LabVIEW FPGA Idea Exchange

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The first thing you hear about programming FPGAs with LabVIEW is: use single-cycle loops. But if you build a state machine (while-loop + enum + case structure), in many cases you cannot make the outer while loop in a single cycle-loop, because not every state fits into a single-cycle loop. Therefore you have to place the single cycle-loop into every case, which has to run in one cycle, which takes up block diagramm space and is cumbersome. Therefore my idea to create a single-cycle case structure: it uses the same compiling mechanism of the single-cycle loop on every case, which is capable of running inside a single cycle. It would be nice, if this behaviour is configurable, meaning I can decide from case to case, if it is a single-cycle case or not. Some kind of right-click menu options like these: "make this case single-cycle", "make every possible case single-cycle", etc. Of course the mode of the case (single-cycle or not) should somehow be displayed.

Regards,

Marc

Single cycle timed loops are a huge performance enhancer in LV FPGA. We learn to use these very prolifically in and around our code to save precious FPGA space, yet the BD representation of the SCTL is the standard Timed Loop structure, with both the Left and Right "ears" visible as well as the conditional terminal.

I propose that the SCTL be given it's own representation on the block diagram, one without the "ears" and without the conditional terminal (by definition it only runs once). This will promote much cleaner looking FPGA code and more readable diagrams.

When working with alot of fixed point math (think FPGA development), unless you are content to simply let LabVIEW decide what precision you want in your fixed point data types, it is extremely cumbersome to (right click->properties->Output Configuraton->Uncheck Adapt to source......, close window, move to next function and repeat and repeat and repeat. This is especially true if you end up needing to highly optimize your code.

It would be nice to have something like a floating window that could be opened that would display the output configuration data for the selected function or control and allow editing without the need for multiple mouse clicks. The window would automatically update with the configuration of whatever function or control was currently selected.