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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>

Subject: Re: Ideas / Suggestions for the future of VME-CPU Operating Systems
From: Michael Davidsaver <[email protected]>
To: Goetz Pfeiffer <[email protected]>, EPICS tech-talk <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2017 12:00:42 -0500
FYI, the newer mvme2500 is nominally supported in stock Linux >= 4.0.  I
have not personally tested this.

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2727ed54716e606673121d5863934512bd4a5eb8

That said, the stock VME bus drivers don't have a userspace interface
for interrupts (or DMA), which prevents a full port of devLibVME.

To my knowledge, everyone using EPICS w/ VME on Linux is using a custom
driver, none of which are redistributable.

>   * The intersection of the people using RTEMS and the ones using EPICS
>     seems to be small and getting smaller, so with problems we are much
>     on our own

I'd rather say that the number of people developing/maintaining RTEMS
support in EPICS Base is small (Heinz).  There is a lot of "just works"
in RTEMS 4.9/4.10.  It is true that the site/people who historically
have done work in this area aren't any longer.  Someone new needs to
take this puppy for a walk*.

* https://www.google.com/search?q=open+source+free+as+in+puppy



Osprey DCS, for which I work, has expertise working with RTEMS and/or
VME.  http://ospreydcs.com/


On 09/20/2017 04:28 AM, Goetz Pfeiffer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/) we
> use EPICS for our control system.
> 
> We have a growing number of soft IOCs with Linux and VME bus based IOCs
> mostly running RTEMS and
> some vxWorks 5.4 (Tornado 2.02).
> 
> Our CPU boards are MVME162 and MVME2100. We have replaced more than half
> of the old MVME162 boards with
> MVME2100 boards, of which we bought a large supply some years ago.
> 
> After migrating most VME CPUs to RTEMS 4.9 we have run into some problems:
> 
>   * Newer CPU boards like the MVME5500 require the "beatnik" board
>     support, which only works with RTEMS 4.10
>   * RTEMS 4.10 has some problems regarding the "cexp" shell and doesn't
>     work on some of our IOCs.
>   * cexp, the shell for RTEMS is not compatible with RTEMS 4.11 and
>     4.12, but we need it for dynamic loading of objects
>   * gesys, the component that is used to create the RTEMS kernel seems
>     to be a bit of a mess
>   * RTEMS 4.11 and 4.12 are not supported by the EPICS base
>   * Debian Packages for RTEMS are no longer maintained
>   * The intersection of the people using RTEMS and the ones using EPICS
>     seems to be small and getting smaller, so with problems we are much
>     on our own
> 
> A possibility would be to use vxWorks again. Our current vxWorks version
> is /very/ old and has to be updated. Problems here:
> 
>   * MVME2100 boards do not seem to be supported by vxWorks 6
>   * Possibly high costs for CPU licenses for vxWorks
> 
> What are your experiences with this ?
> 
> Do you still use VME bus systems ?
> 
> Is there a future for RTEMS in EPICS control systems ?
> 
> Are there alternatives to RTEMS and vxWorks ?
> 
> Greetings,
> 
>   Goetz Pfeiffer
> 


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Ideas / Suggestions for the future of VME-CPU Operating Systems Goetz Pfeiffer

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