What meaneth VME?
In 1981, when Motorola agreed to allow Mostek and Signetics to second source the MC68000 microprocessor chip, the three companies agreed to meet and discuss the possibility of supporting a common backplane bus. At that time Motorola had already developed a 68000-based backplane bus, which they called VERSAbus. Since I had written a large portion of the VERSAbus specification, I was the Motorola technical representative at that meeting. Motorola proposed that the three companies jointly support the VERSAbus backplane. However, both Mostek and Signetics rejected that proposal, saying that the VERSAbus board size was much too large. In response to that objection, Motorola proposed that the (much smaller) Eurocard board size be used. A backplane could then be designed with the VERSAbus electrical specifications and the Eurocard mechanical specifications. Motorola suggested that new board products (based on this new backplane) be called VERSAmodule Eurocards, which could be abbreviated “VME
