Posted on April 12, 2018 at 15:52Suggestion to optimize CPU time.
Hello,
I'm working on STM32L433 device and I use the LCD peripheral embedded.
The CPU executes my main loop every 50ms, like the description below.
And I refresh the LCD display at each end of the main loop.
My LCD_Update_Display function call HAL_LCD_UpdateDisplayRequest routine in stm32l4xx_hal_lcd.c file.
Depending on which define (UPDATE_LCD_BEFORE or UPDATE_LCD_AFTER) I declare, the result shows that the HAL_LCD_UpdateDisplayRequest wait for LCD_FLAG_UDD flag.
But during this wait, no optimization is possible.
#define LOOP_TIME_MS 50
...
uint32_t t, ta=0;
/* Infinite loop */
while (1) {
t = HAL_GetTick(); // get the time in ms
PRINT('t_activity = %d%%\r\n', (unsigned int)ta); // print the CPU usage in % on the debug console.
Do_something();
#ifdef UPDATE_LCD_BEFORE
LCD_Update_Display();
#endif
ta = HAL_GetTick();
ta = (100*(ta - t)) / LOOP_TIME_MS;
t += LOOP_TIME_MS;
#ifdef UPDATE_LCD_AFTER
LCD_Update_Display();
#endif
while (HAL_GetTick() < t) {
Enter_in_sleep_mode();
}
}
Below is the result with UPDATE_LCD_BEFORE define. The variation of these values show that the main loop and LCD wait loop are not synchronized. Furthermore, the LCD wait loop is important compared to the main loop. It's taking about 46ms.
t_activity = 8%
t_activity = 92%
t_activity = 84%
t_activity = 76%
t_activity = 68%
t_activity = 60%
t_activity = 52%
t_activity = 44%
t_activity = 36%
t_activity = 28%
t_activity = 18%
t_activity = 10%
Below is the result with UPDATE_LCD_AFTER define. the CPU activity doesn't include the LCD wait loop.
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
t_activity = 4%
These results shows that the LCD wait loop should be optimized. But no callback is coded inside the loop :(.
So my suggestion is that the HAL_LCD_UpdateDisplayRequest function includes a weak callback function like this:
...
/*!< Wait Until the LCD display is done */
while(__HAL_LCD_GET_FLAG(hlcd, LCD_FLAG_UDD) == RESET)
{
if((HAL_GetTick() - tickstart ) > LCD_TIMEOUT_VALUE)
{
hlcd->ErrorCode = HAL_LCD_ERROR_UDD;
/* Process Unlocked */
__HAL_UNLOCK(hlcd);
return HAL_TIMEOUT;
}
/* THLN 12/04/2018 */
HAL_WaitForLCDUpdate();
}
...
And the callback function like this:
__weak void HAL_WaitForLCDUpdate(void) {
}
With this code, the user (me) can write his own HAL_WaitForLCDUpdate function.
void HAL_WaitForLCDUpdate(void) {
Enter_in_sleep_mode_or_do_some_stuff();
}
Device description :
STM32L433 LCD
fCPU=8000000 Hz
STM32 DEV_ID=435, REV_ID=1001
LQFP48
FLASH = 256 KBytes
BOOTLOADER version : 10
Use library version : 10801008
