Fast Port writing problem on ATTiny45

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MikeDB1
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Posted by MikeDB1: Sat. Oct 27, 2018 - 10:38 AM
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Programming an ATTiny45 via Arduino and USBasp.   Key part of the code is this unrolled loop where I'm writing to the port B as fast as possible :

 

            PORTB = 0b00000001 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, HIGH);
            PORTB = 0b00000000 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, LOW);

            PORTB = 0b00000001 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, HIGH);
            PORTB = 0b00000000 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, LOW);

... (50 repeats in total)

            PORTB = 0b00000001 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, HIGH);
            PORTB = 0b00000000 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, LOW);

 

Where out is a byte containing the data for the other pins set as outputs which don't change often.

 

I would expect this to be a 50% squarewave on the PB0 pin but instead I get a high 3 microseconds wide but the low is 4 microseconds wide !

 

I've tried it with internal clock of 1MHz and 8 MHz and nothing changes which also seems odd to me.

 

Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong ?

 

Thanks in advance

Tags:

Tools, Arduino, # ATtiny #attiny
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avr-mike
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Posted by avr-mike: Sat. Oct 27, 2018 - 12:14 PM
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MikeDB1 wrote:

      PORTB = 0b00000001 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, HIGH);

      PORTB = 0b00000000 | out;  // digitalWrite(PWM, LOW);

 

If you really want full speed, then these need to be precomputed:

 

    uint8_t output_hi = 0b00000001 | out;
    uint8_t output_lo = 0b00000000 | out;

    PORTB = output_hi;
    PORTB = output_lo;
    PORTB = output_hi;
    PORTB = output_lo;
    // repeated

 

In your code, the optimizer recognized that OR'ing with zero is

unnecessary so it's faster to switch from HIGH to LOW.

 

--Mike

 

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Gold Markclawson
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Posted by clawson: Sat. Oct 27, 2018 - 12:20 PM
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But the optimizer would surely have precalculated and cached the OR 1 too? (IOW it will have effectively done what you just wrote anyway).

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avr-mike
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Posted by avr-mike: Sat. Oct 27, 2018 - 12:23 PM
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You may be right about that.  Unless out is volatile....

 

--Mike

 

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MikeDB1
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Posted by MikeDB1: Sat. Oct 27, 2018 - 01:27 PM
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Thanks very much both of you - it's obvious now :-)    I'll pre-calculate the numbers into two variables as suggested and see what happens

 

Thanks again.

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joeymorin
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Posted by joeymorin: Sun. Oct 28, 2018 - 02:55 PM
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Show the .lss

"Experience is what enables you to recognise a mistake the second time you make it."

"Good judgement comes from experience.  Experience comes from bad judgement."

"Wisdom is always wont to arrive late, and to be a little approximate on first possession."

"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not unicorns."

"Fast.  Cheap.  Good.  Pick two."

"We see a lot of arses on handlebars around here." - [J Ekdahl]

 

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DocJC
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Posted by DocJC: Mon. Oct 29, 2018 - 02:14 PM
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where I'm writing to the port B as fast as possible

I feel the need, the need for speed!

 

Anyway, if the Mega is meeting your needs that's great.

If, however, you find yourself needing a little bit more speed then know that the XMega chips run at 32 MHz, significantly faster than the 16 ot 20 MHz of the Mega chips.

 

Likewise the XMegas have a DMA controller, which might, (untested by me), provide an alternative method for fast I/O.

And finally the Xmegas have "Virtual Ports", (untested by me), which again might play a role in speeding up your I/O operations.

 

JC   

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MikeDB1
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Posted by MikeDB1: Mon. Oct 29, 2018 - 04:52 PM
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Yes the ATTiny45 is more than fast enough.  When I want real speed I use ARM devices (usually from STM) but whilst there used to be an 8 pin ARM device, the LPC810, it seems to have been discontinued so I needed another device to mop up simple analogue functions.

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