Question

The function below reads an image a page at a time using read_page(pageIter, pageArr, PAGESIZE) and outputs the data on the DOUT AND CCLK pins.

I was told it was inefficient but I can’t seem to find a way to make it faster. It is basically a pipe ,running on a 64 pin uProcessor, between two memory spaces. One holds the image and the other receives the image.

I’ve used the register keyword, removed array indexing and replaced with pointer arithemetic, but it needs to be faster.

Thanks!

/*
Port C Pin Out
*/
#define     BIT0        0x01    // CCLK
#define     BIT1        0x02    // CS_B
#define     BIT2        0x04    // INIT_B
#define     BIT3        0x08    // PROG_B
#define     BIT4        0x10    // RDRW_B
#define     BIT5        0x20    // BUSY_OUT
#define     BIT6        0x40    // DONE
#define     BIT7        0x80    // DOUT (DIN)

/*
PAGE
*/

#define     PAGESIZE    1024    // Example

void copyImage(ulong startAddress, ulong endAddress)
  {
  ulong pageIter;
  uchar *eByte, *byteIter, pageArr[PAGESIZE];
  register uchar bitIter, portCvar;
  portCvar = PORTC;
  /* Loops through pages in an image using ulong type*/
  for(pageIter = startAddress ;  pageIter <= endAddress ; pageIter += PAGESIZE)
    {
    read_page(pageIter, pageArr, PAGESIZE);
    eByte = pageArr+PAGESIZE;
    /* Loops through bytes in a page using pointer to uchar (pointer to a byte)*/
    for(byteIter = pageArr; byteIter <= eByte; byteIter++)
      {
      /* Loops through bits in byte and writes to PORTC - DIN ANC CCLK  */
      for(bitIter = 0x01; bitIter != 0x00; bitIter = bitIter << 1)
        {
        PORTC = portCvar | BIT0;
        (bitIter & *byteIter) ? (PORTC = portCvar & ~BIT7) : (PORTC = portCvar | BIT7);
        PORTC = portCvar & ~BIT0;
        }
      }
    }
  }

Answer 1

Probably you can go faster by unrolling the transmission of each byte with something like

PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x01 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x02 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x04 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x08 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x10 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x20 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x40 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;
PORTC = clock_1; PORTC = (value & 0x80 ? data1 : data0); PORTC = clock_0;

after precomputing once outside the image loop

unsigned char clock_1 = portC | BIT0;
unsigned char clock_0 = portC & ~BIT0;
unsigned char data1 = portC | BIT7;
unsigned char data0 = portC & ~BIT7;