AWR1843: AWR1843: Power consumption on DSP vs HWA

Hi Mahendra,

I'll need some time to look into this, we should have an answer for you sometime next week.

Cheers,

Akash

Hi Mahendra,

We are still looking into this and should have an answer for you later today.

Cheers,

Akash

Hi Akash

Any update on this?

Thanks

Mahendra

Hi Mahendra,

Thank you for following up.

1) As AWR1843 has both HWA and DSP, application like High accuracy demo or Zone occupancy can be ported to either HWA or DSP. Can you provide details wrt power consumption(mA) estimates, processing time (in msec) estimates for the two applications(High accuracy demo and Zone occupancy demo) for case 1 : Running on HWA Case 2: Running on DSP.  Which one is less power hungry and requires less time to process?

A: The AWR1843 is definitely going to consume extra power even if the DSP is not used. The DSP has a 600 MHz clock that would consume power; moreover, the DSP does not have a separate power domain so leakage will be inevitable. Our low power recommendation is going to be IWR1443.

2) If the code is running on HWA, can DSP be powered down OR if code is running on DSP, Can HWA be powered down completely to save power. If so, Can you please provide instructions to power down HWA or DSP?

A: You will at least need the HWA to perform fft for object detection. There is code a code set that uses only the HWA available for the IWR6843 that is available here. I'd like to note that the two devices are very similar except for the 77 vs 60 GHz band that is used.

3) I noticed there is no high accuracy demo supported for AWR1843 or IWR6843, Can you provide instructions to port High accuracy demo for either AWR1843 or IWR6843 for power consumption measurements.

A: The Migration section of the SDK 3_0_0 release notes includes necessary changes, let me know if you have more questions on these items.

Cheers,

Akash

Thanks! Akash

Few follow up questions:

Can you please provide power consumption numbers (mW or in mAs) in below case when no code is running?

The DSP has a 600 MHz clock that would consume power; moreover, the DSP does not have a separate power domain so leakage will be inevitable.

Also, Can you please provide details in terms of processing time between HWA and DSP for the same application?

Thanks

Mahendra

Hi Mahendra,

For IWR1443 we have measured the power to be about .6 mAs after initialization and boot-up but before application code has started to run in our lowest power case.

The TIDEP-0091 is our low-power level-sensing reference design for IWR1443. We have achieved energy consumption of less than 20 mJ per measurement using the device, alternate PMIC, and various power switching techniques. The result is a system which makes battery powered use feasible.

Unfortunately we do not have any such measurements nor reference designs for xWR1843 (or any DSP variants) because these devices are not-recommended for low-power/battery applications.

We can continue discussion and advise on providing power measurements in similar fashion to TIDEP-0091 with other devices, if you'd like to attempt this route just let me know!

Cheers,

Akash

Hi Akash

Power measurement similar to TIDEP-0091 on AWR1843 HWA while DSP is not running any code would be good enough for comparison and my battery life estimate?

Thanks

Mahendra

Hi Mahendra,

You will want to use the HWA version of the 68xx - mmWave SDK Demo HWA version. (You might notice the binary is called 64xx but it is fine for flashing on to AWR1843).

You will need to use the chirp configuration for the AWR1843 on the device since this is where 77 GHz is configured, but device should function all the same.

Cheers,

Akash

Hi Akash

I am not clear on using 68xx-mmWake SDK Demo HWA version for power measurements mentioned in TIDEP-0091. How do I configure measurements like

Host setting the functional (calibration, measure) mode and releases nRESET. 

AWR1843 responds to mode; for functional mode, it loads the software from QSPI flash

AWR1843 MSS software performs calibration and stores to QSPI flash, or reads QSPI flash.

AWR1843 MSS software sends MMWAVE commands and calibration to the RF BIST BSS processor.

AWR1843 RF performs sensor measurement, ADC buffer has Rx data, and HWA converts to 1DFFT

AWR1843 MSS processor performs averaging finds peak magnitude, and formats a message for SPI.

AWR1843 MSS signals host interrupt and the MSP432 reads SPI message.

Host performs the shutdown mmWave sequence.

In meantime, I tried .bin and also .xer4f file of 68xx HWA demo, I dont see it to be working for AWR1843. 

I couldnt load AWR1843 config file to the device in demo visualizer.

when I use .xer4r, I see below message 

[Cortex_R4_0] **********************************************
Debug: Launching the MMW HWA Demo
**********************************************
Debug: Launched the Initialization Task
Debug: UART Instance @080211ec has been opened successfully
Debug: UART Instance @080211f8 has been opened successfully

But when I try sending config to mmwave device, It keeps waiting forever.

Thanks

Mahendra

Hi Mahendra,

As discussed offline you should first attempt to use the code-set as is and see if the power consumption is in an appropriate range.

You should flash the AWR1843BOOST board with the binary for the 64xx, it is located in the SDK 3.2 folder at the following location:

C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_02_00_04\packages\ti\demo\xwr64xx\mmw\xwr64xx_mmw_demo.bin

Then you'll want to use the chirp config for the AWR1843, this one is located at the following location:

C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_02_00_04\packages\ti\demo\xwr18xx\mmw\profiles\profile_2d.cfg

Let me know if you are still having issues.

Cheers,

Akash

Hi Akash

I still get same error when I try loading same .xer4f or .bin file

[Cortex_R4_0] **********************************************
Debug: Launching the MMW HWA Demo
**********************************************
Debug: Launched the Initialization Task
Debug: UART Instance @080211ec has been opened successfully
Debug: UART Instance @080211f8 has been opened successfully

Thanks

Mahendra

Hi Akash

Sorry forgot to response back on thread. We could resolve this issue.

Thanks

Mahendra