Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] FIFO resources

[Eric Blossom]

On Wed, Sep 08, 2004 at 04:39:59PM +0530, Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan wrote:
> Are there any good online references on FIFOs, their theory of
> operation (like estimating the size needed based on speed of the
> asynchronous devices etc etc)  and interfacing with ADCs?
> 
> Thanks
> -- 
>   Ramakrishnan
> 

I don't know of any online references, however, the basic idea is very
simple: they are a buffer between two (possibly asynchronous) domains.

There's a write end and a read end to the fifo.  The two ends of the
fifo can either be driven by the same clock or driven by different
clocks.

The write end usually has the following control signals: clock, write,
data and these status signals: i'm full, etc.

Likewise the read end has: clock, read, the output data and empty, etc.

How big of a fifo you need depends on your application.  In the case
of interfacing to ADC's, the issue is generally one of hiding the
jitter and burstiness of some bus interface.

You might check the cypress web site.  They make a bunch of fifo
chips, and probably have app notes.

Eric