Hello sun-managers,
Thanks to all who answered to my request about realtime OSs on SPARCs.
My original message:
> Hi sun-managers,
>
> one of my colleagues looks for a VMEbus machine with realtime capabilities.
> Can anyone tell us about experiences with realtime operating systems (or extensions)
> on SPARC VME machines?
>
> Will SysV.4 (Solaris 2.0) serve realtime demands?
>
> The application deals with high volume data input on a couple of parallel ports.
>
> Thanks for any suggestion ...
I got answers from
hs@demeter.ukps.gwdg.de (Howard Schultens)
dunstan@gec-epl.co.uk (Dunstan_Vavasour)
MATTERN@ARIEL.LERC.NASA.GOV
field@cs.pitt.edu (Brian Field)
kalli!kevin@fourx.Aus.Sun.COM (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})
mcgraw@sunspot.sunspot.noao.edu (Robert McGraw)
stern@sunne.East.Sun.COM (Hal Stern - NE Area Systems Engineer)
davis@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Thomas J Davis)
billr@saab.cna.tek.com (Bill Randle)
era@niwot.scd.ucar.EDU (Ed Arnold)
Some excerpts from their original replies:
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>Will SysV.4 (Solaris 2.0) serve realtime demands?
Yes. Talk to your local Sun Salesdroid. Mine slipped me a copy of an
internal Sun memo about the realtime capabilities of SunOS 5.
--
Dunstan | Systems Design Division |dv@gec-epl.co.uk
Vavasour | CEGELEC Projects |From JANET:
| Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 1BU, UK |dv%uk.co.gec-epl@uk.ac.uknet
| Tel: (+44) 788 563535 |Fax: (+44) 788 560767
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Yes, Sun has a series of "white" papers on Solaris and real time.
Ask your Sun distributor. The ones that I have are:
Sun OS Multithread Architecture
1) Threads and Treads Programming for Applications
2) Sun OS Multithread Architecture
3) Writing Multithreaded Code in Solaris 2.0
Solaris 2.0 Multithreaded Kernel
4) Beyound Multiprocessing...Multithreading the SUn OS Kernel
5) Realtime Scheduling in SUN OS 5.0
6) Symmetric Multiprocessing in Solaris 2.0
I didn't find any of these papers useful (I'm a controls engineer, not
a professional programmer).
>
>The application deals with high volume data input on a couple of parallel ports.
There are many hardware/software vendors with products for the
new Sun. Heurikon Corp. Madison, WI (608)831-0900
makes a MVEbus interface card for realtime audio appications.
We have also been talking to Lynx-OS. They claim that their next release
will be POSIX complient and be able to run on the SUN. They have some
kind of agreement/arrangement with SUN.
>
Duane Mattern (mattern@mars.lerc.nasa.gov) (216)433-8186
Sverdrup @ NASA Lewis, 21000 Brookpark Rd., Cleveland, OH 44135
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VxWorks is quite a nice little package - check with Wind River Systems.
>
> Will SysV.4 (Solaris 2.0) serve realtime demands?
It has a realtime scheduling class, which will get you all of the CPU. There
is some more work to be done if you want to use kernel resources as well.
>
> The application deals with high volume data input on a couple of parallel ports.
This is not necessarly a real-time application. data acquisition != real-time,
as you can write a driver that will quite comfortably take in high data
rates with no lossage if you a) have enough buffering or b) know how to
write that kind of driver correctly.
Kevin Sheehan
Unix Professional Services
kalli!kevin@fourx.aus.sun.com
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Look at WindRivers VX works. Probably the best out their.
phone(415) 748-4100 fax (415) 814-2010
Robert
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert P. McGraw, Jr.
System Manager INTERNET:rmcgraw@sunspot.sunspot.noao.edu
National Solar Observatory/SP SPAN: 5355::RMCGRAW or NOAO::RMCGRAW
Sunspot, NM 88349 USA PHONE: (505) 434-7038
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from stern@sunne.East.Sun.COM (Hal Stern - NE Area Systems Engineer)
(a) a vme sparcengine board will run the vrtx real-time os,
if you really need it.
(b) solaris 2.0 has fixed priority scheduling, kernel pre-emption,
and an execpted, bounded scheduling/dispatch latency of
about 5 ms.
(c) depending upon how the data must be written/consumed, you
may not need a real time system -- just a good device driver.
if the data must be captured and written to disk, you can
use a smart driver that maps everything onto a raw disk
partition -- then consume the raw partition later, from
a user level program. if you need to actually modify the
data as it comes it, and then write it to disk, then you
might still be ok if you only have 1 process doing the
collection. if you have several processes that must
be scheduled according to inputs, you'll need a RT OS.
--hal
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Sun and System V.4 do have realtime extensions and may fit your
environment, but the best realtime VME system you can buy, IMHO,
is the Harris NightHawk.
NightHawks are built as realtime machines with full System V.4
symetric multiprocessing capabilities. There are NightHawks for
just about every budget and application. The low end models have
Motorola 68030 but everyother model uses either an 88100 or
88110, the latter rated at 70 SPECmarks per processor. Each
processor can have up to 256KB cache and 64MB of local memory.
Each machine has up to 256MB of global reflective memory. The
newest machine, the 5800, uses a VME-64 and is rated at 55MB/sec.
The address for Harris in Germany is:
Harris Gmbh Computer Systems Division
Schatzbogen 86
D-8000 Munchen 82
Ph. (49) 98.420.1166
One of the salesmen there is Reinhardt Wendt.
================================================================================
Tom Davis davis@udecc.engr.udayton.edu
AT+T: 513-229-3171
Mail: Univ. of Dayton "The wise are pleased when they
300 College Park discover truth, fools when they
Engineering Computer Center discover falsehood"
Dayton, OH 45469-0229 -Gabirol's Observation
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from billr@saab.cna.tek.com (Bill Randle)
Wind River Systems offers a port of their VxWorks real-time operating system
for SPARC/VME machines. I'm sure they have some European reps, but I don't
have that info. Their main office is in California: (415)748-4100, and Fax:
(415)814-2010.
-Bill
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The Solaris 2.0 Transition Q&A manual (910-2709-01) mentions these issues. In
general, 2.0 cannot provide better than millisecond dispatch latency, but does
provide several features such as an optional, fixed-priority process scheduler;
a fully pre-emptible kernel and pre-emptive scheduling; and high-res system timers.
The document claims that dispatch latencies can be made deterministic and that
Sun will (at some future point) be publishing these for each hardware config.
Obviously Solaris is totally unsuitable for applications like embedded weapons
control, but is probably suitable for process control, factory automation, etc.
I'd suggest you contact your local Sun sales office and find out when Sun
will be publishing the latency figures for the various hardware configurations,
and whether they have a later manual.
BTW we use an IPX running 4.1.2 for high-volume collection of weather data on
a serial port, and it doesn't miss data too often, but it DOES miss once in
a while ...
--
Ed Arnold * NCAR * POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(voice)
303-497-{1298,1137}(fax) * era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * era@ncario.BITNET
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Again, thanks for your help.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Joerg Theuerkauf /|
joerg@wp-470-1.fl.bs.dlr.de / |
(FL1A @ DLRVMBS.BITNET) / |
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