Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!shlump.dec.com!frambo.dec.com From: balzer@frambo.dec.com (Christian Balzer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: Real World Amigas? Message-ID: <3182@shlump.dec.com> Date: 27 Jun 89 15:30:24 GMT Sender: news@shlump.dec.com Organization: DEC SWAS Frankfurt/W.Germany Lines: 93 [Line-eaters, myth or fact? News at 11:00] In article <17668@swrinde.nde.swri.edu>, kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) makes my heart jump with joy due to the 2nd "Real Life" Amiga application announcement in two weeks: [lotsa stuff deleted] >Although I have an A2500 on order, I am looking fo info to determine >its reliability, usefulness, etc. for light industrial operation and am >concerned about it's appropriateness. > >Q: Is the A2000 is robust enough (maybe a rackmount version) for such >use? Having banged around my system alot, sometimes during HD access, I would certainly clear the Amiga for "light industrial operation". Make sure you use high quality HD's and don't forget to tighten those screws. I forgot that once... :-} >Q: Has anyone experienced bus read problems (similar to the bus read >garbage on PC's) on the Amiga? Can one recover from a bus error? No, but I (or SW/HW in my system) probably never pushed into the regions you're headed. (Going baldly, erh boldly where noone has gone before :-) >We use GPIB devices quite often, usually configured with only 1 or 2 >listeners, so setup is quite easy. However we need FAST transfer speeds >and FAST bus setup times. When DMA is not used, most transfers are >small, but bus setup time & small block transfer rate needs to be >optimized and these type of operations bring the National Instruments >PC GPIB board to its knees. This is where I have to write my own >custom drivers. > >Q: Does anyone have such info relating to the ASDG GPIB board & it's >operation on the Amiga with respect to the type of operations I just >described? To my greatest surprise I do have such info. The ASDG TwinX/GPIB board will NOT support DMA. However you can have the DMA request trigger an interrupt. >Q: ASDG TwinX boards: Since I haven't tried to access custom hardware >the system, does ASDG provide software to access TwinX modules? Can >one purchase driver source code? Dunno, you might wanna ask Aaron Avery (aaron@madnix.UUCP) or even Perry K. himself. ASDG sells you a driver (GPIB.library) with the stuff, though. >Q: Does ASDG buffer any of their modules/provide memory mapping for >fast access? (This is one place that a multitasking driver could be a >godsend). I usually have to wait for an event & then grab stuff from >lots of different inputs (position/velocity/instrumentation values) >over GPIB, digital I/O & A/D inputs. On our black boxes we always try >to use memory mapped architecture so this can be done quickly. (Try to >do this fast on an Intel chip - Ha!) Dunno (see above), but from my documentation this doesn't seem to be the case. They do support 8 or 16 bit modules, though. >Q: What modes of access to the PC bus are available from the Amiga >side? Do I have to involve the 80xx.x in the process, or can I read the >AT bus directly? Nope, the AT bus only shares the power with the rest of the Amiga. You must either use a CBM Bridgeboard or wait for that dumb but fast and cheap connection bridge that was proposed here some months ago. But with your knowledge and resources a "dumb" bridge should be nooo problem. (Thus spoke the softhead and quickly fleed. :-) >======================================================= > Kent Polk - Southwest Research Institute > {cs.utexas.edu, gatech!petro sun!texsun}!swrinde!kent > kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu >------------------------------------------------------- > "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing" >======================================================= Ya betcha! :-) BTW, I already answered some of Kent's questions in a related posting to c.s.a last week. But that was eaten by our @#!?%& mailer! Hope that helps, - -- _ _ / / | \ \ aka Christian Balzer - The Software Brewery - < < |-< > EMail: ...!decwrl!frambo.dec.com!CB -OR- CB@frambo.dec.com \ \_ |_/ / E-Net: FRAMBO::BALZER | Home-Phone: +49 6150 4151 (CET!) ------------ PMail: Im Wingertsberg 45, D-6108 Weiterstadt, F.R.G.