[Racer26]

Absolutely, I agree that the performance per unit cost value of a cRIO or roboRIO is orders of magnitude higher than for the Vex Cortex. I'm ALSO not suggesting that FRC use a Vex Cortex. It was simply an example of some of the other options.

In terms of performance, they're not even in the same ballpark, so yes, being 'just' double the cost is a good value. If you're going to use that performance. Otherwise though, its like buying a Bugatti Veyron and never taking it to a racetrack or Germany's autobahns. Buying performance you won't be using is frivolous.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to take pot shots at NI. I'm a certified LabVIEW developer, and I work with NI equipment every day.

roboRIO is a huge improvement over cRIO as an FRC control system. No contest. I'm very excited to get my hands on it and see it in action. I'm just disappointed that it seems like a couple of the spots where quantum leaps could have been made fell a bit short.

BUT I'm also aware that much of the slow boot problem with the cRIO-based control system we've had since 09 is NOT the boot time of the cRIO, but rather, the radios. They're still working out what we're going to be using for radios, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

@Don:

I don't know what 'alternative' I'm proposing. The FIRST community is collectively VERY smart though. I've seen some neat 900MHz ethernet bridges, capable of throughputs in the 2Mbps range. I do know that 802.11 lacks the reliability factor I believe an FRC control system should have. Even my home 802.11 network, in a rural area, with minimal interference on the 2.4GHz band frequently drops, hiccups, or does otherwise rude things to the communications. There has to be a better solution.

As to 1676 not being able to run their robot on a Cortex? That's cool. I wouldn't have guessed it. 1676 though is definitely one of those top tier teams that's good at making optimal use of the resources they're given. If 1676 had to choose between whatever functions its doing that couldn't be achieved with a Cortex, and booting to a driveable state in under 10s, as Chris suggests, would you still want that extra performance?

I can say with confidence that 4343's 2013 robot is the first robot I've been involved with that couldn't have been done with a 2008 IFI system, and that's only because it streamed video back to the DS.

I DO like this suggestion of multiple comms channels, so that mission-critical comms (FMS control, joystick values, etc) could be transmitted on a low-bandwidth, extremely reliable, fast link-up channel, while the extras like streaming video ride on typical 802.11.