From: Nathan F. <nfa...@ya...> - 2003-07-16 00:12:30
|
I've run into problems with Player on a StrongARM platform. I'm guessing that the reason is the StrongARM SA-1110 lacks a floating point unit and the NWFPE emulation library is so slow that the CPU wastes too much time executing floating point instructions. The driver that's giving me trouble is laserbarcode. This single driver takes up 80% of the CPU time. I determined this using the 'ps' program. The delay is so bad that it takes several seconds for commands to register with Player. The work around I found was to execute the laserbarcode driver on a PC and use the passthrough driver to control the robot through a wireless network. This is not a long-term solution because I want to run all the software on the robot. Has anyone else run into these kinds of problems? What can I do other than getting more powerful hardware? Regards, Nathan Farrington __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com |
From: ahoward <ah...@us...> - 2003-07-16 15:38:48
|
Hi Nick: There are really only two things you can do about this: optimize the driver code, or convert the whole thing to used fixed-point calculations. Since the original code has never been optimized, so you might get lucky and find some obvious shortcut. For the 1.4 release, I will also make a slight modification to the driver that might be of some assistance. Right now, the driver runs in the server thread, so any delay in the driver slows down the entire server. I will change this so that the driver runs in its own thread. The server will then run at full speed (no delays in executing commands), but you will still get fiducial data at a reduced rate (e.g. 1Hz rather than 10Hz). A. On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Nathan Farrington wrote: > I've run into problems with Player on a StrongARM > platform. I'm guessing that the reason is the > StrongARM SA-1110 lacks a floating point unit and the > NWFPE emulation library is so slow that the CPU wastes > too much time executing floating point instructions. > > The driver that's giving me trouble is laserbarcode. > This single driver takes up 80% of the CPU time. I > determined this using the 'ps' program. The delay is > so bad that it takes several seconds for commands to > register with Player. The work around I found was to > execute the laserbarcode driver on a PC and use the > passthrough driver to control the robot through a > wireless network. This is not a long-term solution > because I want to run all the software on the robot. > > Has anyone else run into these kinds of problems? What > can I do other than getting more powerful hardware? > > Regards, > > Nathan Farrington > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. > http://search.yahoo.com > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: VM Ware > With VMware you can run multiple operating systems on a single machine. > WITHOUT REBOOTING! Mix Linux / Windows / Novell virtual machines at the > same time. Free trial click here: http://www.vmware.com/wl/offer/345/0 > _______________________________________________ > Playerstage-developers mailing list > Pla...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/playerstage-developers > Andrew Howard email: ah...@po... Department of Computer Science http: www-robotics.usc.edu/~ahoward University of Southern California phone: 1 (213) 740 6416 Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. 90089-0781 fax: 1 (213) 821 5696 << Insert pithy saying here >>> |
From: ahoward <ah...@us...> - 2003-07-16 15:55:45
|
Ooops; that would be *Nathan*. Too early in the morning for my tortured brain... A. On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, ahoward wrote: > > Hi Nick: > > There are really only two things you can do about this: optimize the > driver code, or convert the whole thing to used fixed-point calculations. > Since the original code has never been optimized, so you might get lucky > and find some obvious shortcut. > > For the 1.4 release, I will also make a slight modification to the driver > that might be of some assistance. Right now, the driver runs in the > server thread, so any delay in the driver slows down the entire server. > I will change this so that the driver runs in its own thread. The server > will then run at full speed (no delays in executing commands), but you > will still get fiducial data at a reduced rate (e.g. 1Hz rather than > 10Hz). > > A. > > > On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Nathan Farrington wrote: > > > I've run into problems with Player on a StrongARM > > platform. I'm guessing that the reason is the > > StrongARM SA-1110 lacks a floating point unit and the > > NWFPE emulation library is so slow that the CPU wastes > > too much time executing floating point instructions. > > > > The driver that's giving me trouble is laserbarcode. > > This single driver takes up 80% of the CPU time. I > > determined this using the 'ps' program. The delay is > > so bad that it takes several seconds for commands to > > register with Player. The work around I found was to > > execute the laserbarcode driver on a PC and use the > > passthrough driver to control the robot through a > > wireless network. This is not a long-term solution > > because I want to run all the software on the robot. > > > > Has anyone else run into these kinds of problems? What > > can I do other than getting more powerful hardware? > > > > Regards, > > > > Nathan Farrington > > > > __________________________________ > > Do you Yahoo!? > > The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. > > http://search.yahoo.com > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.net email is sponsored by: VM Ware > > With VMware you can run multiple operating systems on a single machine. > > WITHOUT REBOOTING! Mix Linux / Windows / Novell virtual machines at the > > same time. Free trial click here: http://www.vmware.com/wl/offer/345/0 > > _______________________________________________ > > Playerstage-developers mailing list > > Pla...@li... > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/playerstage-developers > > > > Andrew Howard email: ah...@po... > Department of Computer Science http: www-robotics.usc.edu/~ahoward > University of Southern California phone: 1 (213) 740 6416 > Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. 90089-0781 fax: 1 (213) 821 5696 > << Insert pithy saying here >>> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: VM Ware > With VMware you can run multiple operating systems on a single machine. > WITHOUT REBOOTING! Mix Linux / Windows / Novell virtual machines at the > same time. Free trial click here: http://www.vmware.com/wl/offer/345/0 > _______________________________________________ > Playerstage-developers mailing list > Pla...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/playerstage-developers > Andrew Howard email: ah...@po... Department of Computer Science http: www-robotics.usc.edu/~ahoward University of Southern California phone: 1 (213) 740 6416 Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. 90089-0781 fax: 1 (213) 821 5696 << Insert pithy saying here >>> |
From: Josh B. <jb...@bb...> - 2003-07-16 16:33:55
|
Andrew, A separate thread sounds like a great idea. Are you going to do the same = for the mcl driver too ;-) Josh > -----Original Message----- > From: pla...@li...=20 > [mailto:pla...@li...]=20 > On Behalf Of ahoward > Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 11:39 AM > To: Nathan Farrington > Cc: pla...@li... > Subject: Re: [Playerstage-developers] Player problems because=20 > lack of FPU on StrongARM >=20 >=20 >=20 > Hi Nick: >=20 > There are really only two things you can do about this:=20 > optimize the driver code, or convert the whole thing to used=20 > fixed-point calculations. Since the original code has never=20 > been optimized, so you might get lucky and find some obvious shortcut. >=20 > For the 1.4 release, I will also make a slight modification=20 > to the driver that might be of some assistance. Right now,=20 > the driver runs in the server thread, so any delay in the=20 > driver slows down the entire server. I will change this so=20 > that the driver runs in its own thread. The server will then=20 > run at full speed (no delays in executing commands), but you=20 > will still get fiducial data at a reduced rate (e.g. 1Hz=20 > rather than 10Hz). >=20 > A. >=20 >=20 > On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Nathan Farrington wrote: >=20 > > I've run into problems with Player on a StrongARM > > platform. I'm guessing that the reason is the > > StrongARM SA-1110 lacks a floating point unit and the > > NWFPE emulation library is so slow that the CPU wastes > > too much time executing floating point instructions. > > > > The driver that's giving me trouble is laserbarcode. > > This single driver takes up 80% of the CPU time. I > > determined this using the 'ps' program. The delay is > > so bad that it takes several seconds for commands to > > register with Player. The work around I found was to > > execute the laserbarcode driver on a PC and use the=20 > passthrough driver=20 > > to control the robot through a wireless network. This is not a=20 > > long-term solution because I want to run all the software on the=20 > > robot. > > > > Has anyone else run into these kinds of problems? What > > can I do other than getting more powerful hardware? > > > > Regards, > > > > Nathan Farrington > > > > __________________________________ > > Do you Yahoo!? > > The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.=20 > http://search.yahoo.com > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.net email is sponsored by: VM Ware > > With VMware you can run multiple operating systems on a=20 > single machine. > > WITHOUT REBOOTING! Mix Linux / Windows / Novell virtual=20 > machines at the > > same time. Free trial click here:=20 > http://www.vmware.com/wl/offer/345/0 > >=20 > _______________________________________________ > > Playerstage-developers mailing list > > Pla...@li... > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/playerstage-developers > > >=20 > Andrew Howard email: ah...@po... > Department of Computer Science http: =20 > www-robotics.usc.edu/~ahoward > University of Southern California phone: 1 (213) 740 6416 > Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. 90089-0781 fax: 1 (213) 821 5696 > << Insert pithy saying here >>> >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: VM Ware > With VMware you can run multiple operating systems on a=20 > single machine. > WITHOUT REBOOTING! Mix Linux / Windows / Novell virtual=20 > machines at the > same time. Free trial click here: http://www.vmware.com/wl/offer/345/0 > _______________________________________________ > Playerstage-developers mailing list > Pla...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/playerstage-developers >=20 |