0.7.0 BETA announcement

["M.Stein" <matthias@gom.com>]

Hello All!

After some (more) month of programming and some weeks of testing now a
first version of the new device driver release is available.

The step from 0.6.x to 0.7.0 includes a major concept modification, so
I have decided to release a BETA version, now available under:

	ftp://ftp.gom.com/pub/ITI-FG/itifg-0.7.0beta.tar.gz
	(archive size of 1.3MB depends on the included PCDig FPGA files)

The difference to the final version is only the lack of ANY documentation
(only the README is updated and vaild). I have tested with all hardware,
available to me:

	-old (rev. A) and new (rev. B) ICPCI boards (2Mb and 4Mb)
	-AMVS, AMDIG acquisition modules
	-PCVision
	-PCDig

	-Sony XC75/XC75CE
	-JAI CV-M10
	-Hamamatsu C4742-95 
	-Vosskuehler CCD1300/CCD1300F

Now to the news:

The main difference between this and all older device driver versions is,
that we do now a PAGEWISE transfer of the frame directly into the (for now
still mlock(2)'ed) user space. This means, you have to be root to run the
test_itifg program in an other than the -o mmap mode. The later mode
allocates an 'in kernel' buffer (< 60MB) and you can mmap it (no root
access needed).

The new transfer scheme has some consequences:

	+ The Reserved Upper Memory is no longer needed, because you can
          alloc/dealloc your buffers while the system is running via
	  mmap/malloc.

	- If the pagewise transfer is not done in hardware (PCDig), your
	  system has SIGNIFICAT MORE interrupts to handle than before.
	  So I strongly recommend to use a PPro or PII system!

Some driver interfaces has also changed:

	- any driver buffer control (GE_GET/SET_BMA/MEM) is now obsolete

	- the CR_SET_SNAP call is unified with the read(2) call.

But due to code maintenance problems there are some things, that are
no longer supported:

	- starting with this release, the old (rev. 0/1Q) IC-PCI boards
	  are unsupported

 	- the board trigger mode is now unsupported - I think the right
          way to trigger is to trigger the camera, not the board (any
	  other suggestions welcome!) 

Other things, that have changed:

	- the test_itifg is completely new and better structured - now it
          can also fork itself to grab from more than one board

	- starting with this release we have ONLY TWO special device files


Conclusion:
Many things have changed. Please try out your favorite ones and mail to
the list about any suggestions/problems...

Last but not least: BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM, BEFORE TESTING ANYTHING!

					matthias

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOM mbH                                                 Tel.: ++49 531/3804-330
Gesellschaft fuer optische Messtechnik                  Fax.: ++49 531/3804-333
Rebenring 33                                            Mail: M.Stein@gom.com
38106 Braunschweig GERMANY                              http://www.gom.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------