. The largest embedded board company, Motorola Computing Group (MCG), acquired Force Computers to become even bigger and renamed the new group the Embedded Communications and Computing Group (ECCg). Before the acquisition, Motorola Computer Group and Force were respectively ranked number 1 and 3 in the VMEbus market. There is a conceivable overlap of products between the two companies. As the merger was being contemplated, MCG had already begun to prune their product line. Soon after the acquisition was announced, ECCg sent the EOL notice to its customers stipulating a cut off date for last time buy and delivery. The same notice announced that GD California would be the sunset supplier for MVME147, MVME162, MVME167, MVME172, MVME177, MVME2400, MVME2304, MVME2600, and MVME2700 products.

Another company that is altering the landscape of VME market, is Curtiss-Wright. Curtiss-Wright Control Embedded Computing (CWCEC) formed with the acquisition of VISTA Controls, DY-4 Systems, Peritek, Systran, Primagraphics and Synergy Microsystems is now the 2nd largest supplier of VME Single Board Computers. GD California is again an important and significant player in servicing the needs of customers searching for products after EOL. DY-4 Systems has assigned GD California as the sunset supplier for products placed on EOL.

It is also widely anticipated that other major players in the VME market, Radstone, Thales, Radisys might also be compelled to follow this acquisition route because of competitive challenges. We expect further consolidation in the VMEbus SBC market.

GD California has taken very definitive and concrete steps to ensure that customers who continually need these products are well supported for an extended period of time. GD California as the only legacy single board computer supplier is well prepared to take orders on MVME products in Jan. 2005 and start delivery in 90 days ARO.

Parhelia B.V. has partnered with GD California to assist with international customers in supplying these Motorola, Force, DY-4, Artesyn (Formerly Heurikon) and other products to clients around the world. If you are looking for answers to EOL issues pertaining to the listed product families, contact Parhelia B.V. and obtain the latest update on the status of these products.

European customers can contact Parhelia B.V. at +31(0)10 741 00 28 or www.parhelia-bv.com/contact