Introduction

The MATLAB code used in the example is sigmoid function, which is used for threshold detection and decision making problems. For example neural networks use sigmoid functions with appropriate thresholds to 'train' systems for learning patterns.

MATLAB Design

design_name = 'mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid';
testbench_name = 'mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid_tb';

Lets look at the Sqrt Design

dbtype(design_name)

1     function y = mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid( x )
2     %
3     
4     %   Copyright 2014-2015 The MathWorks, Inc.
5     
6         y = 1./(1+exp(-x));
7     end

Simulate the Design

It is always a good practice to simulate the design with the testbench prior to code generation to make sure there are no runtime errors.

mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid_tb

We can use coder.approximate to generate a lookup-table based replacement function for 'mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid'

Create a New Folder and Copy Relevant Files

Execute the following lines of code to copy the necessary example files into a temporary folder.

mlhdlc_demo_dir = fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', 'hdlcoder', 'hdlcoderdemos', 'matlabhdlcoderdemos');
mlhdlc_temp_dir = [tempdir 'mlhdlc_fixpt_approximate'];

% create a temporary folder and copy the MATLAB files
cd(tempdir);
[~, ~, ~] = rmdir(mlhdlc_temp_dir, 's');
mkdir(mlhdlc_temp_dir);
cd(mlhdlc_temp_dir);

copyfile(fullfile(mlhdlc_demo_dir, [design_name,'.m*']), mlhdlc_temp_dir);
copyfile(fullfile(mlhdlc_demo_dir, [design_name,'_design.m*']), mlhdlc_temp_dir);
copyfile(fullfile(mlhdlc_demo_dir, [testbench_name,'.m*']), mlhdlc_temp_dir);

Generate fixed-point lookup-table replacements

repCfg = coder.approximation('Function','mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid','CandidateFunction',@mlhdlc_approximate_sigmoid,...
                          'NumberOfPoints',50,'InputRange',[-10,10],'FunctionNamePrefix','repsig_');
coder.approximate(repCfg);

First the fixed-point conversion completes with appropriate function replacements, and following console message,

### Generating approximation for 'sigmoid' : repsiglookuptable.m
### Generating testbench for 'sigmoid' : repsiglookuptable_tb.m
### LookupTable replacement for function 'sigmoid' used 50 data points

This should generate the MATLAB files 'repsig_lookuptable_tb', and 'repsig_lookuptable' containing the testbench and design respectively.

Test the replacement functions

To visually see the degree of match between lookup-table based replacement function and the original function use the testbench,

repsig_lookuptable_tb();

Clean up the Generated Files

You can run the following commands to clean up the temporary project folder.

mlhdlc_demo_dir = fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', 'hdlcoder', 'hdlcoderdemos', 'matlabhdlcoderdemos');
mlhdlc_temp_dir = [tempdir 'mlhdlc_fixpt_approximate'];
clear mex;
cd (mlhdlc_demo_dir);
rmdir(mlhdlc_temp_dir, 's');