Arbitrary waveform generator based on instruction architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10310546-B2
Application number	US-201715730407-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2017
Priority date	Aug 8, 2017
Publication date	Jun 4, 2019
Grant date	Jun 4, 2019

Abstract

The present invention provides an arbitrary waveform generator based on instruction architecture. To deal with the feature that the instructions and waveform data of the AWG are coupled in the prior art, an instruction set based waveform synthesis controller is employed, and substitutes for the sequence wave generator in the present invention, i.e. an arbitrary waveform generator based on instruction architecture. Thus the time-sharing scheduling in reading the waveform synthesis instruction and the segment waveform data is realized, and the complexity of the hardware is reduced, so that the AWG in present invention can synthesize and generate a complex sequence wave rapidly and efficiently.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An arbitrary waveform generator based on instruction architecture, comprising:
a host computer for generating a corresponding waveform synthesis instruction based on the waveform characteristics input by user;
a synthesis device for performing waveform synthesis according to the waveform synthesis instruction generated by the host computer, and outputting a complex sequence wave;
wherein the synthesis device comprises an instruction set based waveform synthesis controller (hereinafter referred as waveform synthesis controller), a memory, a storage control module, a DMA control module, a FIFO module, an output control module, a digital-analog conversion module and an output conditioning module;
the waveform synthesis instruction generated by the host computer is sent to the synthesis device, and received by the waveform synthesis controller; after receiving the waveform synthesis instruction, the waveform synthesis controller parses the waveform synthesis instruction into a trigger control command and a DMA command, and the trigger control command is sent to the output control module, the DMA command is sent to the DMA control module;
the DMA control module receives and parses the DMA command to get a waveform data read control command, and sends the waveform data read control command to the storage control module; the storage control module addresses in the memory according to the waveform data read control command, and transfers the waveform data of the corresponding segment address, i.e. segment waveform data to the FIFO module through the DMA control module; the segment waveform data is buffered by the FIFO module, then sent to the output control module;
according to an inputted trigger signal and a trigger control command, the output control module completes the trigger function of the waveform data generation, and sends the segment waveform data to the digital-analog conversion module continuously; the digital-analog conversion module converts the segment waveform data into an analog signal, and then the analog signal is conditioned, i.e. filtered, amplified or attenuated through the output conditioning module to obtain the complex sequence wave, thus the waveform synthesis is completed;
wherein the waveform synthesis controller comprises an instruction buffer, an instruction parser, an instruction address generator and a data address generator;
where the instruction buffer is used for storing the waveform synthesis instruction sent by the host computer, fetching out the waveform synthesis instruction which needs to be executed according to the instruction address sent by the instruction address generator, and sending the waveform synthesis instruction to the instruction parser; the instruction parser parses the waveform synthesis instruction into a flow control command, a segment waveform control command and a trigger control command; the flow control command is sent to the instruction address generator, the segment waveform control command is sent to the data address generator; the trigger control command is sent to the output control module;
the instruction address generator generates an instruction address of the next waveform synthesis instruction for the instruction buffer, executing the waveform synthesis instruction in sequence, or in jump according to the flow control command; the data address generator generates a DMA command according to the segment waveform control command sent by the instruction parser, and sends the DMA command to the DMA control module, thus the reading control of a segment waveform data is completed.

2. An arbitrary waveform generator based on instruction architecture of claim 1 , wherein the instruction address generator comprises an instruction counter and a repetition counter 0 and a repetition counter 1, where the instruction counter generates a memory address of the next waveform synthesis instruction, i.e. instruction address for the instruction buffer in sequence, or in jump according to a logical judgment of the flow control command, the repetition counter 0 is a read-only register for realizing an unconditional jump of the instruction, its store value is always 0; the repetition counter 1 is a readable and writable register for realizing a conditional jump of the instruction by counting a number of the complex sequence wave;
the flow control command comprises an instruction's jump address, a repetition counter number and a jump number; when the waveform synthesis instruction is a jump instruction, the instruction parser parses the jump instruction and obtains an flow control command, the flow control command is sent to the instruction address generator; the instruction address generator judges according to flow control command, if the repetition counter number in the flow control command is 0, the jump is an unconditional jump, the instruction counter is assigned the jump instruction address; if the repetition counter number is 1, the jump is a conditional jump, the store value of the repetition number counter 1 is increased by 1, then the store value of the repetition number counter 1 is compared with the jump number for further judgment: if the store value of the repetition number counter 1 is less than the jump number, the instruction counter is assigned the instruction's jump address, i.e. jumps to the instruction's jump address which the flow control command designates, if the store value of the repetition number counter 1 equals to the jump number, the instruction counter in the instruction address generator is increased by 1, i.e. the next waveform synthesis instruction is fetched from the instruction buffer in sequence, meanwhile, the count value of repetition number counter 1 is reset to 0.

3. An arbitrary waveform generator based on instruction architecture of claim 2 , wherein the instruction address generator comprises a plurality of repetition counters, which are readable and writable registers;
the waveform synthesis instruction's instruction set comprise segment waveform synthesis instructions and jump instructions, where the instruction format of a segment waveform synthesis instruction is:
SEGMENT DataAddress Length M F
the segment waveform synthesis instruction is used to generate a segment waveform M times, SEGMENT is an operation code to identify the segment waveform synthesis instruction, DataAddress, Length, M and F are operands, where DataAddress is a start address of the segment waveform, Length is the length of the segment waveform, M is the repetitions of the segment waveform, and F is a segment waveform trigger flag; when the segment waveform trigger flag F is 0, it indicates that the output of the output control module does not need to wait the inputted trigger signal; when the segment waveform triggers the flag F is 1, it indicates that the output of the output control module needs to wait inputted trigger signal;
the instruction format of the jump instruction is:
JUMP InstructionAddress K N
the jump instruction is used to realize an unconditional jump instruction or a conditional jump instruction, where JUMP is the operation code of the jump instruction, InstructionAddress, K, and N are operands, instructionAddress is a instruction's jump address, K is a repetition counter number in the instruction address generator, N is a jump number;
when executing the jump instruction, if K is not equal to 0, the jump instruction is conditional jump instruction, the store value of the repetition number counter K is increased by 1, then the store value of the repetition number counter K is compared with the jump number, if the store value of the repetition number counter K is less than the jump number, the instruction counter is assigned the instruction's jump address InstructionAddress, and the waveform synthesis instruction is fetched out from the instruction buffer at the

Assignees

• Univ Electronic Sci & Tech China

Inventors

• Xiao Yindong
• Guo Guangkun
• Liu Ke
• Zhang Junwu
• Wang Houjun
• Huang Jianguo
• Tian Shulin

Classifications

• G06F13/28

  using burst mode transfer, e.g. direct memory access {DMA}, cycle steal (G06F13/32 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F1/0321

  Waveform generators, i.e. devices for generating periodical functions of time, e.g. direct digital synthesizers (G06F1/0314, G06F1/035 take precedence) · CPC title

• G10H1/12

  by filtering complex waveforms (G10H1/14, G10H1/16 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03K4/026

  using digital techniques · CPC title

• G06F1/022 Primary

  Waveform generators, i.e. devices for generating periodical functions of time, e.g. direct digital synthesizers (G06F1/025, G06F1/03 take precedence) · CPC title