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This is the README file of the IgH EtherCAT Master.

$Id$

Contents:
1) General Information
2) Requirements
3) Building and installing
4) Realtime & Tuning
5) License

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1) General Information
======================

This is an open-source EtherCAT master implementation for Linux 2.6.

See the FEATURES file for a list of features. For more information, see
http://etherlab.org/en/ethercat.

or contact

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Florian Pose <fp@igh-essen.com>
Ingenieurgemeinschaft IgH
Heinz-Baecker-Str. 34
D-45356 Essen
http://igh-essen.com

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2) Requirements
===============

1) Software requirements

Configured sources for the Linux 2.6 kernel are required to build the EtherCAT
master.

2) Hardware requirements

The EtherCAT master needs a RTL8139 (or compatible), Intel PRO/1000 or nVidia
nForce network interface card to run. Drivers for other widespread devices (f.
e. Intel PRO/100) will be implemented soon.

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3) Building and installing
==========================

See the INSTALL file.

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4) Realtime & Tuning
====================

Realtime patches for the Linux kernel are supported, but not required. The
realtime processing has to be done by the calling module (see API
documentation). The EtherCAT master code itself is passive (except for the idle
mode and EoE).

To avoid frame timeouts, deactivating DMA access for hard drives is
recommented (hdparm -d0 <DEV>).

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5) License
==========

Copyright (C) 2006  Florian Pose, Ingenieurgemeinschaft IgH

This file is part of the IgH EtherCAT Master.

The IgH EtherCAT Master is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.

The IgH EtherCAT Master is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with the IgH EtherCAT Master; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA

The right to use EtherCAT Technology is granted and comes free of
charge under condition of compatibility of product made by
Licensee. People intending to distribute/sell products based on the
code, have to sign an agreement to guarantee that products using
software based on IgH EtherCAT master stay compatible with the actual
EtherCAT specification (which are released themselves as an open
standard) as the (only) precondition to have the right to use EtherCAT
Technology, IP and trade marks.

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