On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:36:04 -0500, Jon Elson wrote: > Anders Wallin wrote: >>> 2) How portable is the real-time code (ie: can it be compiled for >>> Arm >>> or PowerPC)? >>> >> >> LinuxCNC uses the RTAI kernel/API. There are a number of >> architectures >> listed here https://www.rtai.org/ >> I don't know if anyone has made LinuxCNC work on other than x86 and >> x86_64 > > I sent Torsten Koschorrek of RTAI a Beagle Board about 18 months ago, > and as > you can see, there is no ARM Cortex-A8 RTAI available yet. I can't > believe it has taken > this long! There is an RT-Preempt kernel that was done by some > French > guys, but I don't > know if it has suitable latency for LinuxCNC, but it almost certainly > is > good enough > for a system with attached hardware (not software stepping).
<soapbox> That is what I was planning to work on with artek's NURBS hardware. If you get similar stuff working with RT-preempt. The biggest problem with RTAI is that the patches are to invasive to the kernel and each time even a minor update to the kernel happens it needs to be majorly tweaked by hand and (from my experience) never just updates. Then there are all the bad feelings between the RTAI community and those using/promoting RT-Linux. Personally I was caught in the crossfire and was left with no love of RTAI. I am glad that there is a decent alternative. BTW, for technical correctness, RTAI and RT-Linux will *always* be faster and have less latency than the preemptive and similar approaches, but getting RTAI working is truly a pain unless you only use the precompiled CD/DVD version, and sometime that is not a realistic option. <\soapbox> EBo -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF email is sponsosred by: Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list Emc-developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
