Code Development Flow To Increase Performance
1-3
Introduction
1.3
Code Development Flow To Increase Performance
Traditional development flows in the DSP industry have involved validating a
C model for correctness on a host PC or Unix workstation and then painstak-
ingly porting that C code to hand coded DSP assembly language. This is both
time consuming and error prone. This process tends to encounter difficulties
that can arise from maintaining the code over several projects.
The recommended code development flow involves utilizing the ’C6000 code
generation tools to aid in optimization rather than forcing the programmer to
code by hand in assembly. These advantages allow the compiler to do all the
laborious work of instruction selection, parallelizing, pipelining, and register al-
location. This allows the programmer to focus on getting the product to market
quickly. These features simplify the maintenance of the code, as everything
resides in a C framework that is simple to maintain, support, and upgrade.
The recommended code development flow for the ’C6000 involves the phases
described below. The tutorial section of the Programmer’s Guide focuses on
phases 1 – 3. These phases will instruct the programmer when to go to the tun-
ing stage of phase 3. What is learned is the importance of giving the compiler
enough information to fully maximize its potential. An added advantage is that
this compiler provides direct feedback on the entire programmer’s high MIPS
areas (loops). Based on this feedback, there are some very simple steps the
programmer can take to pass complete and better information to the compiler
allowing the programmer a quicker start in maximizing compiler performance.