Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ames!ncar!stout!michaeli From: michaeli@stout.ucar.edu (Matt Michaelis) Newsgroups: comp.realtime Subject: Re: VME 680X0 Boards Keywords: VME, 68020 board experience Message-ID: <5578@ncar.ucar.edu> Date: 6 Dec 89 23:16:22 GMT References: <4667@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu Reply-To: michaeli@stout.UCAR.EDU (Matt Michaelis) Organization: Field Observing Facility, NCAR, Boulder, CO Lines: 62 In article <4667@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (USENET News System) writes: >I am trying to set up a VME based system for a real-time robot control >application. I had previously posted a request for VME info. Now I have >found several large companies out there and would like to hear about any >experiences you net folk may have with them. The companies are below: > >1. MATRIX: Produces VME and STD bus boards They don't have 68030's yet . . . > >We have several special requirements such as I/O capability directly off >the processor using daughter boards with parallel and serial I/O which >reduces the list of available candidates. > >Has anyone been using boards from these companies, how are their tech >support, the boards etc. We are using the new Matrix MDCPU-320 for our real-time data acquistion system. The board has plug in daughterboard capability as well as a daughterboard which has 2 serial ports and 32 I/O lines. The board itself has two more serial ports and 8 I/O lines. Because of our needs for a reasonably low powered ethernet board we went this route. There is an ethernet daughterboard available that uses significantly less power than the standard CMC Ethernet board which is ubiquitous but is also a true power hog. The bad news is that we have had to be a Beta test site for Matrix. This is because we wanted the board ASAP and it has just been released this fall. We have had a few problems as you might expect from using a Beta board but that brings us to the good news. Matrix has been extremely helpful and extremely cooperative in tracing down bugs. They have shipped us new hardware Fed Ex to rectify problems. They were also friendly and helpful before we even bought the boards. We talked to their tech people before we bought anything from them and were able to get some useful information as to whether their products were what we needed. The bugs in the board have just about been taken care of. I do not know of any hardware problems that we still have with the boards. Based on our experiences with Matrix, I would recommend them to someone looking for a VME vendor. One company that I would be rather cautious of is Dynatem. They are about to come out with a 68030 board (if it is not out yet). We have had some dealings with these folks too. We have their DICB-16 serial board. This is an 8 or 16 channel smart serial card with 68HC000 processor. The board can be run either as a master or slave, but the memory is all dual ported. Thus if another board has to read the serial data out of RAM, then the 68000 just has to wait until it has the bus back. We have had lousy luck with their tech support. The guy that was trying to program the board had to abandon it due to strange hardware problems that Dynatem could not find. In fairness to Dynatem, the people who designed this board left the company and took all technical knowledge of the board with them. However, the documentation for the DICB-16 is sparse and marginally useful. Their DCPU-1 board (a 68HC000 processor board) also has lousy documentation. On the other hand, before we bought the DICB-16 we talked to someone who allready had some and thought that they were great. It is the only 16 port smart serial board that I know about. In addition Dynatem is the only company that makes low power VME boards.