Any plans to target TigerSHARC with Labview Embedded?

[billings11]

We are looking at running some high speed control algorithms through a DSP-based embedded system.  Previously we have accomplished this with an older 66MHz SHARC processor, coding the whole thing in Visual DSP++.  Now we are starting to look at the next generation of our product.

I have been looking at the blackfin, and maybe we could use it.  But we would really prefer an inherently 32bit floating point DSP like the TigerSHARC.  Developing in VisualDSP++ was slow and tedious to say the least.  But at the time even if we could have used labview we would have had no room for code ineffeciency because the processor was barely fast enough to keep up with our control system as it was.  Now with SHARC processors at 500MHz, we could probably use labview as the development environment and not worry about small code inefficiencies.  Plus we would probably speed our development time up 10X faster!

Does NI have any plans to support TigerSHARC or any other 32 bit floating point DSP like the DaVinci series by TI as a target for labview embedded?  I'll be at the Embedded Systems Conference in a couple weeks in Boston.  Maybe I'll see you there.

Message Edited by billings11 on 09-07-2007 10:33 AM

[Wiebe@CARYA]

Well, in a way it is supported.


If you have a c compiler for the target, you can make LVEmb work for it. You can even sell your own target, once you are done.


It's not easy though. You need good knowledge of the c compiler, the processor, LabVIEW and the Embedded/Microprocessor SDK toolset. It should take about 6-10 weeks to set up... Might be a good intern project.


Are you planning to use an OS on the processor? If you put Linux on it, you can adjust the Linux target to compile to the processor (if there is a GNU compiler for it). This will save a lot of time. Then you only need to program the auxiliary devices. eCos is also an option (but I found that the documentation was not enough for me to figure it out completely).


Boston is to far for me... Unfortunately.


Regards,


Wiebe.

[billings11]

Thanks for the reply.  Yeah the goal is to sell a whole bunch of the target!  Whether or not we use an operating system is really dependent on how fast we can set up a PID loop running on the DSP.  We want to be able to get the PID loop down to 3us or less.  So efficiency is going to be a big deal.  But we also need access to lots of I/O and we will need some way of managing execution of different proccess threads.  We'd have to experiment.

Would anyone from NI like to comment?  Has anyone tried Labview on Blackfin?  Could I get the blackfin with to work well for 32 bit floating point math with a 32bit instruction library?

[Wiebe@CARYA]

The Blackfin boards/processor are very powerfull. I'm pretty sure it has a
floating point processor. The can be used to do real time audio and even
video processing. (I'm no expert though, best would be to contact Analog
Devices or a NI contact)

The execution of different threads you'll get for free in LabVIEW. Multiple
loops can be compiled and will run on the embedded target. I'm not sure what
this will do to the "real time" characteristics of the application.

Regards,

Wiebe.

[billings11]

Thanks Weibe,

The inherent multithreaded nature of labview, plus the benefit of accelerated devlopment time is definitely an exciting prospect. 

I would be trying to close a PID control loop on the blackfin that is about 10 times faster than an audio application, so that's why I'm so concerned about the speed I can get running all 32 bit floating point math on a fixed point DSP like the blackfin.  The blackfin is definitely a fixed-point DSP, but you can use a math library that will do 32 bit floating point on it.  The question is how efficient is the library.  SHARC is inherently an FP processor, so that's why we used it in the past.

What do you think the best way to ask NI about SHARC as an embedded target?  Should I go through my sales rep?  Since the blackfin and SHARC are basically fixed-point and floating point DSP options from Analog, I wonder how different the two are as far as using labview to target them. 

I'm going to the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston tomorrow and I'm sure NI will have a booth.  I'll ask them.

[Wiebe@CARYA]

Let us know, please.

Regards,

Wiebe.