I would like to point out that ARM processors aren't the only way to go embedded, there are very decent x86 embedded systems available with AMD (Geode LX/NX) and VIA (CN/CX/C7/Eden) CPUs.
System based on these can be sourced for less than $100 in bulk and as an added benefit none of the code needs to be ported. Perhaps it's time to experiment with building a custom distro to run EMC2 or a subset of it on embedded systems booting from flash NAND/NOR. Instead of porting the code our time might be better spent optimising for x86 which would benefit all users. My main question is how hard would it be to run EMC in a "distributed" way so that the motion controller could run remotely from the pulse generator? Jarl (Dallur/Rugludallur) On Tue, 2007-10-30 at 12:31 -0600, Jon Elson wrote: > ARM processors might be sufficient. > > Once the file serving question is handled, the only serious > remaining effort (I think) would be porting rtapi to one of the > competing ARM RTOS options. > > A very interesting idea, but it could be fairly time consuming > to deal with all the intricacies of such a big porting effort. > It would sure make a NEAT package, and the board could be quite > cheap. These ARM microcontrollers are in the $7 - 14 range, > they need an additional $12 or so of parts to implement > Ethernet, and maybe under $10 for extra memory. I would think > that pat could be done for under $100. Add an FPGA to do step > generation or PWM drive and a bunch of I/O connections, and you > are up to maybe $200 for a commercial product. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
