Sequencer

This section will explain how the sequencers are controlled. Every sequencer is controlled using the same functions and parameters, which either take the sequencer index as a parameter or indicate which sequencer they operate on based on the index in their name.

Overview

The sequencers are split into the sequence processor, AWG and acquisition paths as shown in the figures below. Each sequence processor controls one AWG path and, in case of the Pulsar QRM, one acquisition path. The AWG path and acquisition path are discussed in more detail in section Pulsar. Each sequencer processor is, in turn, split into a classical and real-time pipeline. The classical pipeline is responsible for any classical instructions related to program flow or arithmetic and the real-time pipeline is responsible for real-time instructions that are used to create the experiment timeline.

Pulsar QCM sequencer with AWG path.

Pulsar QCM sequencer with AWG path.

Pulsar QRM sequencer.

Pulsar QRM sequencer with AWG and acquisition paths.

The sequencers are started and stopped by calling the arm_sequencer(), start_sequencer() and stop_sequencer() functions. Once started they will execute the sequence described in the next section.

Sequence

The sequencers are programmed with a sequence using the sequencer#_waveforms_and_program() function parameter. This parameter expects a sequence in the form of a JSON compatible file that contains the waveforms and a program. The JSON file is expected to adhere to the following format:

  • program: Single string containing the entire sequence processor Q1ASM program.

  • awg: Indicates that the following waveforms are intended for the AWG path.

    • waveform name: Replace by string containing the waveform name.

      • data: List of floating point values to express the waveform.

      • index: Integer index used by the Q1ASM program to refer to the waveform.

  • acq: Indicates that the following waveforms are intended for the integration unit of the acquisition path (only used by the Pulsar QRM).

    • waveform name: Replace by string containing the waveform name.

      • data: List of floating point values to express the waveform.

      • index: Integer index used by the Q1ASM program to refer to the waveform.

Program

The sequence programs are written in the custom Q1ASM assembly language described in the following sections. All sequence processor instructions are executed by the classical pipeline and the real-time instructions are also executed by the real-time pipeline. These latter instructions are intended to control the AWG and acquisition paths in a real-time fashion. Once processed by the classical pipeline they are queued in the real-time pipeline awaiting further execution. A total of 32 instructions can be queued and once the queue is full, the classical part will stall on any further real-time instructions.

Once execution of the real-time instructions by the real-time pipeline is started, care must be taken to not cause an underrun of the queue. An underrun will potentially cause undetermined real-time behaviour and desynchronize any synchronized sequencers. Therefore, when this is detected, the sequencer is completely stopped. A likely cause of underruns is a loop with a very short (i.e. < 24ns) real-time run-time, since the jump of a loop takes some cycles to be execute by the classical pipeline.

Finally, be aware that moving data into a register using an instruction takes a cycle to complete. This means that when an instruction reads from a register that the previous instruction has written to, a nop instruction must to be placed in between these consecutively instructions for the value to be correctly read.

The state of the sequencers, including any errors, can be queried through get_sequencer_state().

Instructions

Instructions

Argument 0

Argument 1

Argument 2

Description

Control

illegal

Instruction that should not
be executed. If it is
executed, the sequencer
will stop with the illegal
instruction flag set.

stop

Instruction that stops the
sequencer.

nop

No operation instruction,
that does nothing. It is
used to pass a single cycle
in the classic part of the
sequencer without any
operations.

Jumps

jmp

Immediate,
Register,
Label

Jump to the next
instruction indicated by
argument 0.

jge

Register

Immediate

Immediate,
Register,
Label
If argument 0 is greater
or equal to argument 1,
jump to the instruction
indicated by argument 2.

jlt

Register

Immediate

Immediate,
Register,
Label
If argument 0 is less
than argument 1, jump to
the instruction indicated
by argument 2.

loop

Register

Immediate,
Register,
Label

Subtract argument 0 by
one and jump to the
instruction indicated by
argument 1 until
argument 0 reaches zero.

Arithmetic

move

Immediate,
Register

Register

Argument 0 is moved /
copied to argument 1.

not

Immediate,
Register

Register

Bit-wise invert
argument 0
and move the result to
argument 1.

add

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Add argument 1 to
argument 0 and move the
result to argument 2.

sub

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Subtract argument 1 from
argument 0 and move the
result to argument 2.

and

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Bit-wise AND argument 1
and argument 0 and move
the result to argument 2.

or

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Bit-wise OR argument 1
and argument 0 and move
the result to argument 2.

xor

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Bit-wise XOR argument 1
and argument 0 and move
the result to argument 2.

asl

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Bit-wise left-shift
argument 1 by argument 0
number of bits and move
the result to argument 2.

asr

Register

Immediate,
Register

Register

Bit-wise right-shift
argument 1 by argument 0
number of bits and move the
result to argument 2.

Software request

sw_req

Immediate,
Register

Generate software request
interrupt with argument 0
value being passed as
interrupt argument
(currently not implemented).

Real-time pipeline instructions

set_mrk

Immediate,
Register

Set marker output channels
to argument 0 (bits 0-3),
where the bit index
corresponds to the channel
index. The set value is
OR´ed by that of other
sequencers. The parameters
are cached and only updated
when the upd_param or
play instructions are
executed.

set_ph

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register
Set the AWG and acquisition
phase of the NCO. The phase
is divided into a coarse
(argument 0), fine
(argument 1) and
ultra-fine (argument 2)
segment. The coarse segment
is divided into 400 steps
of 0.9°. The fine segment
is divided into 400 steps
of 2.25e-3°. And the
ultra-fine segment is
divided into 6250 steps of
3.6e-7°. The parameters are
cached and only updated
when the upd_param or
play instructions are
executed. The arguments are
either all set through
immediates or registers.

set_ph_delta

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register
Set the AWG and acquisition
phase offset of the NCO.
Offset that is applied on
top of the phase set using
set_phase. See set_phase
for more details regarding
the arguments. The
parameters are cached and
only updated when the
upd_param or play
instructions are executed.

set_awg_gain

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register

Set AWG gain for path 0
using argument 0 and path
1 using argument 1. Both
gain values are divided in
2**sample path width steps.
The parameters are cached
and only updated when the `
upd_param` or play
instructions are executed.
The arguments are either
all set through immediates
or registers.

set_acq_gain

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register

Set acquisition gain for
path 0 using argument 0
and path 1 using
argument 1. Both gain
values are divided in
2**sample path width steps.
The parameters are cached
and only updated when the
upd_param or play
instructions are executed.
The arguments are either
all set through immediates
or registers.

set_awg_offs

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register

Set AWG gain for path 0
using argument 0 and path
1 using argument 1. Both
offset values are divided
in 2**sample path width
steps. The parameters are
cached and only updated
when the upd_param or
play instructions are
executed. The arguments are
either all set through
immediates or registers.

set_acq_offs

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register

Set acquisition gain for
path 0 using argument 0
and path 1 using
argument 1. Both offset
values are divided in
2**sample path width steps.
The parameters are cached
and only updated when the
upd_param or play
instructions are executed.
The arguments are either
all set through immediates
or registers.

upd_param

Immediate

Update the marker, phase,
phase offset, gain and
offset parameters set using
their respective
instructions and then wait
for argument 0 number of
nanoseconds.

play

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register

Immediate

Update the marker, phase,
phase offset, gain and
offset parameters set using
their respective
instructions, start playing
AWG waveforms stored at
indexes argument 0 on
path 0 and argument 1 on
path 1 and finally wait for
argument 2 number of
nanoseconds. The arguments
are either all set through
immediates or registers.

acquire

Immediate,
Register
Immediate,
Register

Immediate

Update the marker, phase,
phase offset, gain and
offset parameters set using
their respective
instruction, start
acquisition using
integration waveforms
stored at indexes
argument 0 for path 0 and
argument 1 for path 1 and
finally wait for
argument 2 number of
nanoseconds. The arguments
are either all set through
immediates or registers.

wait

Immediate,
Register

Wait for argument 0
number of nanoseconds.

wait_trigger

Immediate,
Register

Wait for external trigger
and then wait for
argument 0 number of
nanoseconds.

wait_sync

Immediate,
Register

Wait for SYNQ to complete
on all connected sequencers
over all connected
instruments and then wait
for argument 0 number of
nanoseconds.

Note

The duration argument for upd_param, play, acquire, wait, wait_trigger and wait_sync needs to a be multiple of 4ns. This will be reduced to 1ns in the future.

Arguments

Arguments

Format

Description

Immediate

#

32-bit decimal value (e.g. 1000)

Register

R#

Register address (e.g. R0)

Label

@label

Label name string (e.g. @main)

Labels

Any instruction can be preceded by a label. This label can be used as a reference to that specific instruction. In other words, it can be used as a goto-point by any instruction that can alter program flow (i.e. jmp, jge, jlt and loop). The label must be followed by a ‘:’ character and a whitespace before the actual referenced instruction.

Example

This is a simple example of a Q1ASM program. It enables each marker channel output for 1μs and then stops.

      move      1,R0        # Start at marker output channel 0 (move 1 into R0)
      nop                   # Wait a cycle for R0 to be available.

loop: set_mrk   R0          # Set marker output channels to R0
      upd_param 1000        # Update marker output channels and wait 1μs.
      asl       R0,1,R0     # Move to next marker output channel (left-shift R0).
      nop                   # Wait a cycle for R0 to be available.
      jlt       R0,16,@loop # Loop until all 4 marker output channels have been set once.

      set_mrk   0           # Reset marker output channels.
      upd_param 4           # Update marker output channels.
      stop                  # Stop sequencer.

Waveforms

The waveforms are expressed as a list of floating point values in the range of 1.0 to -1.0 with a resolution of one nanosecond per sample. The AWG path and acquisition paths use the same format for these waveforms for different purposes. The AWG path uses these waveforms to parametrically generate pulses on its outputs and the acquisition path uses these waveforms as integration functions.

Waveform playback is started by the play and acquire instructions. Each waveform is paired with an index, which is used by these instructions to refer to the associated waveform. The waveform is then completely played, irrespective of further sequence processor instructions, except when the sequence processor issues the playback of another waveform, in which case the waveform will be stopped and the new waveform will start. When waveforms are not played back-to-back, the intermediate time will be filled by samples with a value of zero.

The programmed waveforms can be retrieved using get_waveforms().

Note

The integration feature in the acquisition path is not implemented yet and the waveforms in that path are therefore not used.

Acquisitions

Acquisitions are started by the acquire instruction and will trigger the capture of 16k input samples on both inputs. This mode of operation is called scope mode and will store the raw input samples in a temporary buffer. Every time an acquisition is started this temporary memory is overwritten, so it is vital to move the samples from the temporary buffer to a more lasting location before the start of the next acquisition. This is be done by calling store_acquisition(), which moves the samples into the acquisition list of the sequencer, located in the RAM of the instrument. Multiple acquisitions can be stored in this list before being retrieved from the instrument by simply calling get_acquisitions(). Acquisitions are returned as a dictionary of lists containing floating point values in a range of 1.0 to -1.0 with a resolution of one nanosecond per sample. The list can be cleared from the RAM of the instrument by calling delete_acquisitions().

The acquisition path also has an averaging function set through the sequencer#_avg_mode_en_acq_path#() parameters. This enables the automatic accumulation of acquisitions, where sample N of acquisition M is automatically accumulated to sample N of acquisition M+1. This happens while the acquisition is still in the temporary buffer, so after the desired number of averaging acquisitions is completed, call store_acquisition() to store the accumulated result in the acquisition list. Once retrieved from the instrument you will need to divide the accumulated samples by the number of averages to get the actual averaged acquisition result.

Tip

For debug purposes, the acquisition path can also be triggered using a trigger level, where if the input exceeds this level, an acquisition is started. See the sequencer#_trigger_mode_acq_path#() and sequencer#_trigger_level_acq_path#() parameters for more information.

Note

The acquisition path is still in development and more acquisitions modes will be added in the near future.

Continuous waveform mode

The sequencer also supports a continuous waveform mode of operation, where the waveform playback control of sequence processor is completely bypassed and a single waveform is just played back on a loop. This mode can be enabled using the sequencer#_cont_mode_en_awg_path#() parameter and the waveform can be selected using the sequencer#_cont_mode_waveform_idx_awg_path#() parameter. The waveforms used in this mode must be a multiple of four samples long (i.e. 4ns).

When in continuous mode, simply program, arm, start and stop the sequencer using the regular control functions and parameters (i.e. sequencer#_waveforms_and_program(), arm_sequencer(), start_sequencer() and stop_sequencer()). However, be aware that the sequencer processor can still control parts of the AWG path, like phase, gain and offset, while the sequencer operates in this mode. Therefore, we advise to program the sequence processor with a single stop instruction.

Note

We realise that the current way of controlling this mode is not optimal, so in the near future we will be implementing additional driver support to streamline this mode.