danzig@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Peter Danzig) (08/05/89)
We have produced a microsecond resolution timer board for Sun workstations and are distributing them through a company in Berkeley. We have distributed over sixteen boards now. The board works with Sun 3/50, 3/60, 3/75, 3/160, 3/260, and 4/280 workstations. You must leave the VME card adjacent to the processor vacant in the VME based workstations (We may be able to cook up a tiny one for you if it's really important). If your machine is not listed, ask us about it. The board usurps the DES socket. Just plug it in as if it were a chip. On 3/75, 3/160, 3/260, 4/280 systems you must also plug in a few PAL and buffer chips that we provide. Sun chose not to support the DES socket in these workstations. Tell us what machines your want to use it with. On a 3/50 with the screen blanked you can generate a 32 bit timestamp inside the kernel in about 20 microseconds and about 11 microseconds from user space (the difference is because you can't call splimp() and splx() from user space). For 64 bit timestamps, expect 30 microseconds and 23 microseconds. On a 3/60, 64 bit timestamps take 29 and 20 microseconds. You can set the time between clock ticks with the timer library call tmrPrescaleBy(x) to be as high as four ticks per microsecond. The can timer initialize itself to 32 or 64 bit mode. A call to tmrTimeval() will set the time to the UNIX gettimeofday value. To open and initialize the timer, call tmrOpen(). To map the timer into user space, call tmrMap(). To read a 32 bit timestamp call getTS(). To read a UNIX timeval structure, call getTV(). Here is a summary of the timer library: int fd = tmrOpen () void tmrMap () void tmrPrescaleBy (int x) void tmrTimeval () getTS (long *x) getTV (struct timeval *tv) The board doesn't generate an interrupt. We can distribute the device driver on an IBM PC diskette or email it to you. The device driver works under SunOS 3.5 and SunOS 4.0. It has been ported to other operating systems: Dash, Sprite, and the V-system. The board costs $125. For 3/75, 3/160, 3/260, 4/280 systems add $25 for the PALs and buffers chips. If you want one, contact us by phone or electronic mail. Shipping in the US through FED Express is $9.50 for standard air delivery of any number of boards and through US mail is $2.00. Shipping outside the US is by US Postal Service airmail for $15.