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Software RFLONG work-alike in 6 clocks (extra on block load) — Parallax Forums

Software RFLONG work-alike in 6 clocks (extra on block load)

cgraceycgracey Posts: 14,133
edited 2019-12-07 13:54 in Propeller 2
I was thinking about how to make stacks faster and I came up with a way to do a software RFLONG in six clocks (3 inst's). More clocks are needed for periodic block loads, but it's a lot faster than waiting 9..16 clocks to do each RDLONG if your data is contiguous.

This uses compounded ALTI instructions to first point to a unique instruction and modulo-inc the instruction pointer, and then execute that instruction indirectly. You could implement as many independent instances as you might need. This is important for when the FIFO is already configured and busy, but you need some faster way to sequentially read the hub RAM. You just place the 3-instruction sequence where you want the fake RFLONG to happen and 7/8ths of your reads will take only 6 clocks. WFLONG work-alikes could be made, too.

Here is the code. It outputs the fake-RFLONG data to the DAC on P0 for viewing:
'
'
' Software RFLONG work-alike - implement as many as you need
' - Takes 3 instructions (6 clocks) to read next long.
' - 3-instruction sequence can be used wherever needed.
' - Every first/8th read uses extra clocks to read 8 more longs.
' - Additional RFLONG work-alikes only require buffer and control variables.
'
dat		org

' This is the 3-instruction sequence which acts like RFLONG

sw_rflong	alti	rf_ptr,rf_inc		'next D = rf_ptr[17:9], increment rf_ptr[11:9]
		alti	0			'substitute D points to next instruction
		nop				'execute rf_inst_0..7

' Output the long value to DAC on P0 for testing

		setbyte	dacmode,x,#1		'write value to DAC field
		wrpin	dacmode,#0		'update DAC pin
		drvl	#0			'enable DAC

		jmp	#sw_rflong		'loop


dacmode		long	%10110_00000000_00_00000_0
'		
'
' Eight instructions at addresses where only the three LSBs differ (ie %00001xxx)
'
		orgf	($ & %111) == 0 ? $ : ($ | %111) + 1	'make 8-long alignment

rf_inst_0	call	#\loader		'load and return long 0 (first and every 8th time)
rf_inst_1	mov	x,rf_buff+1		'return long 1
rf_inst_2	mov	x,rf_buff+2		'return long 2
rf_inst_3	mov	x,rf_buff+3		'return long 3
rf_inst_4	mov	x,rf_buff+4		'return long 4
rf_inst_5	mov	x,rf_buff+5		'return long 5
rf_inst_6	mov	x,rf_buff+6		'return long 6
rf_inst_7	mov	x,rf_buff+7		'return long 7
'
'
' Loader routine - loads rf_buff with 8 new longs, wraps address, returns long 0
'
loader		setq	#8-1			'load 8 longs from current address
		rdlong	rf_buff+0,rf_curr
		add	rf_curr,#8*4		'update address and wrap when at limit
		cmp	rf_curr,rf_wrap	wz
	if_z	mov	rf_curr,rf_init
	_ret_	mov	x,rf_buff+0		'return long 0
'
'
' Data
'
rf_inc		long	%000_110_000__000_111_000  'inc D[2:0] and substitute D into next instruction

rf_ptr		long	rf_inst_0 << 9		'initially point D to rf_inst_0, inc's and wraps 0..7

rf_curr		long	test_data		'current address
rf_init		long	test_data		'initial address
rf_wrap		long	test_data+(8*4)*4	'wrap address (+4 blocks of 8 longs)

rf_buff		res	8			'8 longs for read buffer

x		res	0			'register to receive longs
'
'
' Test data to fake-RFLONG from hub - 4 blocks of 8 longs
'
		orgh

test_data	long	$00,$10,$20,$30,$40,$50,$60,$70,$80,$90,$A0,$B0,$C0,$D0,$E0,$F0
		long	$FF,$EF,$DF,$CF,$BF,$AF,$9F,$8F,$7F,$6F,$5F,$4F,$3F,$2F,$1F,$0F


Here is a scope picture of the DAC output. You can see where the loader was called, instead of a simple MOV executing:


SW_RFLONG.jpg


Comments

  • evanhevanh Posts: 15,126
    Cool, that's a little tricky to figure ... took a moment to notice the loader routine is executed as one. So the other 1/8th is 36-43 clocks.

    Still, any alternative will also have management overheads

  • cgraceycgracey Posts: 14,133
    edited 2019-12-07 14:32
    evanh wrote: »
    Cool, that's a little tricky to figure ... took a moment to notice the loader routine is executed as one. So the other 1/8th is 36-43 clocks.

    Still, any alternative will also have management overheads

    Hmmm... yeah, that overhead averages time to ~10 clocks per long.
  • SW RFLONG (7*6)+(36..43) = 78..85  cycles
       RDLONG 8*(9..16)      = 72..128 cycles
    
    Best-case RDLONG is still a bit faster, it seems.

  • evanhevanh Posts: 15,126
    edited 2019-12-07 14:48
    It's frigging hard to get best case!

    Roger is doing probably the best with his line buffers using RDLUT/WRLUT with PTRx for the indexing ops (instead of ALTx prefixing), plus scanline length burst transfers between hubram and lutram.

    EDIT; Err, might not be full lines at a time. Might of had to reduce them to make room.
  • cgracey wrote: »
    evanh wrote: »
    Cool, that's a little tricky to figure ... took a moment to notice the loader routine is executed as one. So the other 1/8th is 36-43 clocks.

    Still, any alternative will also have management overheads

    Hmmm... yeah, that overhead averages time to ~10 clocks per long.
    Wuerfel_21 wrote: »
    SW RFLONG (7*6)+(36..43) = 78..85  cycles
       RDLONG 8*(9..16)      = 72..128 cycles
    
    Best-case RDLONG is still a bit faster, it seems.

    Plus an overhead of 15 longs for the mechanism (8 rf_inst, 6 loader, 1 rf_inc), plus 15 longs per instance (3 instruction sequence, rf_ptr, rf_curr, rf_init, rf_wrap, 8 rf_buff).

    This seems to me like a solution in search of a problem: a big, expensive exercise, that except in particular circumstances is possibly better achieved by careful instruction timing (and placement) to match to the egg-beater to give a consistent 9-10 cycle result; or through LUT sharing with a second cog if the timing is that tight. Either of these other approaches has the advantage of much less jitter.
  • cgraceycgracey Posts: 14,133
    edited 2019-12-08 02:33
    I made a 16-long version which cuts the total overhead in half, but adds half a clock to each long. So, that brings it down to ~8.5 clocks per long, on average. That's faster than best-case RDLONG perfornance of 9 clocks. RDLONG averages 12.5 clocks. So it would take 68% of the time of RDLONG, on average.
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