Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 18:08:18 -0400 (EDT)

From: "Keith W. Muzzioli" <kwm@ssd.ray.com>

To: farchambeau@fsc.edu

Hi,I just wanted to send you an e-mail letting you know my new e-mail address, which is kwm@ssd.ray.com, and to tell you what I was working on because I
thought you might find it interesting. They have been using the Motorola MVME-167 CPU card with the 68040 CPU to control a small unmanned sub that simulates the dynamics and acoustic/magnetic signature of different types of subs which is used for training purposes. Motorola stopped making the card so hey have decided switch to the DY-4 DMV-163-449 CPU card which also has the 68040 CPU. My job is to make all the embedded software work on this new card. To do the job I must obviously understand the OS being used, which is called VxWorks. VxWorks is a real time operating system that is used in conjunction with UNIX to develop real time applications. I had to read the whole VxWorks programmers guide (450 big pages in 3 days) and I must say that thanks to Aparana's OS class I understood everything that I read! I was so excited. The OS is designed to work with several different types of boards. To do this they supply a BSP (Board  upport Package, but I'm sure you knew that already! I just wanted to show you that I knew what it meant.) for each different type of board. I have to reconfigure all the different files that relate to the BSP's and all I can say is thank God (or actually I should be thanking you) for Computer Org and Microprocessors. The BSP books I have been reading have been filled with memory maps, interrupt routines, bus diagrams, etc!!! If there are any students in any of your HW classes that think they don't need HW knowledge just have them e-mail me !! Wish me luck on this project, even though I had excellent teachers this is still going to be a hard one! All the managers keep telling me that they don't usually assign projects like this one to recent grads so this is my chance to either impress them or walk away with my tail between my legs. One more thing, I wish you had been able to offer that DSP class while I was at FSC. There are 16 DSPs in this baby that I need to work with and I know nothing about them. Maybe you could give me one of those longdistance classes. Well I'll talk to you soon.

Bye,
Keith