Re: FPGA for PCI based servo control board

[jmkasunich-at-ra.rockwell.com]

Alex wroteL

> Jon, I would like very much knowing your opinion on a
> subject of unloading real time loops to a small / cheap
> networked PC.
> Can it be done in DOS?
> Can it be done it RTLinux in a sense if it will be
> enough horsepower for 16 bit 386 machine to run
> several loops simultaneously?
>
> This will solve networking issue since network doesn't
> have to be in real time any more.

Which real time tasks do you intend to unload?

There are several, running at different speeds,
and presenting different loads to the CPU.
The ONLY real time task that presents a challenge
to even a 100MHz Pentium is the step generation
task.

The FPGA project intends to move that task, and only
that task, to hardware.

Moving step generation to a slower 386 CPU will make
things worse, not better.

Moving the other real-time tasks to a different CPU
is fixing a problem that doesn't exist.

I really gotta get that block diagram posted.

John Kasunich