ARM controllers

NCC performance

The ARM controller architecture is available from various silicon foundries. Embedded systems implement diferent architectures to meet cost and performance constraints.

To maximize processing power infoteam suplies various native code compilers NCC-ARM.

A native code compiler generates microprocessor specific code in binary format for one specific instruction set. It takes advantage of the static memroy model of IEC 61131-3 and generates all parameter passing via pointers instead of using stack or heap. In this respect a NCC is more efficient than a C-compiler. Especially bit-operations are very fast.

Controller supported

To maximize processing power infoteam suplies various native code compilers NCC-ARM.

ARM7-thumb mode: This uses 16-bit instruction length and is optimised for small systems architecures, which use 16-bit memory acces to provide cost optimized soluztions.

ARM7-native mode: This is a 32-bit instruction set, which comes with enhanced functionality. This implemen-tation delivers a better performance but requires a 32-bit memory access.

ARM9/11-mode: The major difference of these architectures is an integrated MMU which makes them perfectly suited for real-time operating systems like Windows-CE and Linux/RTAI.

Controller Performance

Performance and resources required strongly depend on the controller and hardware used. Examples for 1K mixed PLC instruction set are measure-ments with respective native code compiler option installed:

• 2465 µs ARM7/16 32 MHz
• 150 µs ARM7/32 60 MHz
• 86 µs ARM7/32 66 MHz
• 22 µs ARM9/200 MHz

Memory footprint

Memory footprint of the
runtime system depend on the C-compiler used, and can be reduced by disabling options of the runtime system: