From: z_johnsta@ccsvax.sfasu.edu Subject: CCD and linux Date: 23 Apr 1993 13:25:37 CST
A friend of mine is running DOS on a 386 based machine, and he is capturing
images from a large telescope on a CCD camera, saving them to disk, and then
performing some image processing operations on the data, after he as
collected it all night. During the night, the captures are done DMA, and I
suspect that his CPU is sitting idle most of the time. I told him that he most
likely could use that time to take up the slack of the image processing, but,
alas, MSDOG (even 6.0) is not multi-tasking and not real time. I looked into
OS-9000, but even at the current price of $350, it was too much for the school
to spring for (my friend is an Astronomy Grad student). I told him that linux
was available extremely inexpensively, and that I would look into getting it
for him. So, my questions are threefold --
1. Where can I get linux? (I know this is a FAQ, but there are two more
questions, too, so don't fry me yet.)
2. Has anyone used linux for image capture/processing, especially in
astronomy, and is there software for it? I really don't want to roll my own on
this, but I can if I have to. Is the linux kernal real time? (that's not all
that important, but could make things easier if I have to write the software.)
3. Do the SCSI drivers for linux take advantage of 32bit SCSI controllers?
This would greatly enhance the capture time, as I'm sure it would be faster
than the 8 bit IDE drive he's using now...
Please reply via E-mail, as I only occasionally look through this group and I
don't want to miss anything...
Thanks in advance!
-Tim
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: Timothy A. Johns Z_JohnsTA@ccsvax.sfasu.edu :
: P.O. Box 16050 S.F.A. Physics/Computer Science Undergraduate :
: Nacogdoches, TX 75962 Stephen F. Austin State University :
: Hm: (409) 560-1876 Wk: S.F.A. Planetarium (409) 568-3009 :
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