On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Philippe Hamelin wrote:

> +1 for PowerPC. We are using Orocos RTT 1.X on a PowerPC platform (Xilinx
> Virtex-5 FXT FPGA with embedded PPC440 Cores). Altough we didn't made yet
> exhaustive development on this platform, it works well for now (including the
> Corba transport layer). With a bit of work, we were able to cross-compile
> OmniORB, Boost, RTT and OCL using the ELDK-ppc4xx toolchain.

Good to know that Powerpc is still actively used, thanks for the information!
Personally, I've always liked its architecture (evolved from the 68xxx line
of processors) _a lot_ more than the "industry standard" x86 :-(

Herman
>
> 2010/8/17 Herman Bruyninckx <Herman [dot] Bruyninckx [..] ...>
> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>
> > I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
> > Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking
> part in
> > the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In
> brief,
> > it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and
> highway
> > traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March
> 2011.
> >
> > I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform
> for
> > this project.
>
> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform...
> Because there
> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be
> thrilled
> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))
>
> > There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
> > data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over
> the
> > truck's CAN bus.
> >
> > Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the
> website
> > that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but
> there is
> > no information whether this has actually happened.
>
> It will take a week or two more.
>
> > I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success
> to the
> developers mailinglist from time to time.
>
> > but having hung around on this mailing
> > list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the
> new
> > big thing and might be worth waiting for.
>
> I think so. For example, the data gathering component that you were
> mentioning before: we are having students using RTT 2.0
> (pre-releases) to
> do a "service and plug-in based" implementation of a similar
> functionality
> on top of EtherCat. That implementation (not yet finished, debugged,
> let
> alone released as "stable"; but many discussions have already been
> held
> about in on the developers mailing list) could serve as a starting
> point
> for your application goals...
>
> > We really cannot wait more
> > than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new
> release to
> > be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually
> trying
> > to do (driving the truck).
>
> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does
> it... :-)
>
> > So, should we wait for RTT-2.0.0 or start with the most recent 1.X
> > release? I'd welcome feedback and suggestions from the community,
> > especially developers and those who've test-driven the RTT-2.0.0
> betas.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Sagar
>
> Herman
> --
> Orocos-Users mailing list
> Orocos-Users [..] ...
> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users
>
>
>
>

--
K.U.Leuven, Mechanical Eng., Mechatronics & Robotics Research Group
<http://people.mech.kuleuven.be/~bruyninc> Tel: +32 16 328056
EURON Coordinator (European Robotics Research Network) <http://www.euron.org>
Open Realtime Control Services <http://www.orocos.org>
Associate Editor JOSER <http://www.joser.org>, IJRR <http://www.ijrr.org>

On 08/17/2010 04:51 PM, S Roderick wrote:
> On Aug 17, 2010, at 10:48 , Herman Bruyninckx wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>>
>>> I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
>>> Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
>>> the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
>>> it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
>>> traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
>>>
>>> I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
>>> this project.
>>
>> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform... Because there
>> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be thrilled
>> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))

I understand. But we prefer to use this platform unless things break
completely. The reason is that we have a vendor-developed hardware kit
with the processor board, a stock vehicle gearbox controller and other
automotive specific electronics all nicely working together.

>>> I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
>> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success to the
>> developers mailinglist from time to time.

Yes, on powerpc. Specifically, RTT-1.8.X and OCL on a Virtex-4 fpga with
a ppc405 processor. Initially we used the gnulinux target and an year
later, the Xenomai target. Cross-compiling all the dependencies was a
major pain, but it essentially worked. (We couldn't get omniORB/ ACE-TAO
or the xerces library to compile, but rtt works without those.) This was
mentioned on the mailing list
http://orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/orocos-virtex-4-fpga

> Yes, but v1 has some features that v2 does not.
> And this won't get solved in the "next couple of weeks" I believe ...
<sni

>> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does it... :-)
>
> I agree with Herman. Also, IMHO if you want bug free then don't go with any brand new version.

I agree on the free software implications :)
Guess rtt-1.10 would be a safer starting point.

Thanks,
Sagar