Hardware information, PCI-8431/8 serial card, for kernel level programming

[Rob Betz]

Firstly some background.

I am going to use the NI PCI-8431/8 RS-422/485 card in a real time application.  It is required because of the very high transmission speeds required -- approximately 2.5Mbits/sec.

 I am using the Ardence RTX (real time extension), which is a real time OS extension of Windows XP.  The RTX allows one to have access to all the features of Windows (with some limitations), and at the same time get the determinism required for demanding real-time applications.

The processor hardware is a dual processor Pentium 4 (2.8GHz) system from AdvanTech.  The real-time code runs on one processor, whilst XP runs on the other.  They communicate via shared memory.

Ardence does allow Windows device drivers to be converted to RTX device drivers -- this essentially means that the RTX controls the interrupts associated with the device drivers in order to make their response deterministic.  However, in creating the device handle (using the standard Windows feature of CreateFile) Ardence does not support overlapped mode operation of the device.  I would like an event to be generated to wake up a thread when the data required arrives.

One possibility I am exploring is to set up my own device driver running totally within the RTX environment (at Ring 0 privilege)--  in other words bypass the NI device driver all together.  I have successfully done similar things with other PCI based hardware being used in this application.  However, I need the low level technical data for the seriall board in order to do this. 

My question is:  IS IT POSSIBLE TO GET THE HARDWARE TECHNICAL DATA FOR THE PCI-8421/8 SERIAL BOARD?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.  Other possible solutions to the above appreciated.

Regards

Rob Betz

[Ebele_Obijiofor]

Hi Rob,

Try the manual here. It contains some low level information on the serial boards. See if you find it useful. Thanks!

Regards,

[Rob Betz]

Ebele,

Thanks you for the reply.  Unfortunately this document does not contain information at the level that I require.  In addition it is not directly related to the PCI-8431/8 board.

I require the basic address and programming information for the integrated circuits on the board  - i.e. how to directly program that various hardware registers for the board to operate in the modes that I require.  This information may be available in the form af a board hardware data sheet.  This will contain information similar to the information available in an integrated circuit data book.  This will allow the chips on the board to be initialised, and the interrupts etc to be set up the way that I want for this application.

A document that may contain such information would be information on how to write a device driver for the board.

I did also get a call from a NI representative here in Australia as well (his name was Sajuy).  He was also going to try and follow up on this matter as well.  However, if you can locate some documentation that NI are prepared to release that would allow the programming access to the chips at the level I require that would be much appreciated.

Thanks again for the reply.

Regards,

Bob Betz

[Ebele_Obijiofor]

Hi Bob,

I did notice that the Engineer from Australia contacted us about your questions, so we'll work with him to see how we can help with this issue. Thanks!

Regards,