Clocks

One other major thing that has changed recently in ZX Prism is the master clock frequency.

Mike's original FPGA Spectrum source derives the CPU and video clocks from a 28MHz phase locked loop. The 14MHz video clock was derived from every odd tick (equalling four ticks for every eight of the master clock: 1,3,5 and 7) and the 3.5MHz CPU clock was derived from the first even tick of every eight (tick 0). The 7MHz CPU mode was derived from ticks 0 and 4.

Recently, to prepare for the more complex video modes and to allow faster CPU clock frequencies I doubled the master clock frequency to 56MHz. For now, I've adjusted the way the CPU and Video clocks are derived so they still run at 14Mhz and 3.5 or 7MHz.

The on-FPGA palette memory seems quite happy at these speeds, so all is looking good for the new screen modes.

The next thing to do is to increase the video clock to 28Mhz and adjust the read/store cycle for reading the data and attribute bytes. Some of the new screen modes need more data to be shifted around than the standard Spectrum mode. I'll be attempting to do the majority of the screen modes with the same contention patterns (at least when the CPU is running at 3.5Mhz) so that games with special screen effects (split borders etc) work. The chunky and planar screen modes will probably incur more contention - though the CPU speed can be increased to compensate of course.

Speaking of contention... I've still not had complete success with implementing it - however I am a lot closer now. The increase in master clock frequency and the redesign of the video decode/encode subsystem gives me a chance to change how the timing of everything fits together - including ensuring contention is correctly applied at faster CPU speeds to avoid the crashes that currently happen when the CPU is running at 14 or 28MHz. Time to get the pencils and paper out and start counting clock ticks...