Can application code run during radio usage?

RE: Can application code run during radio usage?

bjorn-spockeli — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 09:04:51 GMT

@abc: The proprietary protocols does not use a SoftDevice, but uses the RADIO peripheral directly. THus the processor availability will be determined on how much time that is spent in the RADIO ISR. Of course we have implemented the protocol so that has the lowest current consumption as possible.

RE: Can application code run during radio usage?

abc — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 17:30:03 GMT

Okay, thanks. Does the same apply for proprietary ESB/Gazell? From what I understand, SoftDevice is specific to BLE.

RE: Can application code run during radio usage?

Mahesh Venkitachalam — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 07:56:47 GMT

You may also find the following SDK function useful ble_radio_notification_init - allows you to do tasks when radio is not active.

RE: Can application code run during radio usage?

RK — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 04:11:58 GMT

Go to the softdevice specs for the softdevice you're using. You'll find a section there which is called something like "Interrupt Model and Processor Availability". In there is a sub-section which shows the processor usage for various types of use case (broadcaster, connected etc). That tells you when the processor is needed during each cycle of the bluetooth protocol.

It used to be, way back in the early S110 days, the processor was either tied up or forced not to run throughout fairly large pieces of the transmission/reception window. That was changed with the later versions of nRF51 silicon and is definitely not an issue with the nRF52 series. The softdevice makes the most use of DMA etc as possible to keep the processor free as much as it can.