What is Mirocode Excatly ?

[Old_Atarian]

What i mean is, is there a program language that is used for microcode itself or is it just another way of entering opcodes to the 6502(7) Cpu ?

 

and is there any examples of what it looks like ?

 

sorry about all the strange questions but finding refrences to it are a pain, it's almost like a dead languge from long ago or somthing.

 

 

 

Thanx for any info on this

 

OA

[CPUWIZ]

The 6502 can not be programmed in microcode. All instructions are hardwired.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

You might want to read Andrews programming lessons not too far away from this forum. You won't find any better documentation of this "language" anyway...

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Thomas Jentzsch]

What i mean is, is there a program language that is used for microcode itself or is it just another way of entering opcodes to the 6502(7) Cpu ?

Microcode is used to reprogramm some of the internals of a CPU. IIRC the Pentium Pro was the first desktop CPU that allowed microcodes.

 

It's a bit similar to a PC bios update. Rarely used, but sometimes necessary for fixing bugs.

[CPUWIZ]

Here is a better explanation for microcode.

 

http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/microcode

[Nukey Shay]

'mIkrow`kowd

 

I love that Sounds like a good game name.

[Tom]

IIRC the Pentium Pro was the first desktop CPU that allowed microcodes.

 

shouldn't that be *updatable* microcodes ?

afaik it's common for cisc cpu's to have their more complex instructions (multiplication/divison etc) implemented with microcode. but usually there wasn't way to *change* those codes.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

shouldn't that be *updatable* microcodes ?

Yup, that's what I meant to say.

[Old_Atarian]

Did another search for microcode and came across an old article called "Meet David Crane" and it explained Micro Code as being a short hand for Assembly that the Programmers would use and how it would later become a Permanet Set of instructions for the game on the Rom

 

Now i understand and i really think 2600 Developers or any game Developers have it a lot Easier now than these guys did 20 years ago

 

And yeah CYBERGOTH, i found the tutorials in fact some made a PDF of them so i downloaded them to read and study as well as downloaded the 2600 SDK and current stella Vcs.h and Macros.h files Tiapainter 1.02. the instructions seem pretty straight forward (Even if it takes a ton of'em to do one thing ).

 

thank you Cpuwiz,Thomas,Manuel you have been a great help and i really appreciate your patience and understanding.

 

OA