SUPPORTED CONTROLLER CARDS

spec supports the following VME controllers. Note, SBS (formerly Bit 3) was GE Fanuc, but is now (as of 2015) Abaco Systems.

SBS (Bit 3) Model 403 ISA

Available on Linux and on HP-700 platforms with E/ISA slots. Only A16 access supported. No kernel drivers involved.

SBS (Bit 3) Model 616/617/618/620 PCI with SBS Driver

Available on Linux with the SBS model 1003 v1.0 driver, on Solaris platforms with the SBS model 945 driver and on HP platforms with the SBS model 934 driver. If the SBS controller is to be the master on the VME crate, be sure to set the system controller jumpers on the SBS VME module.

SBS (Bit 3) Model 616/617/618 PCI with no Driver

spec provides built-in user level support on Linux platforms, which may be useful on platforms with kernel versions not supported by the SBS driver. This built-in support doesn't include support for DMA transfers, though. If the SBS controller is to be the master on the VME crate, be sure to set the system controller jumpers on the SBS VME module.

SBS (Bit 3) Model 487-1 E/ISA

Requires SBS (Bit 3) Model 933 support software. DMA transfers supported. Note, you must use the HP eisa_config utility to change the default board settings to include "Memory Mapping Enabled" and "Privilege Checks Disabled".

SBS (Bit 3) Model 466-1 SBus

Requires SBS (Bit 3) Model 944 support software.

SBS (Bit 3) Model 467-1 SBus

Same as Model 466-1 above, but DMA transfers supported.

Struck Model SIS1100/3100 PCI

Available on Linux using either spec's built-in driverless support or using Struck's kernel driver. The built-in "driverless" support doesn't include support for DMA transfers and doesn't allow other processes to access the VME controller, but also doesn't require installation of a kernel driver. The second implementation accesses controller registers using ioctl() calls to the driver and uses memory mapping through the driver to access VME address space. The driverless support requires that the spec executable be either set-user-id root or have Linux capabilities enabled by root. The driver option only requires read/write access to the driver device nodes.

Struck Model SIS3150 USB

Available on Linux and Mac OS X platforms using spec's built-in support.

BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS

The type of data access and/or VME address modifier for the functions can be selected with the optional argument opts as follows (if more than one option is needed, make a comma-separated list in the single string argument):

"D8"

byte access.

"D16"

short-word access.

"D32"

long-word access, but only available with vme_get32() and vme_put32().

"A16"

use A16 (amod=0x2D) addressing.

"A24"

use A24 (amod=0x3D) addressing, on adapters that support it.

"A32"

use A32 (amod=0x0D) addressing, on adapters that support it.

"DPRT"

use dual-port memory access (amod=0x1D), on adapters that support it.

"amod=0xXX"

specify the hexadecimal value for the address modifier.

The vme_move() function recognizes the following additional strings in its fourth argument:

"no_dma"

Don't use the DMA interface for this transfer, even if it is available.

"no_inc"

Rather than increment the VME address for each item transferred, write each item to the same VME address.

The default mode for the A16 access functions vme_get() and vme_put() is D8. The default mode for the A32 access functions vme_get32() and vme_put32() is D32. The defaults for all functions can be overridden by options in the opts string.

Not all VME adapters supported by spec support A32 access.

vme_get(addr [, opts])

Returns the data at addr in the 64K A16 address space.

vme_put(addr, data [, opts])

Writes data to addr in the 64K A16 address space.

vme_get32(addr [, opts])

Returns the data at addr in the A32 address space.

vme_put32(addr, data [, opts])

Writes data to addr in the A32 address space.

vme_move(from, to [, cnt [, opts]])

Copies data between a spec data array and VME address space. One of the from and to arguments must be the name of a spec data array while the other must be a VME address. If the optional argument cnt is present, it designates how many data items (not bytes) to copy. If missing or zero, the number of elements in the array is copied. A32 addressing is used by default. The default data size is determined by the data size of the array. Both can be overridden by opts.

MULTIPLE VME CONTROLLERS

spec allows up to four VME controllers to be configured by the same instance of spec. In the configuration editor, use the ^F and ^B command on the VME controller line of the Interfaces screen to configure each controller. To include a unit number in a VME address for a device, enter the address using the notation unit:address. An absent unit: prefix implies VME controller unit zero.

In the config file, the unit number associated with a VME controller is specified with @vme_0, @vme_1, etc.

For the vme_get(), vme_get32(), vme_put(), vme_put32() and vme_move() functions, the VME unit numbers are encoded using the same "unit:address" syntax as above. For the function calls, such an address argument must be passed as a string by using quotes to make a constant string, or by passing a string-valued variable.