What were you guys thinking around the time that VMEbus first came into existence?
HEVLE: The 68000 [processor] series came along and our expansion desires were rekindled. Max Loesel, our Europe manager at Motorola, made me aware of a developing European standard called Eurocards. They came in single, double, and triple widths. I liked what I saw, and I argued for this approach. I lost because of strongly stated engineering requirements and distaste for anything European at that time. Another reason was that large computer businesses were used to big boards like VERSAmodules. But there was no way we could sell these big VERSAbus modules in the process automation market. Max, however, didn’t give up. His engineers retrofitted the VERSAbus onto double EUROcards in his Munich “skunk works.” He kept me up to date and even took me to see some of his prospective customers. I was hooked, and the result was called Versa Module Europe and its acronym became VME. VMEbus: What were some of the high and low points in the original VMEbus development? HEVLE: At a Motorola corporat
