[Coco] assembly questions?

jdaggett at gate.net jdaggett at gate.net
Fri Jul 23 16:27:07 EDT 2004


Mark 

The Z8 series has 256 registers. 

The 68K series has 16 registers. 

Xilinx has their Pico/Micro Blaze processors that fit into their 
CPLD/FPGAs and can have up to 256 registers. 

Still registers to have registers is a waste of space. Persoanlly if you 
want a 16 bit process then use a 68K series or Intel.  The 6x09 is a  
nice 8 bit  processor and can still do a lot of neat things. If there 
were anything that one could do if going to FPGA, is to do more 
integration. Putting timers and I/O ports would be nice. For what I 
would like to see is a PWM section like in the 68HC11K series 
processors. Even an SPI or USB on board would be nice. 

james

On 23 Jul 2004 at 14:34, Mark Marlette wrote:

Date sent:      	Fri, 23 Jul 2004 14:34:32 -0500
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From:           	Mark Marlette <mmarlett at isd.net>
Subject:        	Re: [Coco] assembly questions?
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> At 11:38 AM 7/23/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> 
> Kevin,
> 
> Lack of registers? What are use to programming on?
> 
> Do you have VHDL training or experience? If so where?
> 
> Curious.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark
> Cloud-9
> 
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >         The speed of these probably isn't that crucial since there
> >         are
> >so few registers to transfer between (amongst?). If I ever find a job
> >I think I am gonna start with that 6809 VHDL core someone did and
> >create the 6909.  One thing I think I'll include is a set of shadow
> >registers and some special FAST tfr and exchange instructions to get
> >at them. Kind of like a high speed register cache. Probably also need
> >a context save instruction. And maybe some burst bus modes for some
> >caches. And an instruction cache. And a stack cache (to speed up
> >stack operations). And a 16-bit internal bus. ...
> >
> >         I am working on an assembly port of the old X maze program.
> >         The
> >lack of registers has been ... constantly annoying.
> >
> >                                   kevin
> >KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Thanks -- I myself have always wondered why TFR and EXG were so
> > > slow! Part of the problem seem s to be always treating them as
> > > 16-bit operations, so TFR A,B takes as long as TFR X,Y.
> > >
> > > And the other is using that internal temp reg, which turns out not
> > > to be needed -- see below.
> > >
> > > In a message dated 7/23/04 7:53:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > > jdaggett at gate.net writes:
> > >
> > > > with the TFR instrtruction the third and fourth cycle write R1
> > > > to a temp register internally. On cycle 5 and 6 the temp
> > > > register is written to R2.
> > >
> > > This sounds like an explanation I heard years ago, but below we
> > > see the 
> > temp
> > > wasn't needed. . .
> > >
> > > >  With the EXG instruction the third and fourth cycle writes R1
> > > >  to the 
> > temp
> > > > register.
> > > >  On the fifth and six instruction the contents of R2 is written
> > > >  to R1. On
> > > the
> > > > seventh  and eighth cycles the temp register is sritten to R2.
> > >
> > > Since R2 was written directly to R1, the TFR instruction could
> > > have 
> > bypassed
> > > the intermediate register too.  But I guess this implementation 
> > simplified the
> > > control sequencing.  Remember, the 6809 was, and remains, the most
> > > sophisticated 8/16-bit micro ever made -- or darn close to it.
> > >
> > > Thanks again for the details.  BTW, does the 6309 cut out any of
> > > these intermediate steps?  Maybe use a 16-bit internal bus?!? 
> > > --Mike K.
> > >
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> >
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