GPIB-ENET/100 Driver Support

[patelja3]

Is a driver available for 64-bit Red Hat Linux for your GPIB-ENET/100 converter?

[Sarah_R]

Hey patelja3,

Currently we only have the Linux - 32 Bit driver for GPIB-ENET/100 converter. For all the GPIB drivers for Linux you are able to find those from our Drivers and Updates: NI-488.2 Search.

Thanks and hope you have a great day.

Sarah S

[patelja3]

Sarah,

Thanks.  Do you know if a 64-bit Linux driver is planned for development in the near future?

[Sarah_R]

Hey patelja3,

I am not sure of that. I would recommend placing a product suggestion in for this by going to our Product Feedback Link. This will ensure that you get your request into our R&D and they will take it into consideration for future releases.

Thanks
Sarah

[patelja3]

Does the possibility exist to contract National Instruments to develop a 64-bit Linux driver for the GPIB-ENET/100?

[Shawn B.]

There is a beta driver available for 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.  This driver currently supports 64-bit kernels, but only 32-bit user-mode applications.

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Shawn Bohrer
National Instruments

[patelja3]

Shawn,

Can you clarify exactly what you mean by stating that the driver does not support 32-bit user applications but does support a 64-bit OS?

Also, is support available for AMD's x64 processors, or only Intel's?

[Shawn B.]

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@patelja3 wrote:

Can you clarify exactly what you mean by stating that the driver does not support 32-bit user applications but does support a 64-bit OS?

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64-bit Linux typically means that you are using a Linux distribution that has a 64-bit kernel.  A 64-bit Linux kernel is capable of running both 32-bit and 64-bit applications in user-mode, provided that your Linux distribution provides all 32-bit and 64-bit support libraries your application may need.  Usually this is called multilib support and 64-bit RHEL does support multilib.

The 64-bit beta supports supports 64-bit kernels, but we only provide 32-bit user mode libraries so you can only develop 32-bit applications.

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@patelja3 wrote:

Also, is support available for AMD's x64 processors, or only Intel's?

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It supports both AMD and Intel processors of the x86_64 architecture (most consumer processors).

Shawn Bohrer
National Instruments

[patelja3]

Shawn,

Thanks for the quick response.  We would need the driver to support 64-bit user apps as well.  Do you have an estimate as to how much it would cost to develop the driver to support 64-bit user apps if we were to contract NI to do this?

[Shawn B.]

Cost of development depends on a number of factors.  For example: Your time frame for needing the driver, how likely we are to recoup the development costs, opportunity costs of allocating developers to work on this driver instead of another project, your hardware and Linux distribution requirements, and many other factors.  Since there are so many factors involved I would recommend you contact your local Field Sales Engineer (FSE) and discuss your application with them.  They can then work with R&D and determine if it is something we want to pursue.  If you don't know who your local FSE is you can simply contact NI sales.

Just to clarify though are you sure you need a 64-bit application?  The only reason that you may need a 64-bit application is if your application needs to operate on very large data sets and will thus need more than 3GB of RAM (for the single application).  Normally this is not the case with GPIB, though it is possible your application does more than just GPIB.

Shawn Bohrer
National Instruments