666   888   000  k  k
zzzz 6     8   8 0   0 k k
  z  6666   888  0 0 0 kk
 z   6   6 8   8 0   0 k k
zzzz  666   888   000  k  k

Astrid Smith Project started: 2010-06-06

This software package is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.0, or (at your option) any later version.

The intent of this project is to provide a fast and correct TI-83+ emulator to run on the TI-89. Once that is done, perhaps I will extend it to other models in the TI-83 family.

This project has a long and barren history, beginning with my first contemplation of an emulator similar in interface to Macsbug -- in September 2002. That foray fizzled after a long email thread with Michael Vincent. The current iteration was sparked by a comment on IRC by Brandon Wilson, on June 6 2010:

<BrandonW> chronomex, you should create a z80 emulator for the 68k calculators.
<chronomex> that sounds like a capital idea
<chronomex> I started and abandoned such a project in *2002*
<chronomex> http://students.washington.edu/f/projects/ti/ti83pemu.shtml
<BrandonW> I think we desperately need it.
<chronomex> yeah?
<chronomex> why is MulTI inadequate?
<BrandonW> My understanding is that it just runs select programs.
<BrandonW> Right?
<chronomex> I have not looked into it at all
<chronomex> well other than finding the webpage
<BrandonW> We need to be able to run the TI-OS.

The most difficult challenge in writing a 68k-hosted emulator targetting the z80 is making it fast. TI-83+ calculators have a clock rate in the neighborhood of 12MHz, as do TI-89s. z80 instructions take from 4 to 17 cycles to execute. I can dispatch an instruction with a fixed 42 cycle overhead:

emu_fetch:
  eor.w    d0,d0     ; 4 cycles
  move.b   (a4)+,d0  ; 8 cycles
  rol.w    #5,d0     ;16 cycles
  jmp      0(a3,d0)  ;14 cycles
  ;; overhead:        42 cycles

(Using techniques borrowed from Tezxas I will be able to get this to 26 cycles.)

From there, an instruction will take anywhere from 0 to, well, lots of additional cycles. Generally, however, it will take under 50, for 92 total. In the worst reasonable case, a 4 cycle instruction emulated in 92 cycles, that's a 23:1 ratio. In the best possible case, a 17-cycle instruction emulated in 42 cycles, is more nearly a 1:2 ratio.

I am not aiming for exactly correct relative timing of instructions, choosing instead to maintain the highest possible speed. As a result, programs that depend on cycle counts to function will not work as expected.

• 68k timings
• z80 instruction set in numerical order
• More z80 instruction set reference
• Details on flags and other side effects

1. PC-relative accesses (reads, writes, jumps) across page boundaries may not work. This is apparently a rare enough occurence that ignoring it is reasonable.