Question
Is there a way to programmatically set what FPGA variables I am reading from or writing to so that I can generalize my main simulation loop for every object that I want to run? The simulation loops for each object are identical except for which FPGA variables they read and write. Details follow.
Background
I have a code that uses LabVIEW OOP to define a bunch of things that I want to simulate. Each thing then has an update method that runs inside of a Timed Loop on an RT controller, takes a cluster of inputs, and returns a cluster of outputs. Some of these inputs come from an FPGA, and some of the outputs are passed back to the FPGA for some processing before being sent out to hardware.
My problem is that I have a separate simulation VI for every thing in my code, since different values are read from and returned to the FPGA for each thing. This is a pain for maintainability and seems to cry out for a better method. The problem is illustrated below. The important parts are the FPGA input and output nodes (change for every thing), and the input and output clusters for the update method (always the same).
Is there some way to define a generic main simulation VI and then programmatically (maybe with properties stored in my things) tell it which specific inputs and outputs to use from the FPGA?
If so then I think the obvious next step would be to make the main simulation loop a public method for my objects and just call that method for each object that I need to simulate.
Thanks!
The short answer is no. Unfortunately once you get down to the hardware level with LabVIEW FPGA things begin to get very static and rely on hard-coded IO access. This is typically handled exactly how you have presented your current approach. However, you may be able encapsulate the IO access with a bit of trickery here.
Consider this, define the IO nodes on your diagram as interfaces and abstract them away with a function (or VI or method, whichever term you prefer). You can implement this with either a dynamic VI call or an object oriented approach.
You know the data types defined by your interface are well known because you are pushing and pulling them from clusters that do not change.
By abstracting away the hardware IO with a method call you can then maintain a library of function calls that represent unique hardware access for every "thing" in your system. This will encapsulate changes to the hardware IO access within a piece of code dedicated to that job.
Using dynamic VI calls is ugly but you can use the properties of your "things" to dictate the path to the exact function you need to call for that thing's IO.
An object oriented approach might have you create a small class hierarchy with a root object that represents generic IO access (probably doing nothing) with children overriding a core method call for reading or writing. This call would take your FPGA reference in and spit out the variables every hardware call will return (or vice versa for a read). Under the hood it is taking care of deciding exactly which IO on the FPGA to access. Example below:
Keep in mind that this is nowhere near functional, I just wanted you to see what the diagram might look like. The approach will help you further generalize your main loop and allow you to embed it within a public call as you had suggested.
This looks like an [object mapping] problem which LabVIEW doesn't have great support for, but it can be done.
My code maps one cluster to another assuming the control types are the same using a 2 column array as a "lookup."
Related
I'm learning Metal, and there's a conceptual question that I'm trying to wrap my head around: at what level, exactly, should my code handle successive drawing operations that require different pipeline states? As I understand it (from answers like this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/43827775/2752221), I can use a single MTLRenderCommandEncoder and change its pipeline state, the vertex buffer it's using, etc., between calls to drawPrimitives:, and the encoder state that was current at the time of each call to drawPrimitives: will be preserved. So that's great. But it also seems like the design of Metal is such that one can make multiple MTLRenderCommandEncoder instances, and use them to sequentially throw batches of commands into a MTLCommandBuffer. Given that the former works – using one MTLRenderCommandEncoder and changing its state – why would one do the latter? Under what circumstances is it correct to do the former, and under what circumstances is it necessary to do the latter? What is an example of a situation where the latter would be necessary/appropriate?
If it matters, I'm working on a macOS app, using Objective-C. Thanks.
Ignoring multithreaded encoding cases, which are somewhat advanced, the main reason you'd want to create multiple render command encoders during a frame is because you need to change which textures you're rendering to.
You'll notice that you need to provide a render pass descriptor when creating a render command encoder. For this reason, we often say that the sequence of commands belonging to a particular encoder constitute a render pass. The attachments of that descriptor refer to the textures that will be written to by the commands encoded by the encoder.
Many different techniques, including shadow mapping and postprocessing effects like bloom require multiple passes to produce. Since you can't change attachments in the midst of a pass, creating a new encoder is the only way to encode multiple passes in a frame.
Relatedly, you should ordinarily use one command buffer per frame. You can, however, sometimes reduce frame time by splitting your passes across multiple command buffers, but this is highly dependent on the shape of your workload and should only be done in tandem with profiling, as it's not always an optimization.
In addition to Warren's answer, another way to look at the question is by examining the API. A number of Metal objects are created from descriptors. The properties of the descriptor at the time an object is created from it govern that object for its lifetime. Those are aspects of the object that can't be changed after creation.
By contrast, the object will have various setter methods to modify other properties over its lifetime.
For a render command encoder, the properties that are fixed for its lifetime are those specified by the MTLRenderPassDescriptor used to create it. If you want to render with different values for any of those properties, the only way to do so is to create a new encoder from a different descriptor. On the other hand, if you can do everything you need/want to do by using the encoder's setter methods, then you don't need a new encoder.
I have a class called Camera in the .NET library and once I instantiate the object I want to create a reference of it so that this instance can be used from other VIs. How do I make a reference or how do I make it global ?
Thanks,
There are a couple ways to approach your question.
Possible answer 1: You're looking to let multiple parallel subVIs use the object at the same time. The .NET wire is already a reference wire. Forking that wire does not copy the object. Just wire it into the other VIs, however many there are, and let them all use the reference.
Possible answer 2: You're trying to obtain the existing reference in another VI without passing the reference on a wire through a subVI conpane or Call By Reference node. In this case, you would pass the .NET object refnum the same way you would pass any other bit of data in LabVIEW when avoiding wires. In general, the rule is "avoid passing data outside of dataflow." Seriously... try to pass the refnum through a conpane... if this program is going to have any significant lifetime, you'll be happier when you can take that approach. BUT... when such outside-of-dataflow passing is necessary, there are many tools -- queues, notifiers, global VIs, data value references, functional globals. Which of those tools is the right one depends greatly on what you're actually trying to achieve. The simplest is to create a global VI, but that introduces a lot of polling checks as the second VI has to keep polling the global to see if the first VI has stored the value yet or not. A notifier refnum is probably the most flexible option that I can point you toward... create a named notifier of your .NET refnum type. Both first and second VI can obtain the notifier by name. The second VI then blocks on Wait For Notificiation waiting for the first VI to write the refnum into the notifier. See http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361L-01/glang/create_notifier/ for more information on notifiers. Or Google the other terms that I listed if that seems insufficient for your needs.
I am supposed to develop a program, which will heavily depend on input data at runtime (data for initialization, read from XML) and I would like to ask for good OOP practice regarding object/architecture design.
Situation
I have the following objects, object_A, object_B, object_C, each of them has a specified objective.
object_A = evaluation of equations, requires input, produces output
object_B = evaluation of equations, requires input, produces output
object_C = requires data from object_A and object_B as input, produces output
Then there is object_D, which passes the data and calls functions among these objects_A/B/C.
There are 2 ways to tackle this situation that I know of :
a) Inheritance
object_D inherits from object_A, object_B, object_C. Data are passed by appointing appropriate structures in objects_A/_B/_C using "this->", virtual functions in objects_A/_B/_C can then call back to object_D.
hierarchical approach
objects are concealed
difficult to parametrize the object_A/_B/_C (parameters need to travel all the way up in the hierarchy to base classes)
b) Passing pointers
Create object_A/_B/_C, by passing parameters in constructor. Then pass pointers of these objects to constructor of object_D.
no information hiding, all objects are visible
hierarchy might be unclear, especially when there are more levels
easy to pass initialization parameters
Question
What is an appropriate way of handling software architecture, where many objects require passing initialization parameters at runtime?
I think your question is broad and can have more than one good answer. However, I think your scenario can be solved in one of two ways:
Eventing: Instead of tightly coupling your classes using inheritance, you can use events. For instance when Object A finishes processing it raise an event called 'ClassAFinished'. Then you have to create an event handler for ClassAFinish Event that will in turns pass objectA's output to other objects that rely on Object A output.
Second way is Chain of Responsibility design pattern. Since your question is related to OOP I think it's reasonable to use this design pattern. In a nutshell Chain of Responsibility is a design pattern that you use it when you have a series (chain) of objects, each of which will do specific processing (responsibility), but each one of them can't begin processing until it received data from the previous object. When it finishes processing it'll send its output to the next object and so forth.
These are 2 main ideas that I wanted to share with you.
I am writing a C++ OpenCV-based computer vision program. The basic idea of the program could be described as follows:
Read an image from a camera.
Do some magic to the image.
Display the transformed image.
The implementation of the core logic of the program (step 2) falls into a sequential calling of OpenCV functions for image processing. It is something about 50 function calls. Some temporary image objects are created to store intermediate results, but, apart from that, no additional entities are created. The functions from step 2 are used only once.
I am confused about organising this type of code (which feels more like a script). I used to create several classes for each logical step of the image processing. Say, here I could create 3 classes like ImagePreprocessor, ImageProcessor, and ImagePostprocessor, and split the abovementioned 50 OpenCV calls and temorary images correspondingly between them. But it doesn't feel like a resonable OOP design. The classes would be nothing more than a way to store the function calls.
The main() function would still just create a single object of each class and call thier methods consequently:
image_preprocessor.do_magic(img);
image_processor.do_magic(img);
image_postprocessor.do_magic(img);
Which is, to my impression, essentially the same thing as callling 50 OpenCV functions one by one.
I start to question whether this type of code requiers an OOP design at all. After all, I can simply provide a function do_magic(), or three functions preprocess(), process(), and postprocess(). But, this approach doesn't feel like a good practice as well: it is still just a pile of function calls, separated into a different function.
I wonder, are there some common practices to organise this script-like kind of code? And what would be the way if this code is a part of a large OOP system?
Usually, in Image Processing, you have a pipeline of various Image Processing Modules. Same is applicable on Video Processing, where each Image is processed according to its timestamp order in the video.
Constraints to consider before designing such pipeline:
Order of Execution of these modules is not always same. Thus, the pipeline should be easily configurable.
All modules of the pipeline should be executable in parallel with each other.
Each module of the pipeline may also have a multithreaded operation. (Out of scope of this answer, but is a good idea when a single module becomes the bottleneck for the pipeline).
Each module should easily adhere to the design and have the flexibility of internal implementation changes without affecting other modules.
The benefit of preprocessing of a frame by one module should be available to later modules.
Proposed Design.
Video Pipeline
A video pipeline is a collection of modules. For now, assume module is a class whose process method is called with some data. How each module can be executed will depend on how such modules are stored in VideoPipeline! To further explain, see below two categories:-
Here, let’s say we have modules A, B, and C which always execute in same order. We will discuss the solution with a video of Frame 1, 2 and 3.
a. Linked List: In a single-threaded application, frame 1 is first executed by A, then B and then C. The process is repeated for next frame and so on. So linked list seems like an excellent choice for the single threaded application.
For a multi-threaded application, speed is what matters. So, of course, you would want all your modules running 128-core machine. This is where Pipeline class comes into play. If each Pipeline object runs in a separate thread, the whole application which may have 10 or 20 modules starts running multithreaded. Note that the single-thread/multithread approach can be made configurable
b. Directed Acyclic Graph: Above-linked list implementation can be further improved when you have high processing power and want to reduce the lag between input and response time of pipeline. Such a case is when module C does not depend on B, but on A. In such case, any frame can be parallelly processed by module B and module C using a DAG based implementation. However, I wouldn’t recommend this as the benefits are not so great compared to the increased complexity, as further management of output from module B and C needs to be done by say module D where D depends on B or C or both. The number of scenarios increases.
Thus, for simplicity sake, let’s use LinkedList based design.
Pipeline
Create a linked list of PipelineElement.
Make process method of pipeline call process method of the first element.
PipelineElement
First, the PipelineElement processes the information by calling its ImageProcessor(read below). The PipelineElement will pass a Packet(of all data, read below) to ImageProcessor and receives the updated packet.
If next element is not null, call next PipelineElement process and pass updated packet.
If next element of a PipelineElement is null, stop. This element is special as it has an Observer object. Other PipelineElement will be set to null for Observer field.
FrameReader(VIdeoReader/ImageReader)
For video/image reader, create an abstract class. Whether you process video or image or multiple, processing is done one frame at a time, so create an abstract class(interface) ImageProcessor.
A FrameReader object stores reference to the pipeline.
For each frame, it pushes the information in by calling process method of Pipeline.
ImageProcessor
There is no Pre and Post ImageProcessor. For example, retinex processing is used as Post Processing but some application can use it as PreProcessing. Retinex processing class will implement ImageProcessor. Each element will hold Its ImageProcessor and Next PipeLineElement object.
Observer
A special class which extends PipelineElement and provides a meaningful output using GUI or disk.
Multithreading
1. Make each method run in its thread.
2. Each thread will poll messages from a BlockingQueue( of small size like 2-3 Frames) to act as a buffer between two PipelineElements. Note: The queue helps in averaging the speed of each module. Thus, small jitters(a module taking too long time for a frame) does not affect video output rate and provides smooth playback.
Packet
A packet will store all the information such as input or Configuration class object. This way you can store intermediate calculations as well as observe a real-time effect of changing configuration of an algorithm using a Configuration Manager.
To conclude, each element can now process in parallel. The first element will process nth frame, the second element will process n-1th frame, and soon, but with this, a lot more issues such as pipeline bottlenecks and additional delays due to less core power available to each element will pop up.
This structure lends itself to the pipes and filters architecture (see Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 1: A System of Patterns by Frank Buschmann):
The Pipes and Filters architectural pattern provides a structure for
systems that process a stream of data. Each processing step is
encapsulated in a filter component. Data is passed through pipes
between adjacent filters. Recombining filters allows you to build
families of related systems.
See also this short description (with images) from the Enterprise Integration Patterns book.
I'm trying to de-spaghetti a big UI by creating SubVIs that handle only the controls that are relevant, via control refnums.
Now, when extracting the code from the main VI and re-wiring into the subVIs, things get clutter-y.
To read/write these refnums, I have to do a two-step process. First add a terminal to get the control refnum value and then another to get the value of the control.
Wiring the refnums everywhere is not really an option as that will create more spaghetti if there are more than two of them. (usually 4-10)
Is there a better way?
UPDATE
Guys, this is a low-level question about the picture above, not really a queston about large scale architecture / design patterns. I'm using QMH, classes, et.al. where appropriate.
I just feel there should be a way to get the typed value from a typed control ref in one step. It feels kind of common.
In the caller VI, where the controls/indicators actually live, create all your references, then bundle them into clusters of relevant pieces. Pass the clusters into your subVIs, giving a given subVI only the cluster it needs. This both keeps your conpane cleaned up and and makes it clear the interface that each subVI is talking to. Instead of a cluster, you may want to create a LV class to further encapsulate and define the sub-UI operations, but that's generally only on larger projects where some components of the UI will be reused in other UIs.
I'm not sure there is a low-touch way to de-spaghetti a UI with lots of controls and indicators.
My suggestion is to rework the top-level VI into a queued message handler, which would allow you to decouple the user interaction from the application's response. In other words, rather than moving both the controls and the code that handles their changes to subVIs (as you're currently doing), this would keep the controls where they are (so you don't need to use ref nums and property nodes) and only move the code to subVIs.
This design pattern is built-in to recent versions of LabVIEW: navigate to File » Create Project to make LabVIEW generate a project you can evaluate. For more information about understanding how to extend and customize it, see this NI slide deck: Decisions Behind the Design of the
Queued Message Handler Template.
In general, it is not the best practice to read/write value using refnum in perspective of performance. It requires a thread swap to the UI thread each time (which is a heavy process), whereas the FP Terminal is privileged to be able to update the panel without switching execution threads and without mutex friction.
Using references to access value
Requires to update the front panel item every single time they are called.
They are a pass by reference function as opposed to a pass by value function. This means they are essentially pointers to specific memory locations. The pointers must be de-referenced, and then the value in memory updated. The process of de-referencing the variables causes them to be slower than Controls/Indicators, or Local Variables.
Property Nodes cause the front panel of a SubVI to remain in memory, which increases memory use. If the front panel of a SubVI is not displayed, remove property nodes to decrease memory use.
If after this you want to use this method you can use VI scripting to speed up the process: http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/209110