using arduino nano (16mhz) to drive vcs tia(ntsc) clock?

[universal2600]

hello i've been searching around on the web but havent found a definitive answer, i know that it's possible to get a 1 - 2 Mhz "clock" by toggling an arduino pin, but would it be possible to genrate the 3.579545 Mhz since you can actually display a composite output using the arduino tv out library? the project is pretty much a general sound and video synth, just to see how much more one could get out of a TIA chip by removing it from the limiting memory map/configuration of the 2600, aswell as having the more oomph power of the arduino at 16mhz, could one generate the clock and still have enough cpu(arduino) cycles to actually do useful stuff.

 

 

P.s is it possible to use 2 74hc595 one for the addressing and the other for the data bus on the tia, or are the signal timings that precise?

Edited July 12, 2017 by universal2600

[Osgeld]

the 3.57xxx mhz is required to generate color, which TV out does not, I used to be very familiar with it but not anymore, but it takes a fair amount of time at 16Mhz just generating the timing signals and even if ram is not a factor I think the best resolution I got was like 200x200

 

now that's not to say it cant be done with a micro, plenty of people have done it, what it does require typically is a base clock of some multiple of 3.57 (for instance the uzebox is 28.61818Mhz or 8x) and some good low level programming