OMS VME-8 motor controllers: PAL upgrades

['Karen J. Coulter' <coulter@crystal.physics.lsa.umich.edu>]

I spoke with Steve Flego at OMS this morning (I called to get rev B of the PAL).
He is currently working on rev C, which modifies the interrupt acknowledge
timing slighty (~50nsec).  He is looking for some customers to test out rev C
with the MVME167's.  If anyone is considering modifying the driver code to
run in an interrupt driven rather than polling mode, Steve would be very
interested in working together to test the new PAL.  The phone number at
OMS is 503-629-8081.


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From sullivan@oxygen.aps1.anl.gov Fri Jun 10 11:28:48 1994
From: sullivan@oxygen.aps1.anl.gov (Joseph P. Sullivan)
To: beamline_controls@phebos.aps.anl.gov
Subject: Re: Warning - problem with OMS VME-8 motor controllers
Content-Length: 1019
X-Lines: 28
Status: RO


Re...

> > Tim Mooney and I have found that the latest batch of Oregon Micro Systems
> > VME8-8 motor controllers hang the entire VME crate. This is true of 4 out of 5
> > boards, so is likely a design problem, not an isolated failure.
> > OMS does tests at the factory, but the problem may be that they have not
> > tested them with the MV167 CPU boards we use. It may be a timing problem.
> > The problem is under investigation. Users would be well advised not to order
> > any new VME8 boards until the problem is resolved.
> 
> Oregon Micro Systems says they have solution in hand for this problem. 
> 
> Five copies of the latest revision to a VME Bus logic PAL is being shipped to 
> ANL tonight and we should be able have them tested by friday. 

The PALs finally arrived and they did fix the problem that Mark Rivers found 
in the latest batch of VME8 boards. The PAL is labeled 'BUS4G B' and replaces
'BUS4G A' in socket U37. 'BUS4G B' is being installed in all newly produced
boards.

	Joe





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