StreamDevice

What is StreamDevice?

StreamDevice is a generic EPICS device support for devices with a "byte stream" based communication interface. That means devices that can be controlled by sending and receiving strings (in the broadest sense, including non-printable characters and even null-bytes). Examples for this type of communication interface are serial line (RS-232, RS-485, ...), IEEE-488 (also known as GPIB or HP-IB), and TCP/IP. StreamDevice comes with an interface to asynDriver, which implements the low-level support for those communication interfaces. But it can be extended to support other bus drivers.

StreamDevice supports all standard records of EPICS base which can have device support. It is also possible to write support for new record types.

The driver has originally been developped at DELTA in 1999. Version 2 has been completely rewritten for EPICS R3.14. But with some tweaks, it also runs on R3.13. It supports many new features and its new API structure makes it easier to add new formats, bus interfaces, etc.

StreamDevice has been tested on:

• EPICS R3.13.10, R3.14.8, R3.14.12, R7.0.3
• Linux (32/64 bit, Intel, ARM, PPC, RedHat/Fedora/CentOS, Ubuntu, Raspbian, ...)
• solaris-sparc and solaris-sparc-gnu (SunOS 5.8) No longer supported.
• cygwin-x86 (Windows XP, cygwin 1.5.20) No longer supported.
• Windows (32/64 bit, XP, 7, 10)
• vxWorks (32 bit PPC, vxWorks 5.3, 5.5, 6.2)
• RTEMS (Unsupported, I don't have a test system.)
• Mac OS (Unsupported, I don't have a test system.)

Thanks to all testers.

Read the full documentation.

Download

The StreamDevice software is now in git. Please use the github bug tracker to report any issues.