## Implementing FIR filters with the ASN Filter Designer and the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework

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Finite impulse response (FIR) filters are useful for a variety of sensor signal processing applications, including audio and biomedical signal processing. Although several practical implementations for the FIR exist, the Direct Form Transposed structure offers the best numerical accuracy for floating point implementation. However, when considering fixed point implementation on a micro-controller, the Direct Form structure is considered to be the best choice by virtue of its large accumulator that accommodates any intermediate overflows.

This application note specifically addresses FIR filter design and implementation on a Cortex-M based microcontroller with the ASN Filter Designer for both floating point and fixed point applications via the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework. Details are also given (including an Arm reference software pack) regarding implementation of the FIR filter in Arm/Keil’s MDK industry standard Cortex-M micro-controller development kit.

## Introduction

ASN Filter Designer provides engineers with a powerful DSP experimentation platform, allowing for the design, experimentation and deployment of complex FIR digital filter designs for a variety of sensor measurement applications. The tool’s advanced functionality, includes a graphical based real-time filter designer, multiple filter blocks, various mathematical I/O blocks, live symbolic math scripting and real-time signal analysis (via a built-in signal analyser). These advantages coupled with automatic documentation and code generation functionality allow engineers to design and validate a digital filter within minutes rather than hours.

The Arm CMSIS-DSP (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard) software framework is a rich collection of over sixty DSP functions (including various mathematical functions, such as sine and cosine; IIR/FIR filtering functions, complex math functions, and data types) developed by Arm that have been optimised for their range of Cortex-M processor cores.

The framework makes extensive use of highly optimised SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) instructions, that perform multiple identical operations in a single cycle instruction. The SIMD instructions (if supported by the core) coupled together with other optimisations allow engineers to produce highly optimised signal processing applications for Cortex-M based micro-controllers quickly and simply.

ASN Filter Designer fully supports the CMSIS-DSP software framework, by automatically producing optimised C code based on the framework’s DSP functions via its code generation engine.

## Designing FIR filters with the ASN Filter Designer

ASN Filter Designer provides engineers with an easy to use, intuitive graphical design development platform for FIR digital filter design. The tool’s real-time design paradigm makes use of graphical design markers, allowing designers to simply draw and modify their magnitude frequency response requirements in real-time while allowing the tool automatically fill in the exact specifications for them.

Consider the design of the following technical specification:

Graphically entering the specifications into the ASN Filter Designer, and fine tuning the design marker positions, the tool automatically designs the filter), automatically choosing the required filter order, and in essence – automatically producing the filter’s exact technical specification!

The frequency response of a filter meeting the specification is shown below:

This Lowpass filter will form the basis of the discussion presented herein.

### Parks–McClellan algorithm

The Parks–McClellan algorithm is an iterative algorithm for finding the optimal Chebyshev FIR filter. The algorithm uses an indirect method for finding the optimal filter coefficients, that offers a degree of flexibility over other FIR design methods, in that each band may be individually customised in order to suit the designer’s requirements.

The primary FIR filter designer UI implements the Parks-McClellan algorithm, allowing for the design of the following filter types:

These ten filter types provide designers with a great deal of flexibility for a variety of IoT applications. Design requirements may be simply specified via the use of the design markers. In all cases, the tool will automatically calculate the required filter order to meet the designer’s specification.

The Parks-McClellan algorithm is an optimal Chebyshev FIR design method. However, the algorithm may not converge for some specifications. In such cases, increasing the distance between the design marker bands generally helps.

### Other FIR design methods

Designers looking to experiment with other types of FIR design methods may use the ASN FilterScript live symbolic math scripting language. The scripting language supports over 65 scientific commands and provides designers with a familiar and powerful programming language, while at the same time allowing them to implement complex symbolic mathematical expressions. The following functions are supported:

Please refer to the ASN FilterScript reference guide for more details.

All filters designed in ASN FilterScript are designed using double precision arithmetic in the H2 filter sandbox. An H2 filter must be transformed to an H1 (primary) filter for deployment.

This may be simply achieved via the P-Z options menu:

The re-optimise method automatically analyses and converts the H2 filter into an H1 filter.

## Floating point implementation

When implementing a filter in floating point (i.e. using double or single precision arithmetic) the Direct Form Transposed structure is considered the most numerically accurate. This can be readily seen by analysing the difference equations below (used for implementation), as the undesirable effects of numerical swamping are minimised, since floating point addition is performed on numbers of similar magnitude.

$$\displaystyle \begin{eqnarray}y(n) & = &b_0x(n) &+& w_1(n-1) \\ w_1(n)&=&b_1x(n) &+& w_2(n-1) \\ w_2(n)&=&b_2x(n) &+& w_3(n-1) \\ \vdots\quad &=& \quad\vdots &+&\quad\vdots \\ w_q(n)&=&b_qx(n) \end{eqnarray}$$

$$\displaystyle \begin{eqnarray}y(n) & = &b_0x(n) &+& w_1(n-1) \\ w_1(n)&=&b_1x(n) &+& w_2(n-1) \\ w_2(n)&=&b_2x(n) &+& w_3(n-1) \\ \vdots\quad &=& \quad\vdots &+&\quad\vdots \\ w_q(n)&=&b_qx(n) \end{eqnarray}$$

The quantisation and filter structure settings used to implement the FIR can be found under the Q tab (as shown below). Setting Arithmetic to Single Precision and Structure to Direct Form Transposed and clicking on the Apply button configures the FIR considered herein for the CMSIS-DSP software framework.

The optimised functions within the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework currently support Single Precision arithmetic only.

Support for Double Precision will be added in future releases.

## Fixed point implementation

When implementing a filter with fixed point arithmetic, the Direct Form structure is considered to be the best choice by virtue of its large accumulator that accommodates any intermediate overflows. The Direct Form structure and associated difference equation are shown below.

$$\displaystyle y(n) = b_0x(n) + b_1x(n-1) + b_2x(n-2) + …. +b_qx(n-q)$$

The CMSIS-DSP Framework supports Q7, Q15 and Q31 coefficient quantisation only. The options may be simply specified via the quantisation tab Q as shown below:

The tool’s inbuilt analytics (shown in the textbox) are intended to help the designer choose the most suitable quantisation settings.

As seen on the left, the tool has recommended a RFWL (recommended fraction length) of 15bits (Q15) for the coefficients, which is as required.

The Direct form structure is chosen over the Direct Form Transposed as a single (40-bit) accumulator can be used. The tool’s automatic code generator makes use of CMSIS-DSP’s 64-bit accumulators functions, so that the final C code deployed to a Cortex-M device will not overflow.

## Deploying Arm CMSIS-DSP compliant code

The ASN Filter Designer’s automatic code generation engine facilitates the export of a designed filter to Cortex-M Arm based processors via the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework. The tool’s built-in analytics and help functions assist the designer in successfully configuring the design for deployment.

Select the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework from the selection box in the filter summary window:

The automatically generated C code based on the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework for direct implementation on an Arm based Cortex-M processor is shown below:

This code may be directly used in any Cortex-M based development project.

### Arm Keil’s MDK (uVision)

As mentioned above, the code generated by the Arm CMSIS DSP code generator may be directly used in any Cortex-M based development project tooling, such as Arm Keil’s industry standard uVision MDK (micro-controller development kit).

The following Arm software pack is available on Keil’s website for using this code directly with Keil uVision MDK.

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## A-weighting equalisation: Designing and deploying to Arm Cortex-M devices

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Modern embedded processors, software frameworks and design tooling now allow engineers to apply advanced measurement concepts to smart factories as part of the I4.0 revolution.

In recent years, PM (predictive maintenance) of machines has received great attention, as factories look to maximise their production efficiency while at the same time retaining the invaluable skills of experienced foremen and production workers.

Traditionally, a foreman would walk around the shop floor and listen to the sounds a machine would make to get an idea of impending failure. With the advent of I4.0 technology, microphones, edge DSP algorithms and ML may now be employed in order to ‘listen’ to the sounds a machine makes and then make a classification and prediction.

One of the major challenges is how to make a computer hear like a human.

## Physics of the human ear

An illustration of the human ear shown on the right. As seen, the basic task of the ear is to translate sound (air vibration) into electrical nerve impulses for the brain to interpret.

An illustration of the human ear shown on the right. As seen, the basic task of the ear is to translate sound (air vibration) into electrical nerve impulses for the brain to interpret.

## How does it work?

The ear achieves this via three bones (Stapes, Incus and Malleus) that act as a mechanical amplifier for vibrations received at the eardrum. These amplified sounds are then passed onto the Cochlea via the Oval window (not shown). The Cochlea (shown in purple) is filled with a fluid that moves in response to the vibrations from the oval window. As the fluid moves, thousands of nerve endings are set into motion. These nerve endings transform sound vibrations into electrical impulses that travel along the auditory nerve fibres to the brain for analysis.

## Modelling perceived sound

Due to complexity of the fluidic mechanical construction of the human auditory system, low and high frequencies are typically not discernible. Researchers over the years have found that humans are most perceptive to sounds in the 1-6kHz range, although this range varies according to the subject’s physical health.

This research led to the definition of a set of weighting curves: the so-called A, B, C and D weighting curves, which equalises a microphone’s frequency response. These weighting curves aim to bring the digital and physical worlds closer together by allowing a computerised microphone-based system to hear like a human.

The A-weighing curve is the most widely used as it is mandated by IEC-61672 to be fitted to all sound level meters. The B and D curves are hardly ever used, but C-weighting may be used for testing the impact of noise in telecoms systems.

The frequency response of the A-weighting curve is shown above, where it can be seen that sounds entering our ears are de-emphasised below 500Hz and are most perceptible between 0.5-6kHz. Notice that the curve is unspecified above 20kHz, as this exceeds the human hearing range.

## ASN FilterScript

ASN’s FilterScript symbolic math scripting language offers designers the ability to take an analog filter transfer function and transform it to its digital equivalent with just a few lines of code.

The analog transfer functions of the A and C-weighting curves are given below:

$$H_A(s) \approx \displaystyle{7.39705×10^9 \cdot s^4 \over (s + 129.4)^2\quad(s + 676.7)\quad (s + 4636)\quad (s + 76655)^2}$$

$$H_C(s) \approx \displaystyle{5.91797×10^9 \cdot s^2\over(s + 129.4)^2\quad (s + 76655)^2}$$

These analog transfer functions may be transformed into their digital equivalents via the bilinear() function. However, notice that $$H_A(s)$$ requires a significant amount of algebracic manipulation in order to extract the denominator cofficients in powers of $$s$$.

### Convolution

A simple trick to perform polynomial multiplication is to use linear convolution, which is the same algebraic operation as multiplying two polynomials together. This may be easily performed via Filterscript’s conv() function, as follows:

y=conv(a,b);


As a simple example, the multiplication of $$(s^2+2s+10)$$ with $$(s+5)$$, would be defined as the following three lines of FilterScript code:

a={1,2,10};
b={1,5};
y=conv(a,b);


which yields, 1 7 20 50  or $$(s^3+7s^2+20s+50)$$

For the A-weighting curve Laplace transfer function, the complete FilterScript code is given below:

ClearH1;  // clear primary filter from cascade

Main() // main loop

a={1, 129.4};
b={1, 676.7};
c={1, 4636};
d={1, 76655};

aa=conv(a,a); // polynomial multiplication
dd=conv(d,d);

aab=conv(aa,b);
aabc=conv(aab,c);

Na=conv(aabc,dd);
Nb = {0 ,0 , 1 ,0 ,0 , 0, 0}; // define numerator coefficients
G = 7.397e+09; // define gain

Ha = analogtf(Nb, Na, G, "symbolic");
Hd = bilinear(Ha,0, "symbolic");

Num = getnum(Hd);
Den = getden(Hd);
Gain = getgain(Hd)/computegain(Hd,1e3); // set gain to 0dB@1kHz



Frequency response of analog vs digital A-weighting filter for $$f_s=48kHz$$. As seen, the digital equivalent magnitude response matches the ideal analog magnitude response very closely until $$6kHz$$.

### The ITU-R 486–4 weighting curve

Another weighting curve of interest is the ITU-R 486–4 weighting curve, developed by the BBC. Unlike the A-weighting filter, the ITU-R 468–4 curve describes subjective loudness for broadband stimuli. The main disadvantage of the A-weighting curve is that it underestimates the loudness judgement of real-world stimuli particularly in the frequency band from about 1–9 kHz.

Due to the precise definition of the 486–4 weighting curve, there is no analog transfer function available. Instead the standard provides a table of amplitudes and frequencies – see here. This specification may be directly entered into Filterscript’s firarb() function for designing a suitable FIR filter, as shown below:

ClearH1;  // clear primary filter from cascade
ShowH2DM;

interface L = {10,400,10,250}; // filter order

Main()

// ITU-R 468 Weighting
A={-29.9,-23.9,-19.8,-13.8,-7.8,-1.9,0,5.6,9,10.5,11.7,12.2,12,11.4,10.1,8.1,0,-5.3,-11.7,-22.2};
F={63,100,200,400,800,1e3,2e3,3.15e3,4e3,5e3,6.3e3,7.1e3,8e3,9e3,1e4,1.25e4,1.4e4,1.6e4,2e4};

A={-30,A};  //  specify arb response
F={0,F,fs/2};   //

Hd=firarb(L,A,F,"blackman","numeric");

Num=getnum(Hd);
Den={1};
Gain=getgain(Hd);



Frequency response of an ITU-R 468-4 FIR filter designed with Filterscript’s firarb() function  for $$f_s=48kHz$$

As seen, FilterScript provides the designer with a very powerful symbolic scripting language for designing weighting curve filters. The following discussion now focuses on deployment of the A-weighting filter to an Arm based processor via the tool’s automatic code generator. The concepts and steps demonstrated below are equally valid for FIR filters.

### Automatic code generation to Arm processor cores via CMSIS-DSP

The ASN Filter Designer’s automatic code generation engine facilitates the export of a designed filter to Cortex-M Arm based processors via the CMSIS-DSP software framework. The tool’s built-in analytics and help functions assist the designer in successfully configuring the design for deployment.

Before generating the code, the H2 filter (i.e. the filter designed in FilterScript) needs to be firstly re-optimised (transformed) to an H1 filter (main filter) structure for deployment. The options menu can be found under the P-Z tab in the main UI.

All floating point IIR filters designs must be based on Single Precision arithmetic and either a Direct Form I or Direct Form II Transposed filter structure. The Direct Form II Transposed structure is advocated for floating point implementation by virtue of its higher numerically accuracy.

Quantisation and filter structure settings can be found under the Q tab (as shown on the left). Setting Arithmetic to Single Precision and Structure to Direct Form II Transposed and clicking on the Apply button configures the IIR considered herein for the CMSIS-DSP software framework.

Select the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework from the selection box in the filter summary window:

The automatically generated C code based on the CMSIS-DSP framework for direct implementation on an Arm based Cortex-M processor is shown below:

As seen, the ASN Filter Designer’s automatic code generator generates all initialisation code, scaling and data structures needed to implement the A-weighting filter IIR filter via Arm’s CMSIS-DSP library.

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## Implementing Biquad IIR filters with the ASN Filter Designer and the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework

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Infinite impulse response (IIR) filters are useful for a variety of sensor measurement applications, including measurement noise removal and unwanted component cancellation, such as powerline interference. Although several practical implementations for the IIR exist, the Direct form II Transposed structure offers the best numerical accuracy for floating point implementation. However, when considering fixed point implementation on a microcontroller, the Direct Form I structure is considered to be the best choice by virtue of its large accumulator that accommodates any intermediate overflows.

This application note specifically addresses IIR biquad filter design and implementation on a Cortex-M based microcontroller with the ASN Filter Designer for both floating point and fixed point applications via the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework. Details are also given (including a reference example project) regarding implementation of the IIR filter in Arm/Keil’s MDK industry standard Cortex-M microcontroller development kit.

## Introduction

ASN Filter Designer provides engineers with a powerful DSP experimentation platform, allowing for the design, experimentation and deployment of complex IIR and FIR (finite impulse response) digital filter designs for a variety of sensor measurement applications. The tool’s advanced functionality, includes a graphical based real-time filter designer, multiple filter blocks, various mathematical I/O blocks, live symbolic math scripting and real-time signal analysis (via a built-in signal analyser). These advantages coupled with automatic documentation and code generation functionality allow engineers to design and validate a digital filter within minutes rather than hours.

The Arm CMSIS-DSP (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard) software framework is a rich collection of over sixty DSP functions (including various mathematical functions, such as sine and cosine; IIR/FIR filtering functions, complex math functions, and data types) developed by Arm that have been optimised for their range of Cortex-M processor cores.

The framework makes extensive use of highly optimised SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) instructions, that perform multiple identical operations in a single cycle instruction. The SIMD instructions (if supported by the core) coupled together with other optimisations allow engineers to produce highly optimised signal processing applications for Cortex-M based micro-controllers quickly and simply.

ASN Filter Designer fully supports the CMSIS-DSP software framework, by automatically producing optimised C code based on the framework’s DSP functions via its code generation engine.

## Designing IIR filters with the ASN Filter Designer

ASN Filter Designer provides engineers with an easy to use, intuitive graphical design development platform for both IIR and FIR digital filter design. The tool’s real-time design paradigm makes use of graphical design markers, allowing designers to simply draw and modify their magnitude frequency response requirements in real-time while allowing the tool automatically fill in the exact specifications for them.

Consider the design of the following technical specification:

Graphically entering the specifications into the ASN Filter Designer, and fine tuning the design marker positions, the tool automatically designs the filter as a Biquad cascade (this terminology will be discussed in the following sections), automatically choosing the required filter order, and in essence – automatically producing the filter’s exact technical specification!

The frequency response of a 5th order IIR Elliptic Lowpass filter meeting the specifications is shown below:

This 5th order Lowpass filter will form the basis of the discussion presented herein.

The IIR filter implementation discussed herein is said to be biquad, since it has two poles and two zeros as illustrated below in Figure 1. The biquad implementation is particularly useful for fixed point implementations, as the effects of quantization and numerical stability are minimised. However, the overall success of any biquad implementation is dependent upon the available number precision, which must be sufficient enough in order to ensure that the quantised poles are always inside the unit circle.

Figure 1: Direct Form I (biquad) IIR filter realization and transfer function.

Analysing Figure 1, it can be seen that the biquad structure is actually comprised of two feedback paths (scaled by $$a_1$$ and $$a_2$$), three feed forward paths (scaled by $$b_0, b_1$$ and $$b_2$$) and a section gain, $$K$$. Thus, the filtering operation of Figure 1 can be summarised by the following simple recursive equation:

$$\displaystyle y(n)=K\times\Big[b_0 x(n) + b_1 x(n-1) + b_2 x(n-2)\Big] – a_1 y(n-1)-a_2 y(n-2)$$

Analysing the equation, notice that the biquad implementation only requires four additions (requiring only one accumulator) and five multiplications, which can be easily accommodated on any Cortex-M microcontroller. The section gain, $$K$$ may also be pre-multiplied with the forward path coefficients before implementation.

The ASN Filter Designer can design and implement a cascade of up to 50 biquads (Professional edition only).

### Floating point implementation

When implementing a filter in floating point (i.e. using double or single precision arithmetic) Direct Form II structures are considered to be a better choice than the Direct Form I structure. The Direct Form II Transposed structure is considered the most numerically accurate for floating point implementation, as the undesirable effects of numerical swamping are minimised as seen by analysing the difference equations.

Figure 2 – Direct Form II Transposed strucutre, transfer function and difference equations

The filter summary (shown in Figure 3) provides the designer with a detailed overview of the designed filter, including a detailed summary of the technical specifications and the filter coefficients, which presents a quick and simple route to documenting your design.

The ASN Filter Designer supports the design and implementation of both single section and Biquad (default setting) IIR filters. However, as the CMSIS-DSP framework does not directly support single section IIR filters, this feature will not be covered in this application note.

The CMSIS-DSP software framework implementation requires sign inversion (i.e. flipping the sign) of the feedback coefficients. In order to accommodate this, the tool’s automatic code generation engine automatically flips the sign of the feedback coefficients as required. In this case, the set of difference equations become,

$$y(n)=b_0 x(n)+w_1 (n-1)$$
$$w_1 (n)= b_1 x(n)+a_1 y(n)+w_2 (n-1)$$
$$w_2 (n)= b_2 x(n)+a_2 y(n)$$

Figure 3: ASN filter designer: filter summary.

### Automatic code generation to Arm processor cores via CMSIS-DSP

The ASN Filter Designer’s automatic code generation engine facilitates the export of a designed filter to Cortex-M Arm based processors via the CMSIS-DSP software framework. The tool’s built-in analytics and help functions assist the designer in successfully configuring the design for deployment.

All floating point IIR filters designs must be based on Single Precision arithmetic and either a Direct Form I or Direct Form II Transposed filter structure. As discussed in the previous section, the Direct Form II Transposed structure is advocated for floating point implementation by virtue of its higher numerically accuracy.

Quantisation and filter structure settings can be found under the Q tab (as shown on the left). Setting Arithmetic to Single Precision and Structure to Direct Form II Transposed and clicking on the Apply button configures the IIR considered herein for the CMSIS-DSP software framework.

Select the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework from the selection box in the filter summary window:

The automatically generated C code based on the CMSIS-DSP framework for direct implementation on an Arm based Cortex-M processor is shown below:

As seen, the automatic code generator generates all initialisation code, scaling and data structures needed to implement the IIR via the CMSIS-DSP library. This code may be directly used in any Cortex-M based development project – a complete Keil MDK example is available on Arm/Keil’s website. Notice that the tool’s code generator produces code for the Cortex-M4 core as default, please refer to the table below for the #define definition required for all supported cores.

Automatic code generation of complex coefficient IIR filters is currently not supported.

### Implementing the filter in Arm Keil’s MDK

As mentioned in the previous section, the code generated by the Arm CMSIS-DSP code generator may be directly used in any Cortex-M based development project tooling, such as Arm Keil’s industry standard μVision MDK (microcontroller development kit).

A complete μVision example IIR biquad filter project can be downloaded from Keil’s website, and as seen below is as simple as copying and pasting the code and making minor adjustments to the code.

The example project makes use of μVision’s powerful simulation capabilities, allowing for the evaluation of the IIR filter on M0, M3, M4 and M7 cores respectively. As an added bonus, μVision’s logic analyser may also be used, allowing for comparisons between the ASN Filter Designer’s signal analyser and the reality on a Cortex-M core.

## Fixed point implementation

As aforementioned, the Direct Form I filter structure is the best choice for fixed point implementation. However, before implementing the difference equation on a fixed point processor, several important data scaling considerations must be taken into account. As the CMSIS-DSP framework only supports Q15 and Q31 data types for IIR filters, the following discussion relates to an implementation on a 16-bit word architecture, i.e. Q15.

### Quantisation

In order to correctly represent the coefficients and input/output numbers, the system word length (16-bit for the purposes of this application note) is first split up into its number of integers and fractional components. The general format is given by:

Q Num of Integers.Fraction length

If we assume that all of data values lie within a maximum/minimum range of $$\pm 1$$, we can use Q0.15 format to represent all of the numbers respectively. Notice that Q0.15 (or simply Q15) format represents a maximum of $$\displaystyle 1-2^{-15}=0.9999=0x7FFF$$ and a minimum of $$-1=0x8000$$ (two’s complement format).

The ASN Filter Designer may be configured for Fixed Point Q15 arithmetic by setting the Word length and Fractional length specifications in the Q Tab (see the configuration section for the details). However, one obvious problem that manifests itself for Biquads is the number range of the coefficients. As poles can be placed anywhere inside the unit circle, the resulting polynomial needed for implementation will often be in the range $$\pm 2$$, which would require Q14 arithmetic. In order to overcome this issue, all numerator and denominator coefficients are scaled via a biquad Post Scaling Factor as discussed below.

### Post Scaling Factor

In order to ensure that coefficients fit within the Word length and Fractional length specifications, all IIR filters include a Post Scaling Factor, which scales the numerator and denominator coefficients accordingly. As a consequence of this scaling, the Post Scaling Factor must be included within the filter structure in order to ensure correct operation.

The Post scaling concept is illustrated below for a Direct Form I biquad implementation.

Figure 4: Direct Form I structure with post scaling.

Pre-multiplying the numerator coefficients with the section gain, $$K$$, each coefficient can now be scaled by $$G$$, i.e. $$\displaystyle b_0=\frac{b_0}{G}, b_1=\frac{b_1}{G}, a_1=\frac{a_1}{G}, a_2=\frac{a_2}{G}$$ and etc. This now results in the following difference equation:

$$\displaystyle y(n)=G \times\Big [b_0 x(n) + b_1 x(n-1) + b_2 x(n-2) – a_1 y(n-1)-a_2 y(n-2)\Big]$$

All IIR structures implemented within the tool include the Post Scaling Factor concept. This scaling is mandatory for implementation via the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework – see the configuration section for more details.

### Understanding the filter summary

In order to fully understand the information presented in the ASN Filter Designer filter summary, the following example illustrates the filter coefficients obtained with Double Precision arithmetic and with Fixed Point Q15 quantisation.

Applying Fixed Point Q15 arithmetic (note the effects of quantisation on the coefficient values):

### Configuring the ASN Filter Designer for Fixed Point arithmetic

In order to implement an IIR fixed point filter via the CMSIS-DSP framework, all designs must be based on Fixed Point arithmetic (either Q15 or Q31) and the Direct Form I filter structure.

Quantisation and filter structure settings can be found under the Q tab (as shown on the left): Setting Arithmetic to Fixed Point and Structure to Direct Form I and clicking on the Apply button configures the IIR considered herein for the CMSIS-DSP software framework.

The Post Scaling Factor is actually implemented in the CMSIS-DSP software framework as $$\log_2 G$$ (i.e. a shift left scaling operation as depicted in Figure 4).

Built in analytics: the tool will automatically analyse the cascade’s filter coefficients and choose an appropriate scaling factor. As seen above, as the largest minimum value is -1.63143, thus, a Post Scaling Factor of 2 is required in order to ‘fit’ all of the coefficients into Q15 arithmetic.

### Comparing spectra obtained by different arithmetic rules

In order to improve clarity and overall computation speed, the ASN Filter Designer only displays spectra (i.e. magnitude, phase etc.) based on the current arithmetic rules. This is somewhat different to other tools that display multi-spectra obtained by (for example) Fixed Point and Double Precision arithmetic. For any users wishing to compare spectra you may simply switch between arithmetic settings by changing the Arithmetic method. The designer will then automatically re-compute the filter coefficients using the selected arithmetic rules and the current technical specification. The chart will then be updated using the current zoom settings.

### Automatic code generation to the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework

As with floating point arithmetic, select the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework from the selection box in the filter summary window:

The automatically generated C code based on the CMSIS-DSP framework for direct implementation on an Arm based Cortex-M processor is shown below:

As with the floating point filter, the automatic code generator generates all initialisation code, scaling and data structures needed to implement the IIR via the CMSIS-DSP library. This code may be directly used in any Cortex-M based development project – a complete Keil MDK example is available on Arm/Keil’s website. Notice that the tool’s code generator produces code for the Cortex-M4 core as default, please refer to the table below for the #define definition required for all supported cores.

The main test loop code (not shown) centres around the arm_biquad_cascade_df2T_f32() function, which performs the filtering operation on a block of input data.

Complex coefficient IIR filters are currently not supported.

## Validating the design with the signal analyser

A design may be validated with the signal analyser, where both time and frequency domain plots are supported. A comprehensive signal generator is fully integrated into the signal analyser allowing designers to test their filters with a variety of input signals, such as sine waves, white noise or even external test data.

For Fixed Point implementations, the tool allows designers to specify the Overflow arithmetic rules as: Saturate or Wrap. Also, the Accumulator Word Length may be set between 16-40 bits allowing designers to quickly find the optimum settings to suit their application.

## Extra resources

1. Digital signal processing: principles, algorithms and applications, J.Proakis and D.Manoloakis
2. Digital signal processing: a practical approach, E.Ifeachor and B.Jervis.
3. Digital filters and signal processing, L.Jackson.
4. Step by step video tutorial of designing an IIR and deploying it to Keil MDK uVision.
5. Implementing Biquad IIR filters with the ASN Filter Designer and the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework (ASN-AN025)
6. Keil MDK uVision example IIR filter project
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## Deploying legacy analog filters to Arm Cortex-M processor cores

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In recent years, major microcontroller IC vendors such as: ST, NXP, TI, ADI, Atmel/Microchip, Cypress, Maxim to name but a few have based their modern 32-bit microcontrollers on Arm’s Cortex-M processor cores. This exciting trend means that algorithms traditionally undertaken in expensive DSPs (digital signal processors) can now be integrated into a powerful low-cost and power efficient microcontroller packed full of a rich assortment of connectivity and peripheral options.

For many IC vendors, the coupling of DSP functionality with the flexibility of a low power microcontroller, has allowed them to offer their customers a generation of so called 32-bit enhanced microcontrollers suitable for a variety of practical applications. More importantly, this marriage of technologies has also allowed designers working on price critical IoT applications to implement complex algorithmic concepts, while at the same time keeping the overall product cost low and still achieving excellent low power performance.

## Upgrading legacy analog filters with the ASN Filter Designer

Analog filters have been around since the beginning of electronics, ranging from simple inductor-capacitor networks to more advanced active filters with op-amps. As such, there is a rich collection of tried and tested legacy filter designs for a broad range of sensor measurement applications.

ASN’s FilterScript symbolic math scripting language offers designers the ability to take an existing analog filter transfer function and transform it to digital with just a few lines of code. The ASN Filter Designer’s Arm automatic code generator analyses the designed digital filter and then automatically generates Arm CMSIS-DSP compliant C code suitable for direct implementation a Cortex-M based microcontroller.

### Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework

The Arm CMSIS-DSP (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard)  software framework is a rich collection of over sixty DSP functions (including various mathematical functions, such as sine and cosine; IIR/FIR filtering functions, complex math functions, and data types) developed by Arm that have been optimised for their range of Cortex-M processor cores. The framework makes extensive use of highly optimised SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) instructions, that perform multiple identical operations in a single cycle instruction. The SIMD instructions (if supported by the core) coupled together with other optimisations allow engineers to produce highly optimised signal processing applications for Cortex-M based micro-controllers quickly and simply.

## Mathematically modelling an analog circuit

Consider the active pre-emphasis filter shown below. The pre-emphasis filter has found particular use in audio work, since it is necessary to amplify the higher frequencies of the speech spectrum, whilst leaving the lower frequencies unaffected. The R and C values shown are only indented for the example, more practical values will depend on the application.A powerful method of reproducing the magnitude and phases characteristics of the analog filter in a digital implementation, is to mathematically model the circuit. This circuit may be analysed using Kirchhoff’s law, since the sum of currents into the op-amp’s inverting input must be equal to zero for negative feedback to work correctly – this results in a transfer function with a negative gain.

Therefore, using Ohm’s law, i.e. $$I=\frac{V}{R}$$,

$$\displaystyle\frac{X(s)}{R_3}=-\frac{U(s)}{C_1||R_2 + R_1}$$

After some algebraic manipulation, it can be seen that an expression for the circuit’s closed loop gain may be expressed as,

$$\displaystyle\frac{X(s)}{U(s)}=-\frac{R_3}{R_1}\frac{\left(s+\frac{1}{R_2C_1}\right)}{\left(s+\frac{R_1+R_2}{R_1R_2C_1}\right)}$$

substituting the values shown in the circuit diagram into the developed transfer function, yields

$$\displaystyle H(s)=-10\left(\frac{s+1000}{s+11000}\right)$$

### What sampling rate do we need?

Analysing the cut-off frequencies in $$H(s)$$, we see that the upper frequency is at $$11000 rad/sec$$ or $$1.75kHz$$. Therefore, setting the sampling rate to $$16kHz$$ should be adequate for modelling the filter in the digital domain.

The sampling rate options are avaliabe in the main filter design UI  (shown on the left).

### ASN FilterScript

$$H(s)$$ can be easily specified in FilterScript with the analogtf function, as follows:

Nb={1,1000};
Na={1,11000};

Ha=analogtf(Nb,Na,-10,"symbolic");


Notice how the negative gain may also be entered directly into function’s argument. The symbolic keyword generates a symbolic transfer function representation in the command window.

Applying the Bilinear z-transformation via the bilinear command with no pre-warping, i.e.

Hd=bilinear(Ha,0,"symbolic");

Notice how the bilinear command automatically scales numerator coefficients by -1, in order to account for the effect of the negative gain. The complete code is shown below:

Main()

Nb={1,1000};
Na={1,11000};

Ha=analogtf(Nb,Na,-10,"symbolic");
Hd=bilinear(Ha,0,"symbolic");

Num=getnum(Hd);
Den=getden(Hd);
Gain=getgain(Hd);


A comparison of the analog and discrete magnitude and phase spectra is shown below. Analysing the spectra, it can be seen that for a sampling rate of 16kHz the analog and digital filters are almost identical! This demonstrates the relative ease with which a designer can port their existing legacy analog designs into digital.

## Automatic code generation to Arm Cortex-M processors

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the ASN filter designer’s automatic code generation engine facilitates the export of a designed filter to Cortex-M Arm based processor cores via the CMSIS-DSP software framework. The tool’s built-in analytics and help functions assist the designer in successfully configuring the design for deployment.

Before generating the code, the H2 filter (i.e. the filter designed in FilterScript) needs to be firstly re-optimised (transformed) to an H1 filter (main filter) structure for deployment. The options menu can be found under the P-Z tab in the main UI.

All floating point IIR filters designs must be based on Single Precision arithmetic and either a Direct Form I or Direct Form II Transposed filter structure. The Direct Form II Transposed structure is advocated for floating point implementation by virtue of its higher numerically accuracy.

Quantisation and filter structure settings can be found under the Q tab (as shown on the left). Setting Arithmetic to Single Precision and Structure to Direct Form II Transposed and clicking on the Apply button configures the IIR considered herein for the CMSIS-DSP software framework.

### Arm CMSIS-DSP application C code

Select the Arm CMSIS-DSP framework from the selection box in the filter summary window:

The automatically generated C code based on the CMSIS-DSP framework for direct implementation on an Arm based Cortex-M processor is shown below:

As seen, the automatic code generator generates all initialisation code, scaling and data structures needed to implement the IIR via the CMSIS-DSP library. This code may be directly used in any Cortex-M based development project – a complete Keil MDK example is available on Arm/Keil’s website. Notice that the tool’s code generator produces code for the Cortex-M4 core as default, please refer to the table below for the #define definition required for all supported cores.

The main test loop code (not shown) centres around the arm_biquad_cascade_df2T_f32() function, which performs the filtering operation on a block of input data.

## What have we learned?

The ASN Filter Designer provides engineers with everything they need in order to port legacy analog filter designs to a variety of Cortex-M processor cores.

The FilterScript symbolic math scripting language offers designers the ability to take an existing analog filter transfer function and transform it to digital (via the Bilinear z-transform or matched z-transform) with just a few lines of code.

The Arm automatic code generator analyses the designed digital filter and then automatically generates Arm CMSIS-DSP compliant C code suitable for direct implementation on a Cortex-M based microcontroller.

### Extra resources

1. Step by step video tutorial of designing an IIR and deploying it to Keil MDK uVision.
2. Implementing Biquad IIR filters with the ASN Filter Designer and the Arm CMSIS-DSP software framework (ASN-AN025)
3. Keil MDK uVision example IIR filter project
4. Step by step instruction video of this tutorial Arm Webinar (requires registration)
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