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Inline synthio_sat16 and use ssat - #11621

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dhalbert merged 1 commit into
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MakerClassCZ:synthio-sat16-inline
Oct 19, 2026
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dhalbert merged 1 commit into
adafruit:mainfrom
MakerClassCZ:synthio-sat16-inline

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synthio_sat16 runs at least once per sample in synthio, the biquad filter, Freeverb, Phaser and Flanger. It was a normal function in another file, so every call cost more than the work it did. It is now inline, rounds without a branch, and uses the ssat instruction on cores that have it.

Time per 1024-sample buffer on Fruit Jam (RP2350):

Effect Before After
Freeverb 7088 µs ~4200 µs
Phaser 4599 µs 2002 µs
Synth, 4 notes with biquad 613 µs 502 µs

On the PicoPad (RP2040), the synth with biquad is 4% faster. The output is the same, bit for bit. Flash is 96 bytes smaller on RP2350 and 8 bytes smaller on RP2040.

Tested on Fruit Jam and PicoPad by reading the output with audiocore.get_buffer(). The code was written with AI help.

It runs once or more per sample in synthio, the biquad filter and the audio effects, so the call cost more than the saturation. Rounding without a branch and using ssat where the core has it keeps the inlined copies small.

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Thanks! Will be merged assuming the job that failed succeeds on a second run.

@dhalbert
dhalbert enabled auto-merge October 18, 2026 23:30
@dhalbert
dhalbert merged commit 159e636 into adafruit:main Oct 19, 2026
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bdbarnett added a commit to PyDevices/audiodsp that referenced this pull request Oct 22, 2026
* Take CircuitPython 11.0.0-alpha.2's integer mixer and inline synthio_sat16

audiomixer (11a329885, fc57c0f36; adafruit/circuitpython#11617): a voice is
scaled as (ai * mul) >> 15 where it was ai * (mul / 32767.0f) truncated toward
zero, and a centred pan is 32768 - panning where it was 32767 - panning. Taken
in upstream's words in src/audiomixer/Mixer.c, in the CPython extension's
scaling kernel and in src/cpython/audiomixer.py, whose float32 helpers go.

Every level below 1.0 moves by up to one LSB, and a small negative sample now
rounds down (-1 at level 0.5 stays -1). A voice at level 1.0 is a wire without
help, so the unity branch this port added in audiodsp#95 is deleted, and a
stereo voice at pan 0 no longer has its left channel one step below the right.
The CPython target's block-level pass-through at unity is keyed on Q15 32768
alone now: 32767 no longer multiplies by exactly 1.

synthio (cbbde1208; adafruit/circuitpython#11621): synthio_sat16 is inline in
src/synthio/__init__.h as upstream has it, with __ssat on cores that define
__ARM_FEATURE_SAT. The rounding is the same arithmetic without a branch, so no
sample changes.

mixer_q15_level_probe.py replaces mixer_level_precision_probe.py, whose
material was the float32-versus-float64 flips that no longer exist. It renders
the rails and the values either side of zero at four levels and five pans,
mono and stereo, and verify_dsp.py holds CircuitPython, MicroPython and CPython
to the same bytes. test_cpython_audiomixer_level.py and
test_cpython_mixer_scale.py are rewritten around the integer arithmetic.

* Move the oracle to CircuitPython 11.0.0-alpha.2 and re-capture two digests

CIRCUITPYTHON_ORACLE names d53b2277c, and tests/test_voice_ceiling_consistency.py
pins the sha256 of the 64-voice binary built from it (ee0cc93c...).

Two stored digests moved with the integer mixer, re-captured from the new
oracle's own output, which CPython and desktop MicroPython reproduce:

- streaming_component, streaming half: f3ffad8e... to 33b27a2f.... The mixer
  voices in streaming_component_probe.py are below unity.
- synthtools_acceptance: b6e3b06f... to 757d944a.... The lead, bend and bass
  lines moved; the other five lines are unchanged.

Every other stored digest held and reproduces on the new oracle:
midi_component, effects_component, biquad_component and mixdown_knee. The
oracle labels in effects_component and streaming_component follow the pin.

* Record the alpha.2 resync and retire "a voice at level 1.0 is a wire"

upstream-sync.md gets the new "last resync" entry (the alpha.1 one becomes the
one before it), upstream-diff.md says what upstream's integer mixer changed
and which digests moved, and the audiodsp#95 section becomes a record of a
difference upstream now shares, as the alpha.1 resync did for its five.

* Print the Q15 probe's levels by name

A float32 MicroPython build prints 100 / 127 with fewer digits than CPython,
so the probe's label line differed where the samples agreed.
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