26 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
26 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
# Physical
|
|
|
|
Physical is a library for interacting with the physical world from a computer. This can broadly be broken down into two
|
|
categories:
|
|
|
|
* Collecting and digitizing data from the physical world.
|
|
* Controlling devices that take physical action.
|
|
|
|
## Concepts
|
|
|
|
The main concepts of Physical are:
|
|
|
|
* Peripheral: A peripheral is a board that hosts physical I/O and usually does analog to digital conversion or
|
|
digital to analog conversion. A peripheral cannot function on its own, it must be connected to a node. This is more
|
|
narrow than the definition of a peripheral in embedded systems generally. Peripheral support is focused on complete
|
|
boards, not individual components like an ADC. Although common abstractions for components specific to physical
|
|
can be provided in this repository, general component abstractions / drivers should be made separately, such as in
|
|
BFPOWER drivers.
|
|
* Node: A node hosts peripherals. A node can have a commander but does not need one. A node can ignore or even override
|
|
commands from the commander. In a complex system, nodes are intended to be kept simple, less likely to
|
|
encounter an error than the commander, and in some cases should check for obvious problems in commands from the
|
|
commander.
|
|
* Commander: A commander hosts nodes. It is possible for a device to be both a node and a commander at the same time,
|
|
although it may not be the best idea to make such a setup. There is no concept of nesting commanders built into
|
|
Physical. If some kind of abstraction for a computer that commands multiple commanders, which command nodes, is
|
|
necessary, it should be made for that specific application. |