Optimization of DMA Operations for RFSOC in Radar Systems

Radio Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC) technology, with its high integration and powerful processing capabilities, is widely used in modern radar systems. Its integrated wideband Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) and Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) handle substantial data streams. In practical applications, data transfer largely relies on Direct Memory Access (DMA) operations. However, DMA faces inherent limitations, particularly when the data rates of ADC/DAC are comparable to the memory bandwidth of DDR, which can lead to transmission interruptions and increase buffer pressure within the system. This paper presents an optimized approach to DMA operations, incorporating advanced buffer management and enhancements to the Scatter-Gather (SG) mode. These optimizations mitigate the risk of buffer overflow and data transmission interruptions, thereby improving overall system performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed optimizations significantly reduce transmission interruptions and enhance data processing efficiency in radar systems.