The original of this document will reside (for a few months) at 
	KIM$USERDISK:[MCCARTHY.HARDWARE]hdw52788.mtg


	Report on Hardware meeting on 5/27/88

Attendees : Albaugh, Downend, Hoff, Ly, Mc Carthy, 
		Paauw, Snyder, Stempler, Theurer.

Summary of discussions:

. Planned deactivation of components from the AVL .
Components group are currently reworking the AVL to fully implement an
Active/Inactive catagorization. Pat Mc Carthy will recieve a list of 
all 137xxx and 37-xxx parts to make an initial pass at determinimg 
what parts will be active. This will then be reviewed by all the 
other engineers. The exact mechanism has not been determined.
There were a whole bunch of questions ranging from "What happens 
when  we reach 137999-xxx", to "How does an inactivated part be made 
active (CER?)".
A little (or a lot) of information from components about what is 
happenning would be appreciated. 

. Industry RAM shortage .
There continues to be a shortage of Static RAMs. 8Kx8, 55nS and 70nS 
were recently a problem. If anyone has current price/availability on 
any RAM ICs mail it out. Maybe we can log it in a central place and 
keep track of RAM trends on an ongoing basis.

. Stamp hardware integration (MOB et al.) forum .
Pat Mc Carthy successfully introduced the MOB asic on 5/23. Vendor 
selection will take palace by 6/3. At the same meeting a standard 
chip set for stamp hardwares (standard and medium res.) was suggested 
and favourably received. The chip set would probably comprise 5 chips 
(MOB, VAD, PRI, SAS, LB2). Initial work has been done by Pat and Doug 
in determining the functional divisions of the chips. The following 
expressed a willingness to be involved on some level. Contribution 
levels are : level 1 - Discussion group only, level 2 - Discussion 
group and possible IC design, level 3 - Total involvement.
Sam Ly	: 	Level 1 
Pat Mc Carthy: 	Level 3 (MOB chip in process )
Doug Snyder : 	Level 2 (possibly the PRIority chip )
Don Paauw : 	Level 1.5 (back end involvement & maybe the SAS chip)
Gary Stempler : Level 2 (Possibly the VAD chip)
Mike Albaugh :	Level 1.
If anyone else wishes to contribute some effort please let Pat know.

As soon as we have something to offer, the programmers will get involved.

. Classes, Matrix of hardwares .
The subject of doing classes was once again brought up. After much 
discussion (and with direction from Chris Downend) we decided that we 
would do one and see what the interest level was. Pat and Rusty will 
prepare something for a ROMALOT class.

. Standardization of TTL families .
The list of TTL families is large. We need some consensus on which
families are preferrable for stocking purposes in engineering, and
make full use of the economies of scale on production. The general
agreement was : 7400 and 74L00 series should not be used (except for
7406, 7407) and we do not need to maintain stock of them. 
The preferred families to use, in order of preference are :
1. 'LS00 series
2. 'F00 series
3. 'AS00 series
"F" parts were preferred over "S" because of better cost/performance.
'S00, 'ALS00, 'C00, 'HC00 and 'HCT00 series will still be used where 
necessary. This is not a Golden rule. It is a voluntary convenience 
to help reduce costs and maintain better stock.

. Earl .
Earl Vickers is leaving sometime in June.

. Next meeting .
Interest level in these meetings as expressed by attendees is high. We
will continue to try to do one every month or two, preferrably the
last Wednesday of the Month. Anyone can call a meeting. Just send out
a VAX mailer to sys$mail:HARDWARE with your suggested topic or topics.

If you received this mail then you are on the sys$mail:hardware 
distribution list, probably because you asked to be on it at some 
time. There is no obligation to come to a meeting just because you 
are on the list. We will try to publish summaries. If you have some 
contribution to make (or complaint to air) about hardware topics just 
come on down. Technicians, programmers, managers etc. are all welcome.