On Wed, 9 Feb 2011, Jon Elson wrote:
> Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:07:40 -0600
> From: Jon Elson <el...@pico-systems.com>
> Reply-To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)"
> <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
> To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)" <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
> Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
>
> Viesturs La-cis wrote:
>>
>> I am convinced that many of EMC users have hardware that cannot be
>> considered as opensource. Including my ServoStar 601 servo amps.
>> My personal feeling (not supported with any facts, numbers or other
>> data) is that also Mesa or Pico Systems products contain some
>> proprietary components.
>> So I do not see a problem here - if that solution is working and
>> delivering expected performance, then I consider the price to make
>> decision.
>> EMC is meant to be smart CNC controller to work on simple,
>> not-that-smart ("dumb") hardware, so
>> I think it is acceptable to have proprietary elements in hardware as
>> long as it is fully configurable to fit each particular machine and
>> situation.
>>
> Well, I don't make you sign a license to use my servo amps. With this
> scheme, any time you wanted to recompile the rest of the FPGA code, you
> would need to invoke the etherCat license in some manner to include the
> IP in the FPGA.
> That could be worrisome the way companies come and go. If they went out
> of business or just decided to dump the product, you might not be able
> to compile it again (I have no idea how their IP protection works.)
>
> So, that's the issue, I think, is that this IP licensing is a lot more
> like software in a way, and not like hardware that just sits there
> taking signals and driving motors, for instance.
>
> Jon
>
Most of these issues with EtherCat can be avoided by using the Ethercat slave
ASIC. I think of the Ethernet alternatives EtherCat is the nicest technically
but I think a simple UDP based parallel port replacement would be good as
well, just a simple dedicated Ethernet link to the external CPU and or FPGA
motion interface. We will have some low cost hardware to play around with the
simple UDP idea later this year.
Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE:
Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen.
Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle.
Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb
_______________________________________________
Emc-users mailing list
Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
