MVME340 VME Parallel I/O Module MOTOROLA

Ada has evolved drastically the last years . Soon after the language became an ANS I standard, only a few compilers were available and they could only be used to compil e a limited set of programs . We started out with nested generic packages and tas k types, only to find that some validated compilers were valid only for the test suite . The situation using these limited compilers was to spend a lot of time finding out wher e and why the compiler failed, either at compile or at run time .
The next step in the evolution came with what can be called production compilers for numeric and data handling programs . These compilers could replace most of th e existing Pascal and FORTRAN compilers . Tasking could be used for moderate tim e critical applications . Still the target machines were the same as the host, such as th e VAX . Several users and companies could now start to learn the language and start t o develop tools .
At that time Ada could replace most other languages for many applications . Th e language was primarily designed for real time applications and especially fo r embedded systems . The latest development in Ada compilers are cross compilers fo r quite powerful microcomputers like the Motorola 680X0-family, Intel 80X86 and National 32X32 . Hopefully there will be compilers for smaller micros in the future . In a project, aiming at distributing Ada software to a loosely coupled multi compute r system, three independent VME systems, with cpu, memory and Ethernet port, will b e used/1/ . The whole system will be programmed in Ada and it is therefore essential to choose a cpu-board and a compiler that supports low level programming and allow s an efficient mapping of hardware interrupts .