allocate hwtimer assembly directive

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akp
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Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:47 pm

allocate hwtimer assembly directive

Post by akp »

Hello,

I am able to allocate a hwtimer in assembly using the getr instruction, and storing the handle to the data section works fine in a timer isr. However, I don't know how to inform the linker that I've used this timer, i.e. when it does the constraints checks it doesn't see that I've allocated this global timer so the constraints check isn't accurate.

I know I can get it to count if I use an xc file that contains

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hwtimer_t mytimer;
and then use that timer in the assembly. When I do an xobjdump, I see the following information

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    Opcode::SUM_REDUCE _num_global_timers, _num_global_timers_set, 0, 0
    ADD_TO_SET      _num_global_timers_set, 1, mytimer.ctor, 0
So I was thinking in my assembly file to do

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.sum_reduce _num_global_timers, _num_global_timers_set, 0
.add_to_set _num_global_timers_set, 1
but that gives me an error --

crt1.S: Error: Undefined reference to '_num_global_timers_set'

Any idea what I should do differently so my permanently allocated timer gets picked up in the constraints check?

[EDIT] The reason I want to allocate it in the assembly file is to ensure it's accessible from a 16 bit ldw instruction and won't need a 32 bit ldw instruction.


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mon2
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Post by mon2 »

hi akp. See if the comments from davelacey helps:

https://www.xcore.com/viewtopic.php?f=2 ... r&start=10
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akp
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Posts: 578
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:47 pm

Post by akp »

Hi mon2,

Thank you, I read that but it doesn't seem to address my question. And in fact I am working on my updates to the FreeRTOS port to make use of the XS2 architecture, specifically dual issue assembly and some of the new instructions. So far I have reduced the context switch time by over 15% compared to using single issue assembly for the kernel. Everything is working, including the timer I am using for the system tick, except when I build the program with -report I get the following incorrect constraints check report:

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Constraint check for tile[0]:
  Cores available:            8,   used:          1 .  OKAY
  Timers available:          10,   used:          1 .  OKAY
  Chanends available:        32,   used:          1 .  OKAY
  Memory available:       262144,   used:      29400 .  OKAY
    (Stack: 436, Code: 11224, Data: 17740)
It is reporting just a single timer used -- i.e. the timer always allocated for the core. It should show 2 timers used, due to the timer allocated for the FreeRTOS tickclock. So I don't need to know how to allocate the timer, I've allocated it just fine, I just need to know how to tell the constraints checker that I allocated the timer in an assembly file rather than an xc file.

If I allocate the timer within an xc file using hwtimer_t tickclock, then I get the following:

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Constraint check for tile[0]:
  Cores available:            8,   used:          1 .  OKAY
  Timers available:          10,   used:          2 .  OKAY
  Chanends available:        32,   used:          1 .  OKAY
  Memory available:       262144,   used:      29412 .  OKAY
    (Stack: 436, Code: 11224, Data: 17752)
Like I said, both work perfectly fine in terms of the kernel. It's just that I can save one instruction in the timer ISR if I allocate the hwtimer in the assembly file, and I guess it saves a few bytes too. I know that seems ridiculous just to save one clock cycle in the ISR, it's kind of an exercise I am doing to see how much I can optimize something in assembly if I put my mind to it. So what I want to be able to do is determine the assembly directive so the constraints report shown at the top indicates 2 timers used -- like the second one shows -- rather than just 1 so that my constraints report is accurate. I hope this clarifies the issue I am facing.
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