sc1@lln-cs.UUCP (Alain H. Ninane) (07/23/90)
X-Summary : 1. Do you have any personnal experience with VMEexec ? 2. Do you know any VMEexec software ftp server (or any other information medium) ? Hi Folks, I want to develop a data acquisition system for small-to-medium sized nuclear physics experiments (1-100 detectors, 200 kb/s max data throughput). The data will be read by VME processors from CAMAC, VXI and VME modules and directly written on tape (ExaByte). In addition, a sample of the data will go, through Ethernet, to UNIX/Ultrix workstations (both SUN/DEC) for monitoring. One workstation will be the master controller of the experiment and will send/receive requests to/from the VME processors. A major requirement is that I want a VME crate dedicated to the data acquisition task; that means that *I do not want to see a UNIX (or others high level OS, with disks, screens, and ...)* in this crate. From the previous description, most of you will probably declare that VxWorks is the solution I'm looking for ... but there are problems, their support of DEC platforms and their licence policy : VxWorks is too expensive for our budget. Therefore, we have decided to look to another RTOS : VMEexec. We plan to develop the software with their combined UNIX System V/68 - VMEexec development system and then, when this will be finish, to move the VME processors to the data acquisition crate. Therefore the targets processors (MVME147 family) should be able to access the Ethernet by themselves, without the UNIX SV/68 system. Is there any VMEexec software support for that ? Will it be possible to boot the system from the a SUN or DEC WorkStation on the net ? Is there anybody having some personnal experiences with VMEexec ? Do you know source of VMEexec software ? Do you know if there are any support for non-Motorola CPU's available for VMEexec ? Please send your answers to : Ninane@fynu.ucl.ac.be. I will summarize. Thanks a lot, Alain H. Ninane E-mail : Ninane@fynu.ucl.ac.be
edski@oz.UUCP (Ed Skinner) (07/23/90)
In article <990@lln-cs.UUCP> Ninane@fynu.ucl.ac.be (Alain H. Ninane) writes: >X-Summary : 1. Do you have any personnal experience with VMEexec ? I am the course developer and one of the instructors for Motorola's courses on system development with VMEexec. I also participated as a development engineer during the early stages of VMEexec definition and product selection, refinement, and tool creation. > 2. Do you know any VMEexec software ftp server (or > any other information medium) ? The current release (version 1.1) of VMEexec permits target nodes to manipulate and use global (EXPORTed) objects, such as message queues, semaphores, memory partitions, and tasks, on any other node. With the addition of the "NETlib" software (a separate package from Motorola), nodes may be interconnected via Ethernet as well as by the VMEbus back- plane (the "utility" of a global memory partition in an Ethernet config- uration is, of course, questionable). A subsequent release (version 2.0), scheduled for the near future (I am dialed-in at the moment as we are presenting the class this week and I don't have all of my notebooks available--sorry) will include a socket-library for application programs as well as other networking capabilities. > [text deleted...] > > Therefore the targets >processors (MVME147 family) should be able to access the Ethernet >by themselves, without the UNIX SV/68 system. Is there any VMEexec >software support for that ? Will it be possible to boot the system >from the a SUN or DEC WorkStation on the net ? The VMEexec software support you describe will be available in the version 2.0 release. Because it is scheduled "soon," it is best if you contact our sales folks in Europe to obtain delivery dates. Note that you will require VMEexec 2.0 and NETlib 2.0 (which may be called SOCKlib by the time it actually goes out). VMEexec nodes may be booted from either of two places; 1) a SYSTEM V/68 (Unix) host system, or 2) ROM. There is an intermediate, mixed case where a node boots from ROM and then downloads, via Ethernet, a replacement kernel. However, this is not what you are specifically asking about. For the described configuration, the ROM'd alternative would appear to be the best. >Is there anybody having some personnal experiences with VMEexec ? No doubt Alain would appreciate hearing from some real customers rather than from my admittedly biased perspective. >Do you know source of VMEexec software ? Do you know if there are >any support for non-Motorola CPU's available for VMEexec ? The "vmexgen" utility is used to define, configure, and generate kernels and network routing information. VMEexec comes with definitions for various Motorola CPU boards (about a dozen, I think). It is normally a simple matter to use vmexgen to "Copy" one of the Motorola board definitions, rename it (Gag!) "Force CPU Board" or some other meaningful name, and alter the configuration of that definition to match the board. >Please send your answers to : Ninane@fynu.ucl.ac.be. >I will summarize. I have chosen NOT to email my reply but to post it to the group instead, contrary to Alain's request. I've done this for reasons of expediency and publicity. Frankly, I want my "role" as VMEexec-contact to be known to readers of this newsgroup and I encourage you to email questions and/or comments directly to me. I will attempt to answer each request in a timely, accurate, and complete fashion. Please note, however, that we frequently teach courses "on-site" at customer facilities and, as such, I am out of town for an entire week. (No, I don't have a dial-up laptop I can take with me. Maybe if this newsgroup keeps me busy enough I'll be able to convince the powers that be of the need for a dial-up machine. :-) Regardless, I will also try and respond to relevent questions within this newsgroup. In most cases I will simply email the information to the requestor(s). Please feel free to contact me by email, phone, or Mail. -- "Everybody who comes to a scientific lecture knows they are not going to understand it, but maybe the lecturer has a nice, colored tie to look at." Richard P. Feynman, "Q.E.D." #include <disclaimer.h> Ed Skinner, Technical Training, Motorola Inc., MicroComputer Division 2900 S Diablo Way, Tempe Az 85282, USA (602)438-3956 Internet: edski@phx.mcd.mot.com, UUCPnet: noao!asuvax!mcdphx!edski