Hi Craig,
I very confident that Mach3 and its former incarnations (Mach1 and even Master5 )are real-time.
If they weren’t, it couldn’t generate a step pulse train with 2us step pulses at a rate of 35k+ pulses/s
Art performed a number of software gymnastics to achieve this. He basically inserted an interrupt service routine at a very low level so Mach3 got access to the processor before most of the windows processes. Once he was done he gave it back to windows. This way Mach had accurate and deterministic timing, such is basically the definition of a real time system.
Code:
What is a real-time application?
A real-time application, or RTA, is an application that functions within a time frame that the user senses as immediate or current. The latency must be less than a defined value, usually measured in seconds. The use of real-time applications is part of real-time computing.
The technique he used was basically one of the techniques hackers use to hide viruses on early PCs.
As Windows OS moved from Win95 to 98, etc, measures were put in place to combat playing around with the os. Eventually the OS (win 7 64-bit) was encrypted which ended using this method. That’s why you need to use a motion controller with an OS later that Win7 32-bit.
Anyone remember using Master5? Maximum pulse rate of 8k steps/s.
Cheers
Peter.
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