Valkyrie IC

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The Valkyrie IC is a custom IC containing the logic for the video display. It includes the following functions:

  • display memory controller
  • video CLUT (color lookup table)
  • video DAC (digital-to-analog converter)

A separate data bus handles data transfers between the Valkyrie IC and the display memory. The display memory data bus is 32 bits wide, and all data is transfered 32 bits at a time. The Valkyrie IC breaks each 32-bit data transfer into several pixels of the appropriate size for the current display mode—4, 8, or 16 bits per pixel. The Valkyrie IC does not support 24 bits per pixel.

To keep up with the large amount of data that must be transferred into and out of the display memory, the Valkyrie IC has several internal buffers. Besides input and output buffers for display data, the Valkyrie IC also has a buffer for both addresses and data being sent from the main processor to the display. That buffer can hold up to four transactions, allowing the main processor to complete a write instruction to the display memory and continue processing without waiting for some other transaction that might be taking place on the display memory bus.

The CLUT in the Valkyrie custom IC provides color palettes for 4-bit and 8-bit display modes.In 16-bit display mode, the CLUT is used to provide gamma correction for the stored color values. With a black-and-white or monochrome display mode, all three color components (R, G, and B) are the same.

The Valkyrie IC uses several clocks. Its transactions with the CPU are synchronized to the CPU_BCLK signal. Data transfers from the frame-buffer DRAM are clocked by the MEM_CLK signal, which runs at 60 MHz. Data transfers to the CLUT and the video output are clocked by the dot clock, which has a different rate for different display monitors.

See Also