[time-nuts] frequency generation algorithm.

Hal Murray hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Tue Jun 28 16:32:24 EDT 2016


dan at irtelemetrics.com said:
> I'm looking for a quick and dirty algorithm or method to generate a  pulse
> train at arbitrary frequencies based on a fixed clock source. This will be
> run as code in a timer ISR in a microcontroller, so some  

Google for DDS.

The hardware implementation is simple.  Consider a register, as wide as you 
like.  Think of that register as a fraction.  An overflow would be a whole 
integer 1.

Each cycle, you add a number to that register.  The output signal is the top 
bit.

If your register is N bits wide and you add K each cycle:
  Fout = Fin * K/2^N
  K = 2^N * Fout / Fin

The output signal will have spurs.  (unless there is only 1 bit turned on in K)

The output frequency will be rock solid, but it may not be the one you want.  You can get closer by making the N bigger (register wider) and filling in more low order bits of K.


If you have a graphics background, it's the same math as Bresenham's algorithm for drawing slanted lines.


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