Data passing architecture
For all electronic systems, and especially for Real Time Systems, the architecture of the hardware can make it simple, difficult or even impossible to achieve the operations that you need.
Part of the design and programming of such a system is the data passing structure of the system.
My paper about architectures for Real Time systems studies the passing of data within a system, but passing data into and out of a system is just as important.
If you ignore the data passing structures of the system until during the development of the system, there is good chance that your system will never work, or at least will not work reliably.
Defining the data passing interfaces early in the project can :-
- make sure that your system goals are achievable
- save you a huge amount of system debug time, perhaps save you from debugging issues that only occur when the system is used by a customer in a specific way
- make your system operate predictably and reliably
Statistically every system will have errors, and good system design and Signal Integrity can reduce the error rate, but the rate will still be finite and positive. Modern electronic systems use very high speed interfaces to pass huge volumes of data, so even a very small error rate will result in errors occurring very often.
As you can see from my background I worked form three years on a completely new architecture that used the features of modern FPGA and DSP devices. This architecture focused on the physical data passing interfaces, and the way that they were programmed in order to reduce the error rates. Studies and conclusions were made about how these errors could affect the operation of the systems, and how systems should be designed to account for the inevitable errors. The HAWK system architecture never saw daylight outside our lab, but the results we got in the lab were really astounding.
With the amount of time and experience I have in studying the architecture of Real Time systems, I am perfectly placed to
- Help you define the data flow that your system needs
- Help you to choose between FPGA and DSP or how to split your system across both
- Research, study and assess the data passing interfaces of different off the shelf architectures from the perspective of your project
- If necessary define the ideal data passing structures for your project and develop an architecture specifically to meet your needs
As with everything I can offer, I can work on this alone, generating and/or presenting a study report, or I can work with your team in an advisory or mentoring capacity.
Contact me to discuss your needs free of charge. If my consulting to you can benefit us both then we can proceed from there.