Running a Texas Instruments 28346 in Standalone with Embedded Coder - possible? Performance?

Hello Everybody,

i worked with the TI 28335 µC in my Bachelorthesis. Now I am searching for a quite faster CPU. Because the implemented Model is relatively complex it should be programmable with Matlab/Simulink, too. The 28346 has no internal Flash for the programcode but there are some EEPROMs on the board which is coupled with the CPU through the SPI-bus. Does someone know if Embedded Coder (and Code Composer Studio) is able to transfer the generated Code directly into this external memory and thus run the CPU without CCS connected? Next thing is that i want to measure the CPU performance to compare the processor with another real-time system. Is there any possibility to get the CPU usage? I thought of generating pulses on a digital I/O to measure it with a Scope, but i am not sure how to generate them.

Greets, Maxi

Answer 1

[Kaustubha Govind]

Yes, it appears that Embedded Coder does support TI C28346 (see http://www.mathworks.com/products/embedded-coder/ti-adaptor.html), so you can download code generated from a Simulink model onto the board via CCS.

As of R2011a, it appears that it is possible to perform execution and stack profiling during PIL simulation (although I've never tried it). See Verification and Profiling Code Generated for Embedded Targets.

Answer 2

[Max]

Thanks for your response.

I believe that the program will work when the processor is connected to CCS. But I am not sure of what will happen if it should run without any workstation connected. With the 28335 and R2010a i could choose which "Target Preferences"-Block i wanted, the "normal" one or the "Standalone" one. Is there a way to specify the desired external memory in CCS, so that the program will be loaded over the SPI interface?

[Kaustubha Govind]

Max: Sorry, I don't have a lot of experience with Embedded Coder + CCS, but I do expect that C28346 would work the same as C28335 (in other words, I believe the capabilities are common to all TI targets).

I don't know the answer to whether you can specify the desired external memory, but from Simulink, that kind of thing would be done using the Memory pane in the Target Preferences block.