Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Michael Davidsaver via Core-talk <core-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:56:27 -0800

On 2/11/21 12:32 PM, Gedare Bloom via Core-talk wrote:
> Hello again EPICS Core,
> 
> I'm looking to collect some feedback from you all related to
> EPICS+RTEMS. I'm trying to also keep in touch with monitoring the
> progress on EPICS7/RTEMS5 (And, I'm planning to participate with
> students in the upcoming hackathon! if you have tasks related, I might
> be able to help knock them out). My ask right now is:
> * What feature improvements would you like to see in future RTEMS releases?
> * What are your pain points with current RTEMS versions and/or workflows?

* BSP Status

I've been confused about the status of the various architectures/BSPs
in the RTEMS >=5 era.  My questions for each are:

1. Is libbsd (new network stack) supported?
2. Does it build?
3. Does it boot in emulation?  (assuming there is an emulator)
4. Has it been tested on metal?

I think I can answer "yes" to the first 3 for i386/pc686 and powerpc/mvme3100.

Another surprising (to me) question which came up recently is whether
the VME bridge driver is usable on targets without libbsd support.
So maybe my question 1. should be which features depend on libbsd?

The current set of BSPs with configuration in EPICS 7.0 series
repository are:

arm
  at91rm9200ek
powerpc
  beatnik
  mcp750
  mvme2100
  mvme2700
  mvme3100
  mvme5500
  psim
i386
  pc386   (we're switching to pc686 w/ RTEMS5)
m68k
  gen68360
  mvme167
  uC5282

* Toolchain builds

It seems like everyone I know who is working with RTEMS5 is using a different
process to build RTEMS.  Some people are using RSB in part or in full.  Others
build some piece individually with autoconf or waf (I guess).  The result has
been repeatability and "works for me" issues.  I'd love to have a recommended
recipe to focus everyone on.

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System