Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!hc!pprg.unm.edu!krukar
From: krukar@pprg.unm.edu (Richard Krukar [CHTM])
Newsgroups: comp.realtime
Subject: Re: Real-time UNIX ?
Summary: Info on robitics & UNIX
Message-ID: <24331@pprg.unm.edu>
Date: 6 Jul 89 20:37:03 GMT
References: <MLM.89Jul6153918@tahoe.cs.brown.edu>
Reply-To: krukar@pprg.unm.edu (Richard Krukar [CHTM])
Distribution: comp
Organization: U. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 45


	A Unix box running a robot can be interesting, I've seen a robot
  get severly lost when its tracking job got swapped out...

	Anyway.  I am working under similar constraints and have decided on
  a real time kernel called RTUX from

	Emerge Systems
	114th Avenue
	Indialantic, Florida 32903
	(305) 723-0444

	I've only got the docs so far, the whole package should be here by now.
   It looks like it sits under the Unix kernel and catches and generates
   interupts.  The glitch here is that the kernel has to be system five :(

	The box I'm using is a Motorola 1147 - basically one of their mvme147
   cpu cards in a vme chassis.  The other boards are an mvme332xt ( lotsa
   terminal lines ) and the following boards from Xycom: xvme200 ( access to
   two Motorola PI/T chips with associated parallel io, timers, counters, etc. )
   xvme230 ( counter timer module - will drive 4 stepper motors, can do a few
   other goodies as well) and an xvme540 ( DtoA and AtoD converters ).

	So far I am really pleases with the Xycom equipment and support.  They
   seem to figure that they have to support their products regardless of when
   you got them and what they are.  Motorola, on the other hand, is a nightmare
   to deal with.  The only people who know how to call back are salesmen.  Among
   the problems I have encountered are archaic networking and poor
   configurabitity.  A major player in these problems is the fact that the
   include files are clearly not the ones that the kernel was compiled from.
   Meanwhile, the machine arps for the broadcast address and can't seem to
   understand net masks.

	I have had similar reports of non-support from people at Sandia and
   Los Alamos national labs.

	To sum it all up, buy what you can from Xycom and good luck on
   on the Unix.  BTW the guys at Xycom told me that OS-9 is looking better.
   (OS-9 is kind of a ROMable Unix subset ).  Motorola makes good hardware,
   but doesn't want to support mine.  I have heard of a company called
   Tadpole that makes an 88k based board, I can't find their ad right now,
   but will look further if you need it.


	Richard Krukar (krukar@pprg.unm.edu)