Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] fire and forget was Re: Black box again

Hi Jon,

Some comments below:

Jon Elson wrote:

>
> Alan Marconett KM6VV wrote:
>
> > Hi Jon,
> >
> > I didn't realize it was such a mess! I've got an 'Élan processor on a
> > board at work, and it's parallel port won't work correctly unless I set
> > it up for EPP first, then SPP!
>
> Wow, that's wierd! I have a problem with the current software, that
> if the system has used the parallel port to print, then EMC won't work
> until you reboot. I haven't found out what curious state gets changed
> that I'm not aware of, yet. I will have to dig sometime and try to
> identify why that is, but it shouldn't be a big problem for most users.

That sounds like the "configuration lock" that you can do with these
chips. And of course, it is different for different chips. The 665/666
do it one way, NEC does it another. At lest you can ID the chip that is
being used, and go from there.

>
> > I tried reading the IEEE1284 (?) spec
> > before, looks impressive, but I didn't get much out of it. Which chips
> > are you using, SMS 665, 666?
>
> It looks like the SMS FDC37C665GT and ...666GT are very similar is
> the register definitions, I'm pretty sure my software will run on either
> of them. it should also run on most of the other EPP chips as well, as
> long as they adhere to the register definition standard from Microsoft.

I think I recall that one gets something setup from pins, the other is
configurable from software.

>
> > NEC also has some major "glue" chips, but I
> > think all the ones I knew are OLD now! But then your part would be on
> > the "device" (peripheral?) end; isn't that a different animal (or
> > FPGA)?
>
> But, the software needs to configure the PC's parallel port properly and
> then transfer commands and data to the "device" end.

Yes, you'd have to set things up on the PC side. Windoz98 would
probably do that for you! ;>)

>
> > I'd heard that ECP was out of the game! There were all kind of "port
> > sharing" stuff for one of the modes, I can't remember now. You're
> > getting more then one port out of it? And 32 bit "writes"? Sounds
> > slick! This is the "fire and forget" that makes EPP worthwhile? No
> > waiting for handshakes? I like it.
>
> Essentially, you get 256 possible devices, or think of it as being
> able to address 256 byte-wide registers out there on the end of the
> parallel port cable, and transfer a byte (or even 2 or 4 bytes) with
> one single instruction. Also, by putting an address counter into the
> device, you can write or read several bytes in a row to/from
> consecutive addresses with one instruction per byte.

That would make a nice breakout box! All the pins you could stand!

>
> > Hah! I found the SIIG Cyber 2S1P User's manual. Disk inside. Maybe
> > there's hope yet! I'd really like to get this board "visible" in DOS.
> > Not much in the manual, and, I think I've tried the CB20XPC.exe driver
> > before.
>
> Well, I really can't get too excited over DOS, anymore. Good for
> writing really quick diagnostic programs in Turbo Pascal, but not
> a whole lot else.
>
> Jon

True, but until we start having hardware (black boxes) and DLL's
(drivers) that will free us from Windoz' interference, a lot our
programs will be stuck with it. Perhaps it's easier under Real Time
Linux?

Alan KM6VV