The AI Engine contains a scalar processor. The processor implement scalar math operations, non-linear functions, and other general purpose operations. Sometimes it can be helpful to have a golden scalar reference version of code.
Note: The scalar version of code takes much more time to run in
simulation and hardware compared to the vectorized version.
The following provides example code for the scalar version of a 32-tap
filter:
static cint16 eq_coef[32]={{1,2},{3,4},...};
//keep margin data between different invocations of the graph
static cint16 delay_line[32];
__attribute__((noinline)) void fir_32tap_scalar(input_stream<cint16> * sig_in,
output_stream<cint16> * sig_out){
for(int i=0;i<SAMPLES;i++){
cycle_num[0]=tile.cycles();//cycle counter of the AI Engine tile
cint64 sum={0,0};//larger data to mimic accumulator
for(int j=0;j<32;j++){
//auto integer promotion to prevent overflow
sum.real+=delay_line[j].real*eq_coef[j].real-delay_line[j].imag*eq_coef[j].imag;
sum.imag+=delay_line[j].real*eq_coef[j].imag+delay_line[j].imag*eq_coef[j].real;
}
sum=sum>>SHIFT;
//produce one sample per loop iteration
writeincr(sig_out,{(int16)sum.real,(int16)sum.imag});
for(int j=0;j<32;j++){
if(j==31){
delay_line[j]=readincr(sig_in);
}else{
delay_line[j]=delay_line[j+1];
}
}
cycle_num[1]=tile.cycles();//cycle counter of the AI Engine tile
printf("cycle start=%d, cycle end=%d, total cycles=%d\n",cycle_num[0],cycle_num[1],(cycle_num[1]-cycle_num[0]));
}
}
void fir_32tap_scalar_init()
{
//initialize data
for (int i=0;i<32;i++){
int tmp=get_ss(0);
delay_line[i]=*(cint16*)&tmp;
}
};
Note:
- Function
fir_32tap_scalar_initis used as an initialization function for the kernel, which is only called one time aftergraph.run(). - The scalar processor does not support rounding and saturation modes.
You can implement these via standard C operations, like
shift. - The tile counter profiles the main loop of code.
From the profiling result, you can see that each sample (one sample per
iteration) takes 2804 cycles. You can view the information under the Profile section in the
Vitis IDE if you enable the option --profile during AI Engine simulation.
Note: The profiled cycle can vary
when there are different compiler options, location constraints, etc. The profiled cycle
can also vary between versions. But the concept of design analysis and performance
analysis introduced here still applies.
For more information about graph
construction and different kinds of profiling techniques, see AI Engine Simulation-Based Performance Analysis
and Performance Analysis of AI Engine Graph Application on
Hardware in
AI Engine Tools and Flows User Guide
(UG1076).