Peripheral Address Remapping for Unused Registers
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Microcontrollers often have limited memory and unused peripheral interfaces, leading to underutilization of resources, as they are designed to support a wide range of applications but may not use all available peripherals, resulting in unused control registers.
Innovation Solution
A peripheral address remapping module is used to identify unused peripheral interfaces and map their control registers as additional memory, allowing these registers to supplement the main memory, thereby increasing the available memory capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If microcontrollers are designed with a wide range of peripheral interfaces to support multiple applications, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases and memory capacity remains limited due to unused peripherals
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements multi-functionality by enabling unused peripheral control registers to serve dual purposes: originally for peripheral control and now for memory storage. The peripheral interface hardware remains universal and unchanged, but its control registers are repurposed based on usage status, allowing the same hardware structure to fulfill multiple functions (peripheral control or memory expansion) depending on configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the functional parameter of control registers based on peripheral usage status. When a peripheral is unused, its control registers transition from serving peripheral control functions to serving as memory storage locations. This parameter change (functionality) allows the system to adapt to different application needs without hardware modification, resolving the contradiction between versatility and complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If microcontrollers are designed with fixed memory capacity, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but memory capacity cannot be expanded without altering hardware design
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamics to the memory capacity by making it configurable rather than fixed. The system can dynamically adjust the effective memory capacity by enabling or disabling the use of control registers from unused peripherals as memory locations. This allows memory capacity to be adapted to different application requirements without physical hardware changes, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while enabling capacity expansion.
Solution Approach 2:
The control registers serve multiple functions: they originally function as peripheral control registers and can alternatively function as memory storage locations when the peripheral is unused. This multi-functionality allows the same hardware resources to provide both peripheral control and memory capacity, enabling memory expansion without additional hardware or manufacturing complexity.
3Quantity of substance
If all peripheral control registers are made accessible as memory locations, then memory capacity is increased, but device complexity increases due to address remapping requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically detecting which peripherals are in use and which are not, then autonomously determining which control registers can be repurposed as memory locations. The address remapping module operates transparently in the background, automatically managing the mapping between logical memory addresses and physical control register addresses without requiring manual configuration or complex user intervention, thus reducing the practical complexity despite the underlying complexity of the remapping mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing device, including a processor; a memory, wherein the memory is accessible for memory operations via a range of logical memory addresses; a peripheral interface including a first control register; and a peripheral address remapping module configured to determine that the peripheral interface is unused for interfacing with a peripheral; determine a first memory address for accessing the first control register; determine a first logical memory address, the first logical memory address outside of the range of logical memory addresses for accessing the memory; and map the first logical memory address to the first memory address, wherein the first control register is accessible for memory operations using the first logical memory address.