VME provides a means to implement computer-independent systems for real-time data capture, industrial processing, instrumentation, automation and communications for use in Science, Offices, and Industry.

VMEbus has a 32-bit address bus, a 32-bit data bus, and can handle data transfers at speeds in excess of 40 Mbytes/sec. It uses a 'Master-Slave' architecture and many Masters can reside on the bus - it is a Multiprocessing Bus. Selection of the next Master to take control of the bus is done by a Central Arbiter, which also handles the seven levels of interrupt which are supported. There are four buses altogether: The Data Transfer Bus, The Arbitration Bus, The Priority interrupt Bus and The Utility Bus which carries generic signals like a 16-MHz clock and Power-up Reset. Masters, Slaves and the Central Arbiter are all plugged into the 'sub-rack' or crate which may have one Backplane (for 24 address bits and 16 data bits) or Two (32 address bits and 32 data bits, with extra power and some user-defined pins; P1/J1 at the top and P2/J2 at the bottom) or even three or four, although these are not currently defined in the IEEE1014-1987, specification.

VME64x represents an extension to the VME specification permitting 64-bit data handling.

With the introduction of VME64x (VME Extensions) user defined I/O connections are now available through a rear VME64x backplane. Before the introduction most of the user defined I/O was brought out through the front panel.