We have a 16 by 16 to 32 unsigned and signed multiply with
accumulate and a 32 / 16 into 32 unsigned divide. The results
of a multiply are a 32 bit product, a 32 bit accumulate and
an accumulator overflow bit. The results of a divide are a 32
bit dividend, a 16 bit remainder, and a flag bit indicating a
divide by zero. The number in the dividend as a result of a
divide by zero is 'FFFFFFFF (BigNum). The accumulator is 32
bits and accumulates the result of multiply operations.
The basic method of performing one of these math operations
is to write the starting values into Suzy registers (all of
the addresses are different) and then polling for completion
prior to reading the results. The act of writing to the last
register starts the math process.
The functions of 'sign/unsign' and 'accumulate are optional.
The value for SPRINIT is currently unchanged for the multiply
and divide operations. The following picture shows the
operations available.
Each letter represents a different byte address. These addresses are identified in the hardware address Appx 2. Each grouping represents the kind of math operation available.
| AB | EFGH | |||||||||
| * | CD | / | NP | |||||||
| EFGH | ABCD | |||||||||
| Accumulate in JKLM | Remainder in (JK)LM | |||||||||
Some Rules:
Writing to B,D,F,H,K, or M will force a '0' to be written
to A,C,E,G,J, or L, respectfully. Therefore, if you only have
8 bits in a particular number, there is no need to write the
upper byte to '0'. (except for signed multiplies)
Writing to A will start a 16 bit multiply.
Writing to E will start 8 16 bit divide.
The actual steps required to perform some of the functions are:
16 x 16 multiply:
Write LSB to D, MSB to C
Write LSB to B, MS8 to A
Poll MULTSTAT until done (or just wait for 54 ticks)
Read answer (LSB->MSB) from H,G,F,E
Accumulate:
To initialize the accumulator, write a '0' to K and M (This
will put 0 in J and L). The write to 'M' will clear the
accumulator overflow bit. Note that you can actually
initialize the accumulator to any value by writing to all 4
bytes (J,K,L,M).
32 x 16 divide:
Write LSB to P, MSB to N,
Write LSB -> MSB to H,G,F,E
Poll DIVSTAT until done (or just wait 400 ticks max)
Read answer (LSB->MSB) from D,C,B,A
Read remainder (LSB->MSB) from M,L
As a courtesy, the hardware will set J,K to zero so that the software can treat the remainder as a 32 bit number.
There are several restrictions in the utilization of hardware multiply and divide:
There is an interrupt consideration. Although the hardware is not re-entrant, some clever interrupt routine may wish to wait for an operation to complete, save the answer, perform its own operation, get its own answer, and then restore the previous values. While this works for the simple singular operation, it will disturb the input values which may still be required by the original software that is performing repetitive operations. If the interrupt software wants to save and restore the original input values, it will start a new math operation when it writes them back to the hardware. The various implications of this act have not yet been explored, so be cautious.
Divides take 176 + 14*N ticks where N is the number of most significant zeros in the divisor.
Hardware changes can be desired for many reasons. We will
probably not implement desired hardware changes for many
other reasons. However, we may introduce product upgrades for
which software compatibility is important.
To support the upgrades, a read only hardware identifier
register and a write only software identifier register in
both Mikey and Suzy (4 registers total) will be provided.
These registers will have 'bit' significance in that the
individual bits will have individual revision or capability
significance.
In the first Mikey and Suzy, the hardware identifier value
will be '01'. The software identifier register will not
actually exist, only its address is allocated.
Some of the prototypes will have a parallel port for debug
purposes. The port uses 2 addresses, one for status and one
for data. Both are read/write. See the address appendix for
the details. Basically, you write to the status address to
set the port for either input or output, and to wiggle the
'Paper Out' pin. You read the status port to see if the port
has data available, is ready for data, or read a the 'Busy'
pin. The hardware handshake timing on the parallel port
itself is totally handled in hardware. Of special note is
that changing the direction of the data port will clear the
data available bit.
Additionally, the 'SEL' line in the parallel cable is
connected to the NMI/ line of the CPU. Pulling it low will
cause an NMI to happen in the handy CPU. Don't forget to set
it high again before the handy CPU finishes the NMI software
routine. If you are wiggling it from an Amiga, you can pull
it high as soon as you want to. The Amiga hardware will not
let its duration be too short.
As a compromise between the square root and qube root desires of the software people, and the schedule desires of the management, we have decided to incorporate the function of QbertRoot. The required steps are:
At a particular point in the life of a sprite, it may move in such a manner that it no longer appears on the screen. It may also have started its life off-screen. It appears to be useful to the software to know that a sprite is completely off-screen. The function used to discover this truth is called 'Everon' and is enabled by the 'Everonoff' bit. The function is enabled when the Sprite Engine is started with an 05 instead of an 01 at 'SPRGO'. This function will cause the 'Everon' bit to reflect the off- screen situation of a particular sprite. This bit is returned to each SCB in bit 7 of the collision depository. The bit will be a '0' if Everon is disabled or if the sprite is ever on the screen. The bit is a '1' only when Everon is enabled (Everonoff-is on) and the sprite is neveron the screen.
As expressed earlier in this document, there are times when certain addresses are unsafe to access. If, by some unknown means, the software does an unsafe access, the unsafe access bit in SPRSYS will be set. This bit will remain set until it is cleared as explained in the hardware address appendix.
BIG NOTE: Unsafe access is broken for math operations. Please reset it after every math operation or it will not be useful for sprite operations.
For purposes of diagnostics, there is a Suzy address that is used to notify the Howard board of a desired communication. See the hardware address spec.
In the beginning, there was a general purpose 8 bit I/O
port. As pins on Mikey became unavailable, the number of bits
was reduced. Now all we have are the 5 bits of IODAT and they
are not even pure read/write.
The direction of the pins (in or out) still needs to be set
even though all but one are forced in the PCB to be either an
in or an out but not both. The function of the bits are not
apparent from the description in the address appendix, so I
will explain them here.
The expansion connector is a 3 wire stereo earphone jack. The pin assignments are:
Shield: Ground
Tip: VCC
Center: Data
There are certain considerations for data transfer, more later.
Note that when using a wire, any unit that is powered off and connected to the link will disable communications for all of the units in the link.