Re: Development of a distributed system based on firewire- advice needed...

maxpower24@xxxxxxx wrote:

Hello,

thanks for your reply.....so, far the project is still in an early
stage with a lot of (unsure) assumptions concerning safety, speed etc.

OK, so just a cursory glance at options then.

The main reason why firewire came into my mind, is the "hot pluggable"-
feature the network shall provide (whatever bus or protocol is used).
This means, whenever a device is plugged into the system, the control
system shall become automatically aware of it.....I hope that I can
get this feature "free of charge" when i use firewire as a lot of very
clever people have developed it within 10years......and secondly, from
what I read it is very fast and safe.....

I'd have a close look at the safety requirements first and then decide if it
is safe enough or needs alternative network augmentation.

Concerning ethernet....I have so far only dealt with programming TCP/
IP and UDP/IP-applications, but because all the communication is
implemented in software, it takes quite a long time to transmit
packets, if i am not mistaken....I mean, when you use TCP/IP you have
to open sockets, bind to it, send data to the socket and so on.....you
are not directly using the (fast enough) ethernet protocol......To be
honest, I have no idea how i could develop an application that
communicates over pure ethernet, not TCP/IP over Ethernet.....I would
like to know that by the way, so if you have an advice here...

To give you a little light reading then:-

http://www.ethernet-powerlink.org/
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/lim/sensit.html
http://www.safetybusp.com/1_News/1.2_News_News.htm


--
********************************************************************
Paul E. Bennett ....................<email://peb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....<http://www.amleth.demon.co.uk/>
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972
Tel: +44 (0)1235-811095
Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk..
********************************************************************
.