Session 5: discrete systems and inheritance

We have already encountered discrete-time blocks. A block is discrete if it is activated by events and thus generates a piece-wise constant signal. These events need not be evenly spaced in time. Diagrams can be made solely based on discrete blocks.

Construct the following diagram by copying blocks from the palettes
Purely discrete Scicos diagram
The 1/z (discrete delay) is a shift register. Everytime this block receives an event (is activated) it copies its internal state to its output and copies its input into its internal state. This diagram is then a counter; at every Clock event, the state of the register is increased by 1. In the case of discrete signals, it is natural that the  Scope displays the signal using symbols and not a continuous line. This can be done by changing  Scope parameters. 

Simulate
      The simulation result for Clock period of 2 is given below. 
The Scope display

Note that the blocks of this diagram are activated only at event times (except for the constant 1 block which is only activated once at initialization). The Plus (+) block is not explicitely activated by an activation signal, but it inherits its activation times from its input signals, and in particular the Plus (+) block in this case. In general, a block with no input activation ports is either active permanently if it is time-dependent or it inherits its activation times from its input signals.  In this latter case, its activation times are the union of the activation times of its input signals. As for time-dependent blocks, we have already seen the sinusoid generator. These blocks, even if they have inputs, they don't inherit from them; they simply are always active.


Modify the diagram as follows
      The Scope block can also inherit its activations times. The input activation port of this block can be removed by setting the corresponding block parameter. Note that this input should not be connected when the port is removed. The simulation result in this case is identical to the previous case. 
In this case, the Scope inherits its activation times

Modify the diagram as follows
      To see the inheritance mechanism, two independent event sources are included in the diagram. The period of the second clock is also set to 2 but the initial time is changed to .3 (from 0).

This block has two independent event clocks.
In this case, there is no risk of indeterminism because there are never two independent events having the same time (in which case, one can be fired before or after the other one). But this is based on the numerical values of clock parameters; changing these parameters can yield indeterminism. This type of diagram should be avoided, especially since similar result can be obtained differently as it will be seen later. 

Simulate the diagram
    Note that the activation times of the Scope is the union of the activation times of the two registers, i.e., the union of all the event times generated by the two event clock's.
Scope is activated at times 2n and 2n+.3, n=0,1,2,...
Ready to go on?
 Yes, I am ready for Session 6
 No, I want to go back 

For more information about Scicos, send an e-mail to Doctor Scilab: Scilab@inria.fr

 
 
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