Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies
Session 5: Memory Architecture
By Andrew Davie (adapted by Duane Alan Hahn, a.k.a. Random Terrain)
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Page Table of Contents
Original Session
Let's have a look at the memory architecture of the '2600, and how the 6502 communicates with the TIA and other parts of the '2600 hardware.
The 6502 communicates with the TIA by writing, and sometimes reading values to/from TIA 'registers'. These registers are 'mapped' to certain fixed addresses in the 6502's addressing range.
In its simplest form, the 6502 is able to address 65536 (2^16) bytes of memory, each with a unique address. Each 16-bit address ultimately directly controls the 'wires' on a 16-bit buspathway to memory, selecting the appropriate byte of memory to read/write. However, the '2600 CPU, the 6507, is only able to directly access 2^13 bytes (8192 bytes) of memory. That is, only 13 of the 16 address lines are actually connected to physical memory.
This is our first introduction to 'memory mapping' and mirroring. Given that the 6507 can only access addresses using the low 13 bits of an address, what happens if bit 14, 15, or 16 of an address are set? Where does the 6507 go to look for its data? In fact, bits 14,15, and 16 are totally ignored—only the low 13 bits are used to identify the address of the byte to read/write. Consider the valid addresses which can be formed with just 13 bits of data…
from %0000000000000 to %1111111111111
= from $0000 to $1FFF
Note: $0000 is the same as 0 is the same as %000 is the same as %0000000000. 0 is 0. In the same vein, any number with leading zeros is the same as that number without zeros. I often see people writing $02 when they could just write $2, or better yet … 2. Your assembler doesn't care how numbers are written. It's the value of numbers that matter. So use the most readable form of numbers, where it makes sense. Remember, 0 is 0000 is %0 is $000
So we've just written down the minimum and maximum addresses that can be formed with 13 bits. This gives us our memory 'footprint'—the absolute extremes of memory which can be accessed by the 6507 through a 13-bit address.
This next idea is important, so make sure you understand! All communication between the CPU and hardware (be it ROM, RAM, I/O, the TIA, or other) is through reads and/or writes to memory locations. Read that again.
The consequences of this are that some of that memory range (between $0 and $1FFF) must contain our RAM, some must contain our ROM (program), and some must presumably allow us to communicate with the TIA and whatever other communication/control systems the machine has. And that's exactly how it works.
We have just 128 bytes of RAM on the '2600. That RAM 'lives' at addresses $80 - $FF. It's always there, so any write to location $80 (128 decimal) will actually be to the first byte of RAM. Likewise, any read from those locations is actually reading from RAM.
So we've just learned that the 6507 addresses memory using 13 bits to uniquely identify the memory location, and that some areas of that memory 'range' are devoted to different uses. The area from $80 to $FF is our 128 bytes of RAM!
Don't worry too much about understanding this yet, but TIA registers are mapped in the memory addresses 0 to $7F, RIOT (a bit of '2600 hardware we'll look at later) from $280 - $2FF (roughly), and our program is mapped into address range $1000 to $1FFF (a 4K size).
Note: 1K = 1024 bytes = $400 bytes = %10000000000 bytes.
In essence, then, to change the state of the TIA we just have to write values to TIA 'registers' which look to the 6507 just like any other memory location and which 'live' in addresses 0 to $7F. To the 6502 (and I'll revert to that name now we've emphasized that the 6507 only has 13 address lines as opposed to the 6502's 16 and all other things are equal) a read or write of a TIA register is just the same as a read or write to any other area of memory. The difference is, the TIA is 'watching' those locations, and when you write to that memory, you're really changing the TIA 'registers'—and potentially changing what it draws on a scanline.
So now we know how to communicate with the TIA, and where it 'lives' in our memory footprint. And we know how to communicate with RAM, and where it 'lives'. Even our program in ROM is really just another area in our memory 'map'—the program that runs from a cartridge is accessed by the 6502 just by reading memory locations. In effect, the cartridge 'plugs-in' to the 6502 memory map. Let's have a quick look at what we know so far about memory…
|
Address Range |
Function |
|
$0000 - $007F |
TIA registers |
|
$0080 - $00FF |
RAM |
|
$0200 - $02FF |
RIOT registers |
|
$1000 - $1FFF |
ROM |
We'll keep it simple for now—though you may be wondering what 'lives' in the gaps in that map, between the bits we know about. The short answer is 'not much'—so let's not worry about those areas for now. Just remember that when we're accessing TIA registers, we're really accessing memory from 0 to $7F, and when we access RAM, we're accessing memory from $80 to $FF, etc.
Now that we understand HOW the 6502 communicates with the TIA, one of our next steps will be to start to examine the registers of the TIA and what happens when you modify them. It won't be long now before we start to understand how it all works. Stay tuned.
I might give up writing "next time we'll talk about…" because I seem to end up covering something completely different.
Other Assembly Language Tutorials
Be sure to check out the other assembly language tutorials and the general programming pages on this web site.
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Session 2: Television Display Basics
Sessions 3 & 6: The TIA and the 6502
Session 5: Memory Architecture
Session 7: The TV and our Kernel
Session 9: 6502 and DASM - Assembling the Basics
Session 14: Playfield Weirdness
Session 15: Playfield Continued
Session 16: Letting the Assembler do the Work
Sessions 17 & 18: Asymmetrical Playfields (Parts 1 & 2)
Session 20: Asymmetrical Playfields (Part 3)
Session 22: Sprites, Horizontal Positioning (Part 1)
Session 22: Sprites, Horizontal Positioning (Part 2)
Session 23: Moving Sprites Vertically
Session 25: Advanced Timeslicing
Atari 2600 BASIC
If assembly language is too hard for you, try batari Basic. It's a BASIC-like language for creating Atari 2600 games. It's the faster, easier way to make Atari 2600 games.
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