Specifying and targeting portions of a graphical program for real-time response

• US 6,961,686 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2003
• Issued: 11/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Kodosky, Jeffrey L., Butler, Cary P., Odom, Brian K., Andrade, Hugo
• Primary Examiner(s): FREJD, RUSSELL WARREN
• Application Number:
  US10/435,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20030195732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 703/2, 703/22, 702/119, 702/119.57, 702/123, 702/127, 716/1, 716 16- 18, 717/106, 717/125, 345/700, 345/771
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2733 Test interface between tester and unit under test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/12 Symbolic schematics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/34 for reconfigurable circuits, e.g. field programmable gate arrays [FPGA] or programmable logic devices [PLD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A computer-implemented system and method for generating a hardware implementation of graphical code. The method comprises first creating a graphical program. A first portion of the graphical program may optionally be compiled into machine code for execution by a CPU. A second portion of the graphical program is converted into a hardware implementation according to the present invention. The operation of converting the graphical program into a hardware implementation comprises exporting the second portion of the graphical program into a hardware description, wherein the hardware description describes a hardware implementation of the second portion of the graphical program, and then configuring a programmable hardware element utilizing the hardware description to produce a configured hardware element. The configured hardware element thus implements a hardware implementation of the second portion of the graphical program.

Claims

1. A memory medium which stores program instructions for configuring a device, wherein the device includes a programmable hardware element, wherein the program instructions are executable to perform:

selecting portions of a graphical program as requiring a greater real-time response or a lesser real-time response; and

generating a hardware description that is useable to configure programmable hardware for real-time execution based on the portions of the graphical program which require greater real-time response.

2. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the graphical program comprises a model.

3. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually represent functionality of a procedure.

4. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the graphical program comprises a block diagram.

5. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein generating further comprises establishing an inter-process communication link between a first portion of the graphical program which requires lesser real-time response and a second portion of the graphical program which requires greater real-time response.

6. The memory medium of claim 5, wherein the first portion of the graphical which requires lesser real-time response is operable to receive output from the second portion of the graphical program which requires greater real-time response via the inter-process communications link.

7. The memory medium of claim 6, wherein the program instructions are further executable to perform:

processing the output in the first portion of the graphical program which requires lesser real-time response.

8. The memory medium of claim 1,

wherein said selecting comprises selecting a first portion of the graphical program which requires lesser real-time response and a second portion of the graphical program which requires greater real-time response;

wherein the program instructions are further executable to perform;

executing the second portion of the graphical program which requires greater real-time response on the programmable hardware element.

9. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein said selecting portions comprises receiving a user input through a graphical user interface (GUI).

10. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement a graphical user interface (GUI) adapted to receive user inputs to perform said selecting portions.

11. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the program instructions are further executable to generate a hardware program file capable of real-time execution based on the portions of the graphical program requiring a greater real-time response.

12. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the program instructions further comprise a set of pre-defined instructions for generating a hardware program file corresponding to the portions of the graphical program requiring a greater real-time response.

13. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the program instructions further comprise a compiler for compiling the hardware description for the programmable hardware element.

14. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein generating further comprises establishing an inter-process communication link between a first portion of the graphical program which does not require real-time execution and a second portion of the graphical program which requires real-time execution.

15. The memory medium of claim 14, wherein the first portion of the graphical which does not require real-time execution is operable to receive output from the second portion of the graphical program which requires real-time execution via the inter-process communications link.

16. The memory medium of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are further executable to perform:

processing the output in the first portion of the graphical program which does not require real-time execution.

17. The memory medium of claim 16, wherein said processing the output comprises displaying the output on a display.

18. A method comprising:

receiving user input through a graphical user interface (GUI) specifying a block diagram model, the block diagram model including sections, a first subset of the sections designated post-processing unit sections and a second subset of the sections designated first processing unit sections;

generating software source code for the block diagram model using the second subset; and

linking the software source code to the first subset via an inter-process communication link; and

compiling the software source code into executable code.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

executing the executable code on a target processor.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said executing code generates data, the method further comprising:

the post-processing unit sections executing to receive the data from said executing; and

post-processing the received data.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said post-processing the received data comprises displaying the received data on a computer display.

22. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

specify a model, the model including sections, a first subset of the sections designated post-processing unit sections and a second subset of the sections designated as first processing unit sections; and

generate software source code for the model using the second subset.

23. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive user input through a graphical user interface (GUI) specifying a block diagram model, the block diagram model including sections, a first subset of the sections designated post-processing unit sections and a second subset of the sections designated as first processing unit sections; and

generate software source code for the block diagram model with a code generator using the second subset;

link the software source code to the first subset via an inter-process communication link; and

compile the software source code into executable code.

24. A processor and a memory configured to:

receive user input through a graphical user interface (GUI) specifying a block diagram model, the block diagram model including sections, a first subset of the sections designated post-processing unit sections and a second subset of the sections designated as first processing unit sections; and

generate software source code for the block diagram model with a code generator using the second subset;

link the software source code to the first subset via an inter-process communication link; and

compile the software source code into executable code.

25. A method comprising:

selecting portions of a graphical program as requiring a greater real-time response or a lesser real-time response; and

generating a hardware description that is useable to configure programmable hardware for real-time execution based on the portions of the model which require greater real-time response.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the graphical program comprises a model.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually represent functionality of a procedure.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein said requiring a greater real-time response or a lesser real-time response comprises:

requiring a real-time execution or not requiring real-time execution.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the graphical program comprises a data flow diagram.

30. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

configuring programmable hardware using the hardware description.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

executing the configured programmable hardware in accordance with the hardware description.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

executing portions of the graphical program requiring a lesser real-time response on a processor substantially concurrently with said executing the configured programmable hardware.

33. A memory medium which stores program instructions for configuring a device, wherein the device includes a programmable hardware element, wherein the program instructions are executable to perform:

selecting portions of a graphical program as requiring real-time execution or not requiring real-time execution; and

generating a hardware description that is useable to configure programmable hardware for real-time execution based on the portions of the graphical program which require real-time execution.

34. The memory medium of claim 33, wherein the graphical program comprises a model.

35. A method comprising:

identifying portions of a block diagram as being either critical to a real-time execution of the model or non-critical to a real-time execution of the model; and

generating code that is capable of real-time execution based on the critical portions of the block diagram.

36. A memory medium which stores program instructions which are executable to perform:

identifying portions of a block diagram as being either critical to a real-time execution of the model or non-critical to a real-time execution of the model; and

generating code that is capable of real-time execution based on the critical portions of the block diagram.