Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Minimum hardware for EMC

Mark Peugeot wrote:

>
> I am a total newbie but I will give it a shot.

Yes, he asked specific questions, re a specific CPU and EMC.

> > 1) Will EMC run OK on this system?
>
> Depends really on the ram requirements.

But also, CPU speed and memory page organization (it's different on
386-486 machines
and Pentium architectures).

> > 2) Will the slower system affect feed rates, etc.
>
> a 486 processor is actually pretty fast when you get it away from
> bloated
> software.

Unfortunately, EMC has a bit of bloat in it! It was never written from
the ground up
to be efficient, as a good part of it was begun as an academic
exercise. All
calculations are done in floating point, and 486's are not fast in that
regard.
The Tk/TCL GUI is DEFINITELY not efficient, it is just a little better
than the
alternatives!

> > 3) Obviously, with 8mb of RAM, I've got lots of swap. Will swap
> > use inhibit EMC performance?
>
> You should not swap on a real time or near realtime applications...
> such
> as running a lathe! I would think that this could lead to serious
> problems.

But, of course, the RT environment NEVER swaps, it is impossible for it
to swap.

> I would add a few more megs of ram, I think other than that you have
> no
> real issues with a 486. I have no knowledge of the EMC software, but
> if
> you run it under linux and begin swapping, it is gonna get ugly. 32
> Megs
> of ram is cheap!

32 Meg may not FIT on an old 486 MB! And, there are REAL issues with
the 486,
most notably the different memory page organization, which strongly
affects the
shared memory region that is the only communication between the RT
components
of EMC and everything else.

Jon