Hi Andrew,

As far as I can tell, that particular verilog block implements a 32-bit
floating point to 16-bit fixed point conversion. The name may be a misnomer
because it does not actually break the input into I/Q channels.

For floating to fixed conversion in software, I usually refer to this
wikipedia page, which includes notation information and provides a
quick/easy conversion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(number_format)

Usually my rule of thumb is that if there's a plausible way to do something
in software, it's better to do it in software :D The C++ control block
driver is a good place to wrap some helper code (e.g., converting taps,
calculating magic numbers, etc etc) around your time-critical and
performance-intensive FPGA operations.

EJ

On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 7:30 AM, Andrew Lanez <[email protected]> wrote:

> EJ,
>
> I spent some time wrestling with the 32-bit to 16-bit conversion in my
> verilog noc block then realized doing the conversion in the C++ control
> block driver might be more straightforward. I'm trying to digest the
> following:
>
> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EttusResearch/fpga/b108e88
> 865ee0fa68e685461681d8ca6a320b937/usrp3/lib/vita/float_to_iq.v
>
> I can't tell if that converter is fixed-point. I'm inclined to believe
> it's 16-bit compressed floating point. Do you or anyone have references to
> do an equivalent conversion in C++?
>
> Andrew
>
> On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 8:51 AM, EJ Kreinar <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Andrew,
>>
>> The OOT module .xml file definition currently only supports writing
>> scalar registers, so you need a custom C++ driver. The int_vector option
>> has not been implemented, and honestly I'm not sure if it would even make
>> sense because there's many different ways the HDL could implement a
>> "vector" of taps... it's not really a one-size-fits-all problem.
>>
>> My recommendation would be to model your hf_chlizer's C++ driver on the
>> in-tree fir_block_ctrl_impl. Use the sr_write functions to program your
>> taps as your HDL code requires.
>>
>> You'll notice fir_block_ctrl_impl uses integer taps. This ends up being a
>> little clumsy when developing flowgraphs, since your flowgraph application
>> needs to handle the floating point / fixed point conversion. In the past,
>> I've created a C++ driver that accepts floating point inputs and converts
>> to fixed point before programming to FPGA registers. Your preference.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> EJ
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 6:00 AM, Andrew Lanez via USRP-users <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Typo, the 3rd to last paragraph should read:
>>>
>>> Or I could hack *rfnoc_fir_cci()*. I started this by replacing int
>>> vectors with std::complex vectors everywhere FIR taps were referenced in
>>> the in-tree module's C++ library but I stopped when it traced up to block.h
>>> because that may affect other modules.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 2:56 AM, Andrew Lanez <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I am developing a FIR filter that will eventually accepts complex taps
>>>> reprogrammable during runtime. As a first iteration, I want to verify it
>>>> works like the in-tree module with int_vector real taps. So I configure the
>>>> settings register in OOT module's .xml file to take int_vector taps but
>>>> running it returns:
>>>> RuntimeError: RuntimeError: not yet implemented: int_vector
>>>>
>>>> I guess it's because the in-tree module's ettus.rfnoc_fir_cci() make
>>>> function supports int_vector whereas my rfnocmodtool generated make
>>>> function hf_chlizer.fir() does not.
>>>>
>>>> So I changed my OOT module's .xml to use ettus.rfnoc_fir_cci() instead
>>>> of hf_chlizer.fir() and output shows both I and Q samples are filtered
>>>> identically by real taps.
>>>>
>>>> But ettus.rfnoc_fir_cci() does not seem to support complex_vector taps.
>>>> So I must revert to hf_chlizer.fir() in which case I get:
>>>> RuntimeError: RuntimeError: Invalid block definition in
>>>> /home/switchlanez/rfnoc/share/uhd/rfnoc/blocks/fir.xml: RuntimeError:
>>>> Found invalid arguments for block fir.
>>>>
>>>> Or I could hack hf_chlizer.fir(). I started this by replacing int
>>>> vectors with std::complex vectors everywhere FIR taps were referenced in
>>>> the in-tree module's C++ library but I stopped when it traced up to block.h
>>>> because that may affect other modules.
>>>>
>>>> 1) What's the best approach to implement a vector of complex taps
>>>> reprogrammable during runtime?
>>>>
>>>> 2) My verilog code assumes one complex tap is 32 bits (leftmost 16 bits
>>>> for I, rightmost 16 bits for Q) and formats complex samples the same
>>>> (in-tree module also handles complex sample this way). Will UHD
>>>> automatically convert complex floats incoming from the host to sc16 for the
>>>> embedded settings registers?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Andrew
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> USRP-users mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> http://lists.ettus.com/mailman/listinfo/usrp-users_lists.ettus.com
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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