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THE 6561 Video Interface Chip (VIC)
Typed in by Lance Ewing
Note: There seems to be two different VIC chips that were used in different models of the VIC 20. These are the 6560 and the 6561. Their functionality appears to be the same so I will only refer to the 6561.
The Video Interface Chip, or VIC as it is normally called, is the second most important silicon chip in the VIC 20 microcomputer. It comes second only to the 6502A microprocessor itself.
The VIC is a specially constructed input-output chip (I/O) that has a large variety of functions but it's major function is, as its name suggests, the production of the video output signal.
The VIC appears to the microprocessor, and the user, as an addressable block of RAM of 16 locations, $9000-$900F. Each of these locations can be filled or copied, as applies to any other locations that are actually available, with the actions of the VIC being dependant on the values that are placed in the 16 locations.
6561 PIN CONFIGURATION
___________________
| |
not used -|1 40|- +5V
| |
Composite colour -|2 39|- Clock-in phase-1
| |
Sync. & luminance -|3 38|- Clock-in phase-2
| |
READ/WRITE -|4 37|- Light pen
| |
VD11 -|5 36|- Clock-out. Not used.
| |
VD10 -|6 35|- Clock-out phase-1
| |
VD9 -|7 34|- A13
| |
VD8 -|8 33|- A12
| |
D7 -|9 32|- A11
| |
D6 -|10 31|- A10
| |
D5 -|11 30|- A9
| |
D4 -|12 29|- A8
| |
D3 -|13 28|- A7
| |
D2 -|14 27|- A6
| |
D1 -|15 26|- A5
| |
D0 -|16 25|- A4
| |
POT X -|17 24|- A3
| |
POT Y -|18 23|- A2
| |
Composite sound -|19 22|- A1
| |
GND -|20 21|- A0
|___________________|
Pin 1: Not connected.
Pin 2: The composite colour line of the video output.
Pin 3: The syncronisation and luminance line of the video output.
Pin 4: The video read/write line that is at logic 1 when data is being read
from the colour or video RAM.
Pins 5-8: The lines of the special colour data bus.
Pins 9-16: The eight lines of the ordinary data bus.
Pin 17: The input line for potentiometer X.
Pin 18: The input line for potentiometer Y.
Pin 19: The composite sound line of the audio output.
Pin 20: GND
Pins 21-34: The 14 address lines of the VIC.
Pin 35. The clock-out line that becomes the external time base for the
6502A microprocessor.
Pin 36: The system phase-2 clock-out line. Not connected.
Pin 37: Light pen input line.
Pin 38: Clock-in line from the master clock - phase-2 time.
Pin 39: Clock-in line from the master clock - phase-1 time.
Pin 40: +5V.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MICROPROCESSOR AND THE VIC
A13 = "BLOCK 4"
14 line address bus a 13 lower address line
____________________________________________________
| > |
| __________________________________________ |
__|____|__ __|____|__
| | $9000 |__________|
| | $9001 |__________|
| | . | . |
| | . | . |
6502A | | . | . | VIC chip
| | . | . |
| | . |__________|
| | $900E |__________|
|__________| $900F |__________|
| |_____________________________________________| |
| < > |
|___________________________________________________|
8 line data bus
The above diagram shows the relationship between the microprocessor and the
VIC as being the normal one of 'microprocessor and memory linked by address
and data buses' but this applies only in system phase-2 time.
The timing signals in the VIC 20 are somewhat complicated but they can be
explained in quite simple terms.
The master clokc generates a two phase output at 1.1082 Mhs. The signals
are then used as the 'external time base' for the VIC so that the actions
that take place on the VIC can be timed correctly. The VIC in turn reproduces
the two phase timing signal on one of its output lines which is then used as
the 'external time base' for the 6502A microprocessor. However the final stage
has not as yet been reached as the 6502A microprocessor in its turn reproduces
the timing signals on one of its output lines so that the timing signals can
be used as 'chip select' lines for the RAM chips and I/O chips, but of course
not the VIC.
Overall, in system phase-2 time the 6502A microprocessor is in communication
with its memory, whilst in system phase-1 time, it is the VIC that is linked
with the memory. The following memory can be addressed by the VIC chip:
-Video RAM
-Colour RAM
-Character RAM/ROM
The 14 line address line can address 16K of memory. The VIC chip uses
different addresses to the rest of the computer. The table below illustrates
the differing addresses for the memory blocks the VIC chip can access:
VIC chip addresses Ordinary addresses memory
0 32768 Unreversed Character ROM
1024 33792 Reversed Character ROM
2048 34816 Unreversed upper/lower case ROM
3072 35840 Reversed upper/lower case ROM
4096 36864 VIC and VIA chips
5120 37888 Colour memory
6144 38912 Reserved for expansion
7168 39936 Reserved for expansion
8192 0 System memory
9216 1024 Reserved for expansion
12288 4096 Program
15360 7168 Screen
THE VIDEO RAM
This is the area of RAM which holds the screen codes of the characters currently on the screen. The values poked into screen memory act as pointers into character memory. They are NOT the ASCII values of the characters. In the unexpanded VIC 20 the operating system automatically allocates the area of RAM from $1E00-$1FFF for this purpose. However, when extra RAM is added to the system to the system at $2000 it becomes necessary to change the allocation of the video RAM to the area $1000-$11FF. The reason for having to move the video RAM is simply that the program area must be a continuous block of RAM. In the unexpanded system the program area is at $1000-$1DFF, with a standard 3K RAM pack it is at $0400-$1DFF, and with a standard 8K RAM pack it is at $1200-$3FFF.The VIC 20 system uses a display of 22 characters per line and has 23 lines. Therefore the video RAM has to be 506 locations in size. In practice with 512 locations allocated there are always siz locations that are unused. The system variable $0288, decimal 648, is used by the operation system to hold the high byte of the current base address of the video RAM and in an unexpanded VIC 20 the value in this location is 30 which corresponds to the base address of $1E00. Interesting effects can be obtained by altering the value of this location.
THE COLOUR RAM
In an unexpanded VIC 20 the 512 locations in memory from $9600-$97ff are used as the colour RAM, whereas if an *K expansion RAM is fitted, the block $9400-$95ff is used instead. In either case the locations used are only four bits in size instead of the usual eight bits in size.The different locations are used to hold the appropriate foreground colour for each character area of the display on the TV screen. There is, therefore, a direct correspondence between the locations of the video RAM, the character table and the colour RAM.
In the VIC 20 system there are eight foreground colours and each colour has its own representation for the lower three bits of the locations of colour RAM.
eg. If the value of the three bits is '000' then the colour for that character area will be black.
The colours and their representations are:
BLACK 000
WHITE 001
RED 010
CYAN 011
PURPLE 100
GREEN 101
BLUE 110
YELLOW 111
The fourth bit (bit 3) of each location is used to indicate if multicolour
is to be used (discussed later).
It is interesting to note that the VIC has a special four line data bus that
links the colour RAM to the VIC itself that is used solely to convey the
colour data to the VIC.
The address of Colour RAM can be determined by looking at Bit 7 of location
$9002. If this bit is 1, colour memory starts at location 38400. If this bit
is 0, colour memory starts at location 37888. Use the following formula:
C = 37888 + 4 * ( PEEK ( 36866 ) AND 128 )
THE INTERNAL REGISTERS OF THE VIC
CR0: $9000 - decimal 36864. Usual value decimal 12.
A dual function register.
Function 1: Bit 7 selects insterface scan mode for the TV.
Function 2: Bits 0-6 determine the distance from the left hand side of the
TV picture to the first column of characters.
Note: On most modern TV sets the effect of selecting the interface scan mode
is to produce a light rippling on the screen.
CR1: $9001 - decimal 36865. Usual value decimal 38.
A single function register.
All the bits of this register are used to determine the distance from the
top of the TV picture to the first line of characters.
CR2: $9002 - decimal 36866. Usual value decimal 150.
A dual function register.
The first seven bits fo this register determine the number of columns in
the TV display. Normally this will be the expected value of 22.
Bit 7 of this register is used to hold the value for line 9 of the address
for the video RAM. On an unexpanded VIC 20 as the address of the Video
RAM is $1E00 and therefore this bit 7 is set, however when the video RAM is
moved to $1000 then bit 7 becomes reset.
Note: Bit 7 of this register also indicates where the Colour RAM starts. If
this bit is 1, colour memory starts at location 38400. If this bit is 0,
colour memory starts at location 37888. Use the following formula:
C = 37888 + 4 * ( PEEK ( 36866 ) AND 128 )
CR3: $9003 - decimal 36867. Usual value 174.
A triple function register.
Bit 7 holds the lowest bit of TV raster counter and is therefore alternately
set and reset.
Bits 1-6 of this register determine the number of rows in the TV display.
The value of these bits will normally be 23.
Bit 0 is very special as it controls whether normal sized characters or
double sized characters are to be displayed. The normal size for a character
is 8*8 pixels and is slected by bit 0 being reset, however double sized
characters, 16*8 pixels, can be selected by having this bit set.
The facility for being able to use double sized characters is not very
useful on an unexpanded VIC 20 as there is insufficient RAM to define a
reasonable number of double sized characters.
CR4: $9004 - 36868. No usual value.
This register, together with bit 7 of CR3, forms the TV raster counter. On
a 625 line TV this register will count between 0 and 255, and the whole
counter between 0 and 311.
CR5: $9005 - 36869. Usual value 240.
A dual function register.
Bits 4-7 holds the values of the topmost four address lines for the Video
RAM and bits 0-3 the corresponding values for the character table.
Of all these values bits 0 & 7 have a special significance, as whenver
this bit is set the memory slected will be in 'block 0', i.e. from $0000-
$1FFF, and when reset in 'block 4', i.e. from $8000-$9FFF.
In normal operation of a VIC20 this register holds the value 240 decimal
and this leads to the Video RAM being situated at $1E00 and the character
table at $8000. These addresses are found as follows:
Video RAM - bit 7 is set, thereby addressing 'block 0'.
-Address lines A12, A11, A10, and A9 are all set and the full address is
$1E00 as A13, A14, and A15 are reset for 'block 0'.
Character table - bit 3 is reset, thereby addressing 'block 4'.
-Address lines A12, A11 and A10 are all reset and the full address is
$8000 as A15 is set and A13 and A14 are reset for 'block 4'.
CR6: $9006 - 36870. Usual value 0.
This register is used in conjunction with the light pen and holds the
horizontal postion.
CR7: $9007 - 36871. Usual value 1.
The vertical position of the light pen.
CR8: $9008 - 36872. Usual value 255.
The counter for potentiometer 1.
CR9: $9009 - 36873. Usual value 255.
The counter for potentiometer 2.
CRA: $900A - 36874. Usual value 0.
This register controls 'speaker-1'. Bit 7 is the on/off control bit, whilst
bits 0-6 select the actual note. Speaker 1 has an alto voice.
CRB: $900B - 36875. Usual value 0.
This register controls 'speaker-2', the tenor voice.
CRC: $900C - 36876. Usual value 0.
This register controls 'speaker-3', the soprano voice.
CRD: $900D - 36877. Usual value 0.
This register controls 'speaker-4', the noise voice.
CRE: $900E - 36878. Usual value 0.
A dual purpose register.
Bits 0-3 form the counter for the volume control of the four speakers.
When all the bits are reset the volume control is off and when all the bits
are set the volume control is fully on.
Bits 4-7 hold the users slection of the auxiliary colour which is only used
when multicolour is switched on (discussed later).
CRF: $900F - 36879. Usual value 27.
This is the main colour selecting register of the VIC and has three distinct
functions.
Bits 0-2 are used to hold the border colour. In the VIC 20 there are eight
colours that can be border colours and these are:
0 - 000 Black
1 - 001 White
2 - 010 Red
3 - 011 Cyan
4 - 100 Purple
5 - 101 Green
6 - 110 Blue
7 - 111 Yellow
These border colours can be selected by putting the required value into the
bits 0-2 of control register CRF.
Bit 3 is the reverse field control bit. At any time the state of this bit
can be changed to reverse the whole display.
Bits 4-7 hold the background colour for the display. There are 16 possible
colours and the following tble fives the colours together with their codes.
Note that these codes are the same for the auxiliary colours as used in the
multicolour mode.
0 - 0000 Black
1 - 0001 White
2 - 0010 Red
3 - 0011 Cyan
4 - 0100 Purple
5 - 0101 Green
6 - 0110 Blue
7 - 0111 Yellow
8 - 1000 Orange
9 - 1001 Light orange
10 - 1010 Pink
11 - 1011 Light cyan
12 - 1100 Light purple
13 - 1101 Light green
14 - 1110 Light blue
15 - 1111 Light yellow
CHARACTER TABLE MEMORY
The standard character table generator of the VIC 20 is a 4K ROM chip that
occupies the block of memory from $8000-$8FFF. This ROM holds the 8x8 matrix
representations of all the characters that can be displayed on the TV screen.
A single character requires 8 locations, each holding 8 bits, in order to
have all its points defined.
In the VIC 20 system there are a possible 128 different characters and the
first 1K of the 4K ROM holds the straight forward representations for each
character. The second 1K holds the 'inverse' representations.
8000-83FF 32768-33791 Upper case and graphics
8400-87FF 33792-34815 Reversed upper case and graphics
8800-8BFF 34816-35839 Upper and lower case
8C00-8FFF 35840-36863 Reversed upper and lower case
In order to get lower case letters it has been necessary to have another
2K of representations of the characters. Once again the first 1K holds the
straight forward representations and the second 1K holds the 'inverted'
representations as shown in the memory map above.
In the VIC 20 it is possible to change the area of memory that is used to
hold the character table and to change the character representations from
the normal 8x8 matrix to one of 8x16. The second feature is the double
height character mode referred to in the discussion of the VIC registers
themselves.
The first block of character memory - upper case and graphics - occupies
the ROM locations 32768-34815. The second block - lower and upper case -
occupies the ROM locations 34816-36863.
Characters are displayed as patterns of dots. Each character position on
the screen is composed of an 8x8 sqaure of dots (pixels). Character memory
contains the information which tells the computer which dots to turn on or
off for a particular character. If a bit is 1, the dot is on (displayed
in character colour). If it is 0, the dot is off (displayed in background
colour). Therefore, to cover 64 dots, each character representation takes
8 bytes of memory.
eg. The character "A"
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 24
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 36
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 66
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 126
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 66
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 66
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 66
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
As mentioned earlier, the screen codes act as pointers into character
memory. The screen code for A is 1. Its 8 bytes of data is therefore stored
at 32768 + (8*1) = 32776. So the values 24, 36, 66, 126, 66, 66, 66, 0 are
stored from 32776 to 32783.
In general, to find the starting address of the representation of a
character with screen code X use:
32768 + (8*X) for character set 1
34816 + (8*X) for character set 2
You can change from one character set to the other from the keyboard by
using the CBM and shift key, or by changing the value of the character
memory pointer - byte 36869. Its value is normally 240 (upper case and
graphics) or 242 (upper case and lower case).
DESIGNING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS
Since the built in character sets are in ROM you cannot directly change
them. However, as you have seen, the character memory pointer can be
changed. So the secret to using a character set you design yourself is to
change the pointer to point to your character set.
First, however, you must design your characters. This is usually done with
a piece of graph paper representing the 8x8 matrix. Fill in the squares you
want and then calculate the values as shown above for the character "A".
It is usual to copy some of the built in character set into RAM and then
change those characters you wish to.
ACCESSING BOTH CUSTOM AND BUILT-IN CHARACTER SETS
If you have redesigned most of the characters in your custom character set,
displaying understandable messages can be a problem.
One solution to this makes use of the fact that the VIC chip sees addresses
differently to the rest of the computer. If you place the custom character
set at 7168-7679, then printing RVSON within a string will cause the VIC chip
to access the unreversed character set in ROM when printing that string.
The reasons for this are as follows:
The VIC chip can only access 16384 bytes, which it sees as a contiguous
block from 0 to 16383. To it the location of the custom character set is
15360. Since RVS ON sets the high bit of a character's screen code, all
reversed characters have screen codes of 128 up. To access a character with
code 128 the VIC chip goes to location 15360 + (128*8) = 16384. Since the
VIC chip cannot access 16384 the address "overflows" and wraps around to 0,
which the VIC chip sees as the address of the start of character ROM. This
just happens to be the location of the unreversed straight forward, every
day representations.
HIGH RESOLUTION GRAPHICS
MOS 6560/6561 VIC-I Video Interface Circuit documentation
This document is Copyright . 1995-1996 Marko Mäkelä
. This document may be reproduced in whole,
provided that everything, including this copyright message, is
included. Any updated versions of this file will be available from
http://www.funet.fi/pub/cbm/documents/chipdata/.
The 6560 pinout and most of the register map were quoted from the
Commodore VIC-20 Programmer's Reference Guide, and the register map
and other parts of this document were enhanced with the results got by
measuring the 6560-101 and 6561-101 chips. Thanks to Miguel Gordillo
for his help in measuring the NTSC-M screen size.
Comparison of the known VIC-20 video chips (summary)
Chip 6560-101 6561-101
System NTSC-M PAL-B
Cycles/line 65 71
Lines/frame 261 312
- interlaced 525 -
Crystal 14318181 Hz 4433618 Hz
Bus clock crystal/14 crystal/4
Screen width 210 233
Screen height 233 284
- interlaced ? -
^ needs to be
measured
6560 pinout (according to the Programmer's Reference Guide):
1 nc
2 comp colour
3 sync&lumin
4 r/w
5-16 db11-db0
17 dotx
18 dot y
19 comp snd
20 vss
21-34 a0-a13
35 pPhi1
36 pPhi2
37 option
38 Phi2 in
39 Phi1 in
40 Vdd
9000 ABBBBBBB
9001 CCCCCCCC
9002 HDDDDDDD
9003 GEEEEEEF
9004 GGGGGGGG
9005 HHHHIIII
9006 JJJJJJJJ
9007 KKKKKKKK
9008 LLLLLLLL
9009 MMMMMMMM
900A NRRRRRRR
900B OSSSSSSS
900C PTTTTTTT
900D QUUUUUUU
900E WWWWVVVV
900F XXXXYZZZ
A: interlace mode (6560-101 only): 0=off, 1=on
In this mode, the videochip will draw 525 interlaced lines of 65 cycles
per line, instead of the 261 non-interlaced lines in the normal mode.
This bit has no effect on the 6561-101.
B: screen origin X (4 pixels granularity)
6560-101: at 22 chars/line, the suitable range is 1 to 8
With 22 chars/line, the value 8 will show only 6 pixels of the
rightmost column
6561-101: at 22 chars/line, the suitable range is 5 to 19
With 22 chars/line, the value 20 will show only 5 pixels of the
rightmost column
Both: If the value B+2*D is greater than CYCLES_PER_LINE-4,
the picture will mix up.
With the value 0, there is some disturbance on the screen bottom.
C: screen origin Y (2 lines granularity)
6560-101: suitable range is 14 to 130=(261-1)/2,
which will display one raster line of text.
6561-101: suitable range is 14 to 155=312/2-1
Both: No wraparound
D: number of video columns
6560 range: 0-26 makes sense, >31 will be interpreted as 31.
6561-101: 0-29 makes sense, >32 will be interpreted as 32.
E: number of video rows (0-63)
6560-101 practical range: 0-29; at C=14, >=30 gives 29 1/8
6561-101 practical range: 0-35; at C=14, >=36 gives 35.
F: character size (1=8x16, 0=8x8)
G: current raster line ($9004=raster counter b8-b1, $9003 bit 7 = b0)
Vertical blank is on lines 0 through 27.
H: screen memory location ($9005:7-4 = b13-b10,
$9002:7 = b9 of screen and colour memory)
I: character memory location (b13-b10)
* Note that b13 is connected to the inverse of A15 on the Vic-20.
J: light pen X
K: light pen Y
L: paddle X
M: paddle Y
N: bass switch, R: freq f=Phi2/256/(255-$900a) NTSC: Phi2=14318181/14 Hz
O: alto switch, S: freq f=Phi2/128/(255-$900b) PAL: Phi2=4433618/4 Hz
P: soprano switch, T: freq f=Phi2/64/(255-$900c)
Q: noise switch, U: freq f=Phi2/32/(255-$900d)
W: auxiliary colour
V: volume control
X: screen colour
Y: reverse mode
Z: border colour
multicolour (character colour b7=1)
00 = screen colour
01 = character colour
10 = border colour
11 = auxiliary colour
Colour codes:
0 black
1 white
2 red
3 cyan
4 purple
5 green
6 blue
7 yellow
8 orange
9 light orange
a pink
b light cyan
c light purple
d light green
e light blue
f light yellow
Video timing
As the dot clock on the VIC-I is only 4 times the bus clock, the video
chip has time to read 2 bytes for every 8 pixels it outputs. All
memory accesses are performed without blocking the processor, using
the interleaved bus. The basic video timing is very simple. For
every character the VIC-I is about to display, it first fetches the
character code and colour, then the character appearance (from the
character generator memory). The character codes are read on every
raster line, thus making every line a "bad line". When the raster
beam is outside of the text window, the videochip reads from $001c for
most time. (Some videochips read from $181c instead.) The address
occasionally varies, but it might also be due to a flaky bus. (By
reading from unconnected address space, such as $9100-$910f, you can
read the data fetched by the videochip on the previous clock cycle.)
Copyright(c)2008 SECONS Ltd.