On 5/9/2012 9:51 PM, Scott Hasse wrote: > I presume many of you have seen the hype on the Raspberry Pi. Am I correct > in thinking that getting LinuxCNC to run on one of those would require an > arm-specific RTAI and drivers for the device-specific I/O? Has anyone else > given any thought to this potentially disruptive platform in the context of > LinuxCNC? > > Scott >
Scott: Call me an old cynic, but I'm not sure what is so disruptive about the Raspberry Pi in the context of LinuxCNC. (Keep in mind that I had already passed 50 when the term "disruptive innovation" was coined back in 1995.) In my opinion, the cost of the computational platform is no longer a real factor in a LinuxCNC system. If the Raspberry Pi is made to work in this context, then by buying the Model B at USD35, I've potentially reduced the overall cost of my LinuxCNC system by perhaps USD100 compared to picking an Intel Atom board which is already known to work well in this application right out of the box. That's pretty small beer compared to the total cost of ownership. The cost difference drops to just USD50 if I pick an ARM-based BeagleBone (which presumably can be made to work if the Raspberry Pi can). I agree the smaller form factor and lower power consumption of many ARM-based boards are nice, but they aren't a game changer for me as an end user. Ask Jon Elson for a different opinion as an interested party who is a component vendor and system integrator. As for the ARM-specific real-time Linux that definitely is required, Jon has been waiting for several years for RT-Linux to be ported satisfactorily to the BeagleBoard. While the current developmental Preempt-RT work being done with LinuxCNC is encouraging and might port more easily, we don't know yet if it will give satisfactory performance on x86-class boards let alone on any of the many ARM-class boards. And, yes, there's the problem of interfacing the Raspberry Pi to any real-world equipment. Jon Elson has reported on progress in the specific case of his BeagleBoard. Don't get me wrong, I have two ARM-based systems running Linux on my bench that I am playing with and I put in my reservation for a Raspberry Pi a while ago "just because," but they are intended for other applications. Intel Atom-based motherboards remain my choice for LinuxCNC. Live long and prosper :-) Regards, Kent ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
