I've never been comfortable with software doing really tight-timing loops, especially if you need timing resolution well-below 1usec. I'll definitely look into it more. My biggest concerns w/ software implementations are interrupts and precise knowledge of the execution time for each instruction. Things get tricky with branches, and downright non-deterministic with CPUs that do prefetching, branch-prediction, and caching.
I've used FPGAs for the timing-critical parts (20nsec cycle time), and software to tweak the hardware knobs. Nothing has gone up in smoke yet, but I have recorded some warm temperatures. Now that I'm wrapping-up the wooden case for my NIMO clock, I should know pretty soon if the HV supply will overheat without a fan. No worries....I have several thermal sensors in the case to make sure it doesn't get too warm. The last time I did timing-critical software was for a floppy-disk controller over 40 years ago; the Z80 CPU running at 4Mhz had 16usec to read and store each byte as it came out of the controller chip and the loop typically took 12usec. On Monday, May 8, 2023 at 11:53:45 AM UTC-7 Mac Doktor wrote: > Includes video: > > > https://www.hackster.io/news/charles-lohr-turns-a-0-10-risc-v-microcontroller-into-a-software-defined-flyback-for-nixie-tubes-aabafa76aa78 > > > Terry Bowman, KA4HJH > "The Mac Doctor" > > https://www.astarcloseup.com > > "It gets calls when nothing else works"—W. Eugene "Doc" Scott, > PhD, explaining somewhat facetiously why a "TV preacher" was smoking a > cigar. ('80s) > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/21fa3082-4df7-4f16-b61d-2cac4f3093f8n%40googlegroups.com.
