10.16 An Engine Controller

This section describes part of a controller for an automobile engine. Table 10.21 shows a temperature converter that converts digitized temperature readings from a sensor from degrees Centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit.

To save area the temperature conversion is approximate. Instead of multiplying by 9/5 and adding 32 (so 0 degC becomes 32 degF and 100 degC becomes 212 degF) we multiply by 1.75 and add 32 (so 100 degC becomes 207 degF). Since 1.75 = 1 + 0.5 + 0.25, we can multiply by 1.75 using shifts (for divide by 2, and divide by 4) together with a very simple constant addition (since 32 = "100000"). Using shift to multiply and divide by powers of 2 is free in hardware (we just change connections to a bus). For large temperatures the error approaches 0.05/1.8 or approximately 3 percent. We play these kinds of tricks often in hardware computation. Notice also that temperatures measured in degC and degF are defined as unsigned integers of the same width. We could have defined these as separate types to take advantage of VHDL's type checking.

Table 10.22 describes a digital filter to compute a "moving average" over four successive samples in time (i(0), i(1), i(2), and i(3), with i(0) being the first sample).

The FIFO has flags, empty and full , that signify its state. It uses a function to increment two circular pointers. One pointer keeps track of the address to write to next, the other pointer tracks the address to read from. The FIFO memory may be implemented in a number of ways in hardware. We shall assume for the moment that it will be synthesized as a bank of flip-flops.

Table 10.25 shows a controller for the two FIFOs. The controller handles the reading and writing to the FIFO. The microcontroller attached to the bus signals which of the FIFOs it wishes to read from. The controller then places the appropriate data on the bus. The microcontroller can also ask for the FIFO flags to be placed in the low-order bits of the bus on a read cycle. If none of these actions are requested by the microcontroller, the FIFO controller three-states its output drivers.

Table 10.25 shows the top level of the controller. To complete our model we shall use a package for the component declarations:

package TC_Components is

component register_in generic (TPD : TIME := 1 ns); port (T_in : in UNSIGNED(11 downto 0);

clk, rst : in STD_LOGIC; T_out : out UNSIGNED(11 downto 0)); end component;

component tconv generic (TPD : TIME := 1 ns); port (T_in : in UNSIGNED (7 downto 0);

clk, rst : in STD_LOGIC; T_out : out UNSIGNED(7 downto 0)); end component;

component filter generic (TPD : TIME := 1 ns); port (T_in : in UNSIGNED (7 downto 0);

rst, clk : in STD_LOGIC; T_out : out UNSIGNED(7 downto 0)); end component;

component fifo generic (width:INTEGER := 12; depth : INTEGER := 16); port (clk, rst, push, pop : STD_LOGIC;

Di : UNSIGNED (width-1 downto 0); Do : out UNSIGNED (width-1 downto 0); empty, full : out STD_LOGIC);

end component;

component fifo_control generic (TPD:TIME := 1 ns); port (D_1, D_2 : in UNSIGNED(7 downto 0);

select : in UNSIGNED(1 downto 0); read, f1, f2, e1, e2 : in STD_LOGIC; r1, r2, w12 : out STD_LOGIC; D : out UNSIGNED(7 downto 0)) ;

end component; end;

The following testbench completes a set of reads and writes to the FIFOs:

library IEEE;

use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all; -- type STD_LOGIC use IEEE.numeric_std.all; -- type UNSIGNED entity test_TC is end;

architecture testbench of test_TC is

component T_Control port (T_1, T_2 : in UNSIGNED(11 downto 0); clk : in STD_LOGIC; sensor: in UNSIGNED( 1 downto 0) ; read : in STD_LOGIC; rst : in STD_LOGIC;

D : out UNSIGNED(7 downto 0)); end component; signal T_1, T_2 : UNSIGNED(11 downto 0);

signal clk, read, rst : STD_LOGIC; signal sensor : UNSIGNED(1 downto 0); signal D : UNSIGNED(7 downto 0);

begin TT1 : T_Control port map (T_1, T_2, clk, sensor, read, rst, D); process begin

rst <= '0'; clk <= '0';

wait for 5 ns; rst <= '1'; wait for 5 ns; rst <= '0';

T_in1 <= "000000000011"; T_in2 <= "000000000111"; read <= '0'; for i in 0 to 15 loop -- fill the FIFOs

clk <= '0'; wait for 5 ns; clk <= '1'; wait for 5 ns; end loop;

assert (false) report "FIFOs full" severity NOTE;

clk <= '0'; wait for 5 ns; clk <= '1'; wait for 5 ns; read <= '1'; sensor <= "01";

for i in 0 to 15 loop -- empty the FIFOs

clk <= '0'; wait for 5ns; clk <= '1'; wait for 5 ns; end loop;

assert (false) report "FIFOs empty" severity NOTE; clk <= '0'; wait for 5ns; clk <= '1'; wait;

end process; end;