Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Nick Rees <[email protected]> · Fri, 9 Nov 2001 17:40:57 -1000 (HST)

Hi,

We are (like many people, I suspect) gradually transitioning from Solaris
to Linux. The driver for this is not the EPICS developers, but
price/performance for data reduction. However, the end result is a knock
on to the EPIC's/real-time developers at our site.

So, I rang my VxWorks sales rep the other day and he came back with a
standard VxWorks quote. Well I laughed. After the laughter had subsided I
explained a bit what we were about and it transpired:

 - Linux support was only available on VxWorks AE for the current time, so
   that was what the quote was for.
 - VxWorks AE was not available for 68k.

I explained that we specifically didn't want or need any of the AE
features, and that we still had quite a lot of 68k machines around. We had
also been pay the odd few $k a year for many years for not much. All we
really needed now was a Linux-based GNU toolset on all of our
architectures (68k, MIPS and PPC), a reasonable debugger, and the VxWorks
libraries. (One problem I have had is getting a good build of the GNU
toolset for architectures other than the 68k).

Well, after this he became somewhat receptive. Also, since all the Hawaii
telescopes are in his sales patch, he asked me how many other people were
in the same boat. I said I would find out, but I suspected there were a
few.

Hence, the question is, how many sites are interested in transitioning to
Linux, and would be willing to do this at a reduced cost with the
possibility that all latest Tornado development suite would not be
available, but the GNU toolchain and debugger would be? If you are
interested, please can one person from each site send me:

1. Contact name
2. Site name
3. #VxWorks licenses
4. VxWorks license number

The latter two are optional, but are may come in handy.

I suspect nothing will come of it, but I felt that if we got a reasonable
number of people responding, baybe WRS might notice.

Also, if someone closer to the collaboration has already taken this up (or
would like to), please let me know anything you have - I won't stand in
your way :-).

Cheers,

-- 
Nick Rees

Joint Astronomy Centre               Ph:       +1 (808) 961-3756
660 N. Aohoku Place                  Fax:      +1 (808) 961-6516
Hilo, HI.  96720                     Internet: [email protected]

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System