eCAL 5.12

eCAL 5.12 was released in August 2023.

• Release: August 2023

• End of life: September 2024 (planned)

New features

• True Zero Copy!

  eCAL had Zero Copy in the past. But now it’s even better! With the new low level API you can precisely control which part of your Shared Memory message you actually have to change and therefore speed up your system even more!

  Check out the Zero Copy documentation for explanations and examples on how to use it!

• Container support through host-groups

  You want to containerize your eCAL Apps? Well, then this is the release for you. In the past, you had to choose between enabling support for eCAL services or utilizing the shared memory transport layer, now you can have both simultaneously.

  Check out the eCAL in Docker tutorial to learn more!

  This also enables you to manage apps in your docker containers with eCAL Sys!

• Improved eCAL Monitor for Debugging

  We enriched the eCAL Monitor with even more information, that allow you to debug your system. You can now see the size and hash of your publishers’ and subscribers’ descriptors. And - if that isn’t enough for you - the eCAL Monitor got an entirely new Raw Data panel for very deep (but easy!) inspections of the registration layer.

• Improved support for C#

  The C# language binding has seen some mayor updates. Most notably, the Client / Server API is now available in C#, so you can use eCAL’s RPC features!

• Check out the entire 5.12.0 changelog!.

Compatibility table

eCAL 5.12 vs. 5.11

Wire compatibility	eCAL UDP: 100% compatible in default settings A proper Topic-Name -> UDP-Multicast-Group computation has been added. By default, the old version (multicast_config_version = v1) is enabled in the ecal.ini, which makes the UDP Layer 100% compatible. If the new version (v2) is enabled, UDP communication between eCAL 5.12 and older versions of eCAL will fail. eCAL TCP: 100% compatible Services: 100% compatible eCAL Shared Memory: 100% compatible eCAL Registration Layer: 100% compatible New fields have been added in the internal protobuf format.
API / ABI	API: downwards compatible. ABI: not compatible From now on, the official eCAL installer for Windows is built with Visual Studio 2019 / v142. This means, that you need VS 2019 or newer to link against the included SDK.
Tools	Rec: Downwards compatible The SetConfig RPC Call has been added, which was not available in eCAL 5.11 Sys: 100% compatible Measurements: 100% compatible Meas Cutter: The structure of the output directory has changed. It is now aligned to the output structure of eCAL Rec.

Where to download

• Windows: Head to the Download Archive and pick your version from there!

• Ubuntu: Install eCAL from our PPA with apt-get (or pick a Version from the download archive as well)