Summary

The article examines a design approach for feedback controllers that deliberately introduces low-latency "irrational" characteristics in DSP/FPGA firmware to emulate physical components such as transmission lines. It explains why DSPs and FPGAs can behave unpredictably in such designs and how to structure controllers and firmware to achieve stable, physical-model-like behavior.

Key Takeaways

• Apply low-latency "irrational" controller structures to emulate physical components (e.g., transmission lines) in firmware.
• Design and implement fractional-delay and all-pass-like digital filters that produce the required phase/latency behavior.
• Evaluate and budget FPGA/DSP latency, jitter, and timing closure to preserve controller behavior in hardware.
• Mitigate fixed-point, quantization, and aliasing effects that destabilize low-latency feedback implementations.

Who Should Read This

Embedded and firmware engineers, DSP designers, and control systems engineers who implement low-latency feedback controllers on DSPs or FPGAs and need to emulate physical components in hardware.

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