chcu275@ut-emx.UUCP (Noel Bell) (09/22/88)
I would appreciate advice and information on an ethernet application. The application involves transferring data between an AT running SCO Xenix V2.1 and one of several machines on an ethernet network. The possible machines include uVax's, a Sun, a TI Explorer and just about anything our department might buy in the near future. The AT serves as an operator interface for controlling a laboratory reactor system. The AT also currently serves as the "number cruncher". Future projects will require more cpu power for number crunching. Rather than buy a more powerful machine to replace the AT, we would like to utilize resources which are available on the ethernet. This would also provide many more options in the future as funding for this project alone could probably not support a Sun4 or whatever the latest hot hardware is. The data transfer will involve sending and receiving by both machines ( the AT and whatever on the other end of the ethernet ) on the order of every 30 seconds. This must be done without user interaction and I would hope with a response time of less than 1 second. ( We can control or limit the load on both machines ). The AT will send reactor data to the number cruncher along with other parameters and the number cruncher will return setpoints determined by some control algorithm. I am familiar with programs such as "ftp" used for interactive file transfers over ethernet. Is there a software package available which would allow us to write our own, non-interactive data transfer program? Has somebody already written such a package? Do ethernet boards and drivers usually come with development software? The same package would hopefully be available under VAX-VMS, SunOS, Unix SysV, etc. Also, what ethernet hardware for the AT would be the best? Thanks for any information you can provide. ( Vendors' replies welcome ) Noel Bell Department of Chemical Engineering University of Texas at Austin chcu275@ut-emx