Terminal Window

When the terminal window is turned on (by hitting the F10 key, or by selecting "Window | Show Terminal"), a white area will appear at the bottom of your screen.  This is the terminal window.  In it, you will see a running dialog of what operations MediaMatrix is undertaking, and you can run special reports to aid in diagnostics and systems design.

The F2 key is a brand new accelerator for switching focus between the terminal window and the current focus view file.  This is useful when you are editing and compiling a view file and want to quickly switch to the terminal to do a configuration(R)eport and then switch back.  The F2 key does not yet have a corresponding menu item so the only way you can learn about it is reading it here.  Aren't you glad you did?

If you are not a very experienced MediaMatrix user, you may want to turn the terminal window off.  The terminal window can be very handy however, should you have a problem, and need to contact MediaMatrix customer support.   Chances are quite good that the person assisting you may ask you to open the terminal window, run selected reports, possibly logging the report to a text file (this is one of the capabilities of the terminal window), and then email Peavey the file for analysis to assist you in solving your problem.

If you are not a MediaMatrix mensch, be forewarned that this is certainly where the waters get very deep indeed.  For most users, you would be better off running the simplified diagnostics program from "Tools | Diagnostics", as opposed to the diagnostics in the terminal window.

There are several options available for the terminal window.  You control these by selecting "Tools | Options | Terminal Options".  Some of these options include line wrap, time stamping, the report font and font size, whether file logging is enabled, the path and filename for the log file, and the number of terminal window report lines that are held in the buffer memory before they are deleted (if you are logging to the file, this doesn't matter, as everything is saved to the log file).

When you first open the terminal window, it will show you the user logged on to the system.  whether the terminal is alive (yes Virginia, it is our very own little Frankenstein), if any local or remote clients are logged on, which view file is compiled and if it is running, the interfaces used (BoB's or CAB's), and the view file name. When you first open the terminal window, you should see:

-PEAK AUDIO DigitalProcessingUnit DIAGNOSTICS SYSTEM "Beware, ye who enter here."--
Version May 11 1999 10:15:53. (C)Copyright 1992-1999 by Peak Audio Inc.
COMMANDS: (?)help configuration(R)eport (H)ardwareReport (B)kgReport (V)alueTable
MENUS: (D)iagnostics (C)onfiguration (P)olling (T)erminal (S)ervices prm(L)ink c(O)bra bob Ti(M)ing ...

If the preceding menu choices were not available when you opened the Terminal Window, hit the ESC key once.  If they still do not appear, hit the ESC key again. This will bring you back up to the top menu level.

We will now quickly summarize what some of these reports are, and how they can be used:

(C)onfiguration: By pressing the C key, the configuration report is run.  The configuration report is incredibly handy, because by using it, you can see which algorithm is falling on which DSP chip, and how many cycles it is using, for both each algorithm, and for the entire view file.  By doing this, you can actually see how DSP resources are being allocated by the MWare compiler, and you can optimize your view file design to try and group operations on single chips and boards, thus minimizing latency times, and increasing the efficiency of your design.  To do this first hit the C key to launch the configuration report, then hit C again, and then hit the R key.  Many reports in the terminal window have multiple menu layers, as in the preceding example.

(H) Hardware: This report is also very helpful, as it will tell you how many boards are in your system, how many BoB's or CAB's, the ROM versions used, and much more helpful information.

prm(L)ink: This will give you a report that will detail what is controllable under RATC, using control grouping.  The information in this report is more detailed, and in fact is a superset of the data that is available under "Tools | Import/Export |Control Group List".

(S)ervices: does a status report of RAS (Remote Access Services, which encompasses remote control via PASHA, RAMM, RATC and PAXCOM), showing which of these services are active, and who is logged onto the system via RAS.  The stop option allows you to stop all RAS users, and log them off of the system.

(B)kgReport: is handy if your system is acting sluggish.  It shows what the system is doing in the background.

(P)olling: (algorithm polling) details how MWare is spending its time. MediaMatrix technical support may ask you to run this program if you are having problems, as some problems can be detected using this report, and fixes can sometimes be made by putting additional lines in your PA.INI file.

c(O)bra: tests the CobraNet interface on the CobraNet DSP cards and the Pentium CPU processor on the system board.  It checks to see if the DSP chips on the CobraNet interface are responsive and communicating with the CPU.  This is real deep performance monitoring stuff!

(V)alueTable: provides information on value settings for each control in the view file.  Be forewarned that this is NOT in a user friendly format.

(?)Help Configuration: brings up the top level menu selection for all of the reports.  This is engaged by hitting shift and the help key.

bob Ti(M)ing: reports on the interface between BoB's and the DSP chips and CPU.  Again, these are really deep treacherous waters, don't go here!  These types of features were put in by design engineers to help them optimize software, hardware and systems.  Not for us mere mortals!