In compact vision system (RT) is process footprint put in volatile memory?

[ldhertert]

I have a CVS-1455 (real-time vision) with 128 MB volatile memory and 128 MB non-volatile memory. I know that the program is uploaded to the non-volatile memory, but I was wondering if the volatile memory was used during runtime. If so, is the entire footprint placed in memory, or a set number of pages? Is there a tool to determine how much memory is being used?

[JesseD]

Hello,

Thank you for contacting National Instruments. The non-volatile memory in the CVS systems can be thought of as the "hard drive" for the system. This is where applications, images, data files, etc are stored.

The volatile memory is similar to the "RAM" of the system. This is where programs are executed from. A small part of this memory is dedicated to the real-time operating system (on the order of 10-20 MB). The entire footprint is not placed in this memory. If you are using LabVIEW, you can view the approximate memory usage of your VI in the "Memory Usage" category of the "VI Properties..." dialog box. This is the only utility I am aware of for determining memory usage.

Hope this information helps out.

Best Regards,

Jes
se D.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[GerardoG]

Actually, there is a way to determine the amount of volatile memory programmatically. Here is an example program for doing just that. Also, if you have LabVIEW 7.1, you can use the Real-Time System Manager, available at Tools>>Real-Time System Manager to track your memory usage as well.

-Gerardo

[DonRoth]

Given the fact that only 10 - 20 mb RAM is required for RTOS, let's say I have 20 mb worth of images/frames I would like to acquire at 30 fps and store in CVS RAM (possibly converting to array prior to storage). This still leaves about 80 - 90 mb free RAM. Should I have any problems at all storing this amount of data in RAM? It seems to me it should be no problem.

And once acquisition and storage of the images is completed, I want to, prior to displaying one final processed image, either:

1) send all the data back to host for the processing

or

2) do the processing on the CVS

Again, it seems to me either approach should work. For 1), can someone comment on transfer speed over TCP/IP of 20 mb of data back to host (Remember, acquisition is n
ow stopped). For 2), again it appears to me that 80 - 90 mb of RAM is quite enough to handle such post-processing.

Comments anyone?

Sincerely,

Don

[Scott_R]

Don,

There should be no problem with processing your data from the CVS. As you indicated, there is adequate memory for storage and processing. With regard to TCP/IP communication, that will be highly dependent upon the NIC that you are using, network structure, and network traffic.

Scott R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments