Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!cmcl2!lanl!beta!tss From: tss@beta.lanl.gov (Timothy S Sullivan) Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386 Subject: Using UNIX to control experiments with a 386 box Keywords: VENIX,LynxOS,drivers,IEEE488,video capture cards Message-ID: <33152@beta.lanl.gov> Date: 1 Oct 89 17:25:47 GMT Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory Lines: 74 First I want to thank all of you who took time to respond to my inquiry about controlling experiments with UNIX and a 386. I will attempt to summarize the information received. The first concern is choosing the operating system. UNIX itself has the problem of not guarenteeing that it will get around to any particular task in any particular time, so it is necessary to have real-time extensions. I knew about VenturCom's VENIX/386 version 3.2. (VenturCom, Incorporated; 215 First Street; Cambridge, MA 02142; (617)661-1230). This product incorporates real-time capability with ISC 386/ix 2.0.2. This would appear to do the job at a cost of (operating system + development system, 2 user) $1643. Unfortunately, VenturCom was unsure of whether the system would work with my hardware. The concern centered around my Data Technology DTC 6280 ESDI controller with its CDC Wren III hard drive, and my ATI VGAWonder card. That they coudn't guarentee it would work is not surprising considering the large number of boards out there. But they also wouldn't let me have a no-risk trial. I can't afford anything like $1600 without assurances that it will even run. Can anyone explain why this is a sensible policy? Seems to me that they would want to know of additional systems that the software would work with? (ISC said no problem for 386/ix, but I didn't get the impression that the person I talked to thought about it very much and the hardware is not on their 386/ix compatible devices list I got from VenturCom. Has anyone used either of these boards with 386/ix?) As a result of my posting, Vik Sohal (voder!lynx!vik@apple.com) of Lynx Real-Time Systems contacted me about LynxOS. (Lynx Real-Time Systems; 550 Division Street; Campbell, CA; (408)370-2233; FAX (408)370-2456). LynxOS is a "clean room" re-write of UNIX and has real-time capability. Mr. Sohal didn't seem to think that my hardware was a problem. The price quoted for the LynxOS development system was $1495 (which appears to include TCP/IP and no mention of the number of users). Mr. Sohal was very helpful and sent along a packet of information including a book of example applications code called "Developing Real-Time Applications with LynxOS". I'm exploring this further now. The next problem is drivers for IEEE488 boards and a video capture card. The IEEE488 card is easy and I rate a RTFM at least when it comes to VENIX. I didn't know that you should try the board vendors. Anyway, National Instruments ( (800) IEEE488 (!) or (512) 794-0100 thanks to fritzz@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu for the numbers) has a UNIX System V 3.2 driver available for one of their boards. (National also has Xenix drivers according to Jan Parcel (jan@orc.olivetti.com) as does IOTech (216) 439-4091). There also exist converters from RS232 to IEEE488 available from Black Box (?) according to Scot E. Wilcoxen (sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG) Bill Hatch (uunet!bts!bill) has actually used such a device from IOTech. The video capture card is more difficult. If you have a lot of money there is the Parallax board (reportly about $8000) which is supported on many different platforms including ISC 386/ix. (Thanks to Rick Chimera carm@umd5.umd.edu for this information. I've heard about this board for Sun's. It can put live video into your X-windows system.) Vik Sohal tells me that Lynx is working on a driver for a Data Translation 2853 frame grabber, about $1700. Tom Herbert (herbert@kodak.com) told me about a German board called ines that works with 386/ix, but didn't tell me if it was an IEEE488 board or a video board. (ines - Innovative Elektronik-Systeme; Neuenhofer Allee 45; D - 5000 Koln 41; West Germany). Chris Barr (frog!barr@harvard.harvard.edu) saw ISC display a video demo at UNIX Expo in NYC almost a year ago, but doesn't remember the name of the video board vendor. In case there is anyone out there looking for other drivers, VenturCom knows of drivers for Analog/Digital I/O boards from Data Translation and Stepper Motor Controllers from Scientific Solutions. Everyone was in agreement that I needed at least 4 Megs to run X Windows and preferably 6. I also asked a question about using using DOS device drivers under VP/ix to get around the device driver availability problem and then use real time extensions to make the VP/ix task a high priority. The answers were mixed. Some thought it was possible but very slow, others thought it was possible, but had some limitations on what could be done, others thought it was impossible. Thanks again for your help. Tim Sullivan