How to access VMEbus from PC/Linux using SBS Bit3 616/617/618/620: Installation

5. Installation

5.1 Hardware setup

Installing the PCI Adaptor Card

Shutdown your Linux system and Power off the PC.
Insert the PCI card into the connector and fasten it in place with mounting screw.

Installing the VME Adaptor Card

Decide if the VMEbus card is the system controller. If it is, it must be installed slot#1 in the VME Crate. The following explanation suppose the VMEbus card is the system controller. Otherwise see the manual.
Remove jumpers to connect the "bus grant" and the "Interrupt acknowledge signals".

Set the "Bus Grant(BGO-BGI)" and the "Bus Request(BR)" jumpers the following diagrams.

            BGO-BGI              BR
            o-o o o  BA     
            o-o o-o  3          o o  0
            o o-o o  2          o o  1
            o o-o o  1          o o  2
            o o-o o  0          o-o  3

Set the "System" jumpers the following diagrams.

Insert the VME card into the slot#1 and fasten it in place with mounting screw.

Connecting the adaptor cable

Check the A/B label(for 616 and 617) on the cable connector and connect the cable to the VMEbus card.
Plug the cable connetctor into its mate on the PCI card.

READY LEDs

Make sure the READY LEDs on the both adaptor cards are lit.

5.2 Software Setup(vmehb and vmelib)

In the following, % prompt indicates user and # prompt indicates super user.

Download Device Driver(vmedrv)

You may download tar-zipped vmedrv file and untar it.

Go to download site.
Download vmedrv-x.y.z.tar.gz and save it.
% tar zxvf




Installing Device Driver(vmedrv)

Read instruction in download page and install driver.

Loading vmehb success? 

Change super user and type 

# insmod vmedrv

next type 

# dmesg

If you can see the following message, loading module was success.


vmedrv: SBS(Bit3) Model 618/620 VME-PCI Bus Adapter is detected at ioport 0xb800
 on irq 9.
  I/O Mapped Node at 0xb800.
  Memory Mapped Node at 0xe0800000.
  Mapping Register at 0xe0000000.
  Remote Memory at 0xde000000.
remapping pci memories...
  memory mapped node: --> 0xcc8e2000
  mapping regs: --> 0xce91a000
  window base: --> 0xce92b000
  Adapter ID (I/O): 0x83
  Adapter ID (mem): 0x83
vmedrv: successfully installed at 0xb800 on irq 9 (major = 254).



See /proc file

If module loading was success, you can see the followings output.
% cat /proc/devices

Character devices:
  1 mem
  2 pty
  3 ttyp
  4 ttyS
  5 cua
  7 vcs
 10 misc
 29 fb
 36 netlink
128 ptm
129 ptm
130 ptm
131 ptm
132 ptm
133 ptm
134 ptm
135 ptm
136 pts
137 pts
138 pts
139 pts
140 pts
141 pts
142 pts
143 pts
162 raw
180 usb
254 vmedrv <=== OK



% cat /proc/ioports

0000-001f : dma1
0020-003f : pic1
0040-005f : timer
0060-006f : keyboard
0070-007f : rtc
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00bf : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : fpu
02f8-02ff : serial(auto)
03c0-03df : vga+
03f8-03ff : serial(auto)
0cf8-0cff : PCI conf1
b400-b47f : Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21140 [FasterNet]
  b400-b47f : tulip
b800-b81f : Bit3 Computer Corp. VME Bridge Model 618
  b800-b81f : vmedrv                                     <=== OK
d000-d0ff : Adaptec AIC-7880U
d400-d41f : Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 USB
  d400-d41f : usb-uhci
d800-d80f : Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 IDE
  d800-d807 : ide0
  d808-d80f : ide1
e400-e43f : Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI
e800-e81f : Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI


% cat /proc/interrupts

           CPU0       
  0:   17513272          XT-PIC  timer
  1:        663          XT-PIC  keyboard
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  8:          1          XT-PIC  rtc
  9:      82786          XT-PIC  aic7xxx, usb-uhci, vmedrv <=== OK
 10:   12753210          XT-PIC  eth0
 12:       1932          XT-PIC  PS/2 Mouse
NMI:          0 
ERR:          0




Prev 
Contents