Reference Implementation

After taking a look at the source code of the PSD estimator reference implementation, you will likely discover inefficiencies. This implementation is provided as the "reference implementation" of the optimization process and to define the expected input and output of the application. The computational efficiency of your code will be judged against this implementation. While the given code might serve as a starting point, you should do whatever you need to do to make your code as efficient as possible, while operating in an equivalent manner as the given code.

The exact portion of the code to be optimized is defined below. You may write in C, assembly, or any combination of the two; choose whatever will allow you to write the fastest code. The optimization process will be smoother if you plan for optimization before you begin any programming.

Optimization

Since a primary purpose of this lab is to learn optimization and efficient code techniques, your lab grade will be based primarily on the total execution time of your system. You are not required to optimize memory use. Note that by execution time we mean cycle count, not the number of instructions in your program. Remember that several of the TMS320C54xx instructions take more than one cycle. The multicycle instructions are primarily the multi-word instructions, including instructions that take immediates, like stm, and instructions using direct addressing of memory (such as ld *(temp),A). Branch and repeat statements also require several cycles to execute. Most C instructions take more than one cycle. The debugger can be used to determine the exact number of cycles used by your code; ask your TA to demonstrate. However, since the number of execution cycles used by an instruction is usually determined by the number of words in its encoding, the easiest way to estimate the number of cycles used by your code is to count the number of instruction words in the .lst file or the disassembly window in the debugger.

We will grade you based on the number of cycles used between the input_full = 0; and bit_rev_fft(); statements. Note that some instructions, like RPT, are non-repeatable instructions; their use may cause unnecessary glitches in I/O. For grading simplicity, your final code should not have modifications except between these two instructions, and M should be set to 31. If the number of cycles between the two points is variable, the maximum possible number of cycles will be counted. You must use the core.asm file in v:\ece320\54x\dsplib\core.asm or the C core file in v:\ece320\54x\dspclib\core.asm as provided by the TAs; these files may not be modified. We reserve the right to test your code by modifying the inputs.

Routine-Specific Optimization Tips

If you are programming the PN generator in assembly, you may wish to refer to the description of assembly instructions for logical operations in Section 2-2 of the C54x Mnemonic Instruction Set reference. Initialize the shift register to one. You can debug the PN output by comparing it to the output of the MATLAB code. Be prepared to prove to a TA that your PN generator works properly as part of your quiz.

Your IIR filtering routine can debugged by writing an impulse followed by zeros in autocorr_in instead of randsample.

Your autocorrelation routine can be debugged by commenting out the IIR-filtering routine and writing the maximum DC value into autocorr_in in a similar manner as described the IIR-debugging step. Note that each of these tips is the most helpful if the output is inspected in memory.

Grading

This lab is to be completed in one week. Grading for this lab will be a bit different from past labs: