koontz@CAPSRV.JHUAPL.EDU ("K W KOONTZ, 6-41") (03/09/90)
TO : Arun Gorur, Univ of Florida
FROM : Ken Koontz, JHU/APL
SUBJECT: RE: B014 Sun configuration info
Arun,
We're putting together something on a Sun that's similar to
what your doing. We actually are waiting for a CSA PART.8 that
we want to use to interface to multiple arrays but it will be
several weeks before we get it (they're making improvements to
the design and have shipped all their Rev A boards). As an
interum solution, we're putting together a B014 with 1 B404 and 6
B411s. For software, I have a D505 and LSC on order (to come REAL
SOON NOW). We've been using LSC on a PC host under DOS for quite
a while and I've looked into the problem of porting to the Sun.
Here's what I've found.
HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS
The B014 needs a 6Ux160 to 9Ux400 VMEbus adapter. There
available from a number of places; the cheapest probably is Dawn
VME. I think ours cost ~ $400. They make several varieties; you
probably want Version 4 (front panel of B014 brought out to back
of Sun, P2 bus isolated). If you already have you system up and
running under D505, this point is moot.
No extra hardware is needed to run LSC.
SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS
To get LSC running on the Sun, you might be able to buy a
binary version ($400) but I we decided to get the source version
($995). The the binary version comes with source code for the
libraries and some of the utilities, the actual source code
supplied varies from vendor to vendor and sometimes from revision
to revision. For example, a friend of mine at APL bought a
binary copy of LSC from Microway. I think it cost $595 and had
less code than the binary copy I bought from CSA (he kept on
calling me to ask "How is the ___ function implemented anyway?".
I think CSA's manuals are also better (so does he). Also, in
88.3, the source for the network loader wasn't included but in
88.4 it was. Also, the binary version doesn't have the source
for the bootstraps (which you might want if you want to make
worms) while the source version does. Conclusion -- get the
source version; the money will be well spent the first time you
need it.
Getting LSC to run on a Sun under Unix is fairly simple from
what I've heard (just set the right environment definition and
recompile). I haven't done this myself so there might be some
traps (anybody out there have any bad war stories?). To get to
the B014, the loaders (LD-ONE and LD-NET) and the servers (CIO
and TIO) should be built to use a B014 device driver. All of
LSC's tools that interface to the transputer conform to the
'link.c' device driver standard so it should be straight forward.
Your S514 should have the source for a B014 device driver (if
not, you can get one from Inmos). The Inmos B014 device driver
that I saw for use with ISERVER is written in C and just uses a
polling loop to service the Link Adapter on the B014. Has anyone
written a faster one in 680x0 assembly which uses interrupts on a
Sun/Unix host?
Aside: Now that the link.c standard is out and developers are
starting to use it, it really simplifies porting to different
hardware interfaces and hosts. Thanks, Inmos, for another very
useful standard!
Another consideration concerns how the B014's C004s are
configured. D505 or S514 should come with a flavor of MMS2 that
allows you to specify the hardwire and softwire connections on a
motherboard. Logical Systems doesn't supply anything like this
but you can easily use the Inmos packages to setup the hardware.
Then, make the appropriate NIFs for different topologies for use
with LSC's network loader. The Ts should boot up with little
problems.
Ken Koontz **********
Johns Hopkins University * ---- *
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Laurel, MD USA 20723-6099 * | | | *
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email: koontz@capsrv.jhuapl.edu OR * ---- *
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