Subject: Re: lab equipment connected on HP-IB
To: Mika Nystroem <mika@cs.caltech.edu>
From: Wes Brown <wes@prozac.student.cwru.edu>
List: port-hp300
Date: 12/11/1996 11:09:20
> Random question for anyone who might know:
> Is there enough support in NetBSD/hp300 to make connecting a bunch of
> HP-IB/IEEE488 lab equipment and using it relatively painless?  How
> much driver code, etc., might I have to write?  I'm putting together
> a lab of new equipment and would rather avoid having any MS-DOGs 
> in there and just happen to have two 425t's lying around...
> 
>    Mika
> 
> P.S. Has XhpBSD been fixed any since the last time I tried it? (About
> six months ago...it was pretty unusable at the time :( )

If I could ever get NetBSD to load on my old 340 then I might know for
sure.  This semester two students developed a PCX output program that
gathers information from HP equipment.  The program was written in C on
HP-UX 7.0 using a /dev entry.  This was all developed with the intent of
porting to NetBSD once I could get the machine running that OS.

I do not know if there would be need for any driver code.  The program
communicates via the /dev entry.  So long as the kernel can pass that ASCII
information out the HP-IB interface, then things will be golden.

If anyone has a working 340 with a tape drive, I am even open to the
possiblility of (dd)ing from HP-UX 7 the entire setup just to get this
crate to fly.  

Wes
---
Wes Brown
ewb4@po.cwru.edu		wes@prozac.cwru.edu
http://prozac.cwru.edu/wes/About.me.html
KB8TGR