The objectives are to provide a standard cable bus for the interconnection of multiple devices, both backplane bus systems, such as the IEC 821 VMEbus, and stand-alone apparatus; to specify the electrical characteristics of the cable bus; to specify the protocols that precisely define the interaction between devices connected to the VICbus; to specify the mechanisms necessary to construct fault-tolerant, multi-device systems; to provide the necessary definitions, terminology and background information to fully describe the VICbus protocols and other mechanisms.