Added graphics mode in the FPGA computer

This is another follow-up of the original FPGA Computer post.

I have added the graphics mode to the FPGA computer - 320x240 pixels, 8 colors for each pixel. Framebuffer starts at the same address as the text mode one (2400 decimal), but it now displays pixels, instead of characters.

0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0

Or, 0x44 in hex.

Since the default mode is text mode, I have devised a system to switch video modes:
mov r1, 1
out [128], r1

This code will switch to the graphics mode of 320x240. To switch back to the text mode, you need to execute the following code:
mov r1, 0
out [128], r1



The implementation in Verilog was not complicated compared to the text mode. First of all, I had to decide which resolution to implement. I have chosen 320x240 with 8 colors, because it consumes 38400 bytes, which is the least amount of memory with the decent resolution and number of colors. I could not have more pixels, since that would consume more RAM than the computer has (64KB).

Even this mode consumes more than half of the available memory, so I can always make other modes not so demanding in memory (reduce the number of colors). For example, having the same 320x240 black and white framebuffer would consume 9600 bytes, or approx. 9KB.

Next, the implementation has two pixels per byte of the framebuffer. So, I have recycled the text mode vga module and used the same two variables: x and y to go through all the pixels of the screen. Then I had to fetch in advance the next word (two bytes - remember, memory is organized in 32KW, having data bus 16 bits wide) containing next four pixels. So the algorithm was simple:


else if (x < 640 && !mem_read) begin
if ((x & 7) == 7)  begin
// when we are finishing current word, 
// containing four pixels, 
// we need to fetch in advance 
// the next word (x+1, y)
// (at the last pixel of the current character,
// let's fetch next)
rd <= 1'b1;
wr <= 1'b0;
addr <= VIDEO_MEM_ADDR + ((xx >> 2)+(yy * 80) + 1);
mem_read <= 1'b1;
end

end 
else if ((x >= 640) && (y < 480)) begin
// when we start the horizontal blanking, 
// and we need to go to the next line, 
// we need to fetch in advance the first word 
// in the next line (0, y+1)
rd <= 1'b1;
wr <= 1'b0;
mem_read <= 1'b1;
if ((y & 1) == 1) begin
addr <= VIDEO_MEM_ADDR + ((yy + 1) * 80);
end
else begin
addr <= VIDEO_MEM_ADDR + ((yy) * 80);
end
end
if ((x >= 640) && (y >= 480)) begin
// when we start the vertical blanking, 
// we need to fetch in advance the first word at (0, 0)
rd <= 1'b1;
wr <= 1'b0;
mem_read <= 1'b1;
addr <= VIDEO_MEM_ADDR + 0;
end
When we set the addres bus to the address of the word (containing pixels) to be fetched, then we receive that word using the following code:
if (mem_read) begin
pixels <= data;
rd <= 1'bz;
wr <= 1'bz;
mem_read <= 1'b0;
end
if (valid) begin
r <= pixels[12 - ((xx & 3) << 2) + 0] == 1'b1;
g <= pixels[12 - ((xx & 3) << 2) + 1] == 1'b1;
b <= pixels[12 - ((xx & 3) << 2) + 2] == 1'b1;
end
else begin
// blanking -> no pixels
r <= 1'b0;
g <= 1'b0;
b <= 1'b0;
end

Assembler example

Assembler examples can be found here.

Here is the assembler example which draws two pixels, three lines and a circle on the screen:

mov r0, 1
out [128], r0  ; set the video mode to graphics

mov r0, 0 ; x = 0
mov r1, 100         ; y = 100
mov r2, 7 ; white color (0111)
call pixel
inc r0 ; x = 1
mov r2, 4 ; red color (0100)
call pixel

mov r2, 4 ; red color (0100)
mov r0, 50 ; A.x = 50
mov r1, 50 ; A.y = 50
mov r3, 150 ; B.x = 150
mov r4, 150 ; B.y = 150
call line

mov r2, 2 ; green color (0010)
mov r0, 50 ; A.x = 50
mov r1, 50 ; A.y = 50
mov r3, 150 ; B.x = 150
mov r4, 50 ; B.y = 50
call line

mov r2, 1 ; blue color (0001)
mov r0, 150 ; A.x = 150
mov r1, 50 ; A.y = 50
mov r3, 150 ; B.x = 150
mov r4, 150 ; B.y = 150
call line

mov r2, 7 ; white color (0111)
mov r0, 150 ; x = 150
mov r1, 150 ; y = 150
mov r3, 50 ; r = 50
call circle