201 Classic 8-bit era Programmable Sound Generator SN76489 :: Quicker, easier and cheaper to make your own chip!

How it works

This Verilog implementation is a replica of the classical SN76489 programmable sound generator. With roughly a 1400 logic gates this design fits on a single tile of the TinyTapeout.

The goals of this project

closely replicate the behavior and eventually the complete design of the original SN76489
provide a readable and well documented code for educational and hardware preservation purposes
leverage the modern fabrication process

A significant effort was put into a thorough test suite for regression testing and validation against the original chip behavior.

The future work

The next step is to incorporate analog elements into the design to match the original SN76489 - DAC for each channel and an analog OpAmp for channel summation.

Chip technical capabilities

3 square wave tone generators
1 noise generator
2 types of noise: white and periodic
Capable to produce a range of waves typically from 122 Hz to 125 kHz, defined by 10-bit registers.
16 different volume levels

Registers The behavior of the SN76489 is defined by 8 "registers" - 4 x 4 bit volume registers, 3 x 10 bit tone registers and 1 x 3 bit noise configuration register.

Channel	Volume registers	Tone & noise registers
0	Channel #0 attenuation	Tone #0 frequency
1	Channel #1 attenuation	Tone #1 frequency
2	Channel #2 attenuation	Tone #2 frequency
3	Channel #3 attenuation	Noise type and frequency

Square wave tone generators Square waves are produced by counting down the 10-bit counters. Each time the counter reaches the 0 it is reloaded with the corresponding value from the configuration register and the output bit of the channel is flipped producing square waves.

Noise generator Noise is produced with 15-bit Linear-feedback Shift Register (LFSR) that flips the output bit pseudo randomly. The shift rate of the LFSR register is controller either by one of the 3 hardcoded power-of-two dividers or output from the channel #2 tone generator is used.

Attenuation Each of the four SN76489 channels have dedicated attenuation modules. The SN76489 has 16 steps of attenuation, each step is 2 dB and maximum possible attenuation is 28 dB. Note that the attenuation definition is the opposite of volume / loudness. Attenuation of 0 means maximum volume.

Finally, all the 4 attenuated signals are summed up and are sent to the output pin of the chip.

Historical use of the SN76489

The SN76489 family of programmable sound generators was introduced by Texas Instruments in 1980. Variants of the SN76489 were used in a number of home computers, game consoles and arcade boards:

home computers: TI-99/4, BBC Micro, IBM PCjr, Sega SC-3000, Tandy 1000
game consoles: ColecoVision, Sega SG-1000, Sega Master System, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket and Sega Genesis
arcade machines by Sega & Konami and would usually include 2 or 4 SN76489 chips

The SN76489 chip family competed with the similar General Instrument AY-3-8910.

The original pinout of the SN76489AN

             ,--._.--.
      D5  -->|1    16|<-- VCC
      D6  -->|2    15|<-- D4
      D7  -->|3    14|<-- CLOCK
   ready* <--|4    13|<-- D3
     /WE  -->|5    12|<-- D2
     /ce* -->|6    11|<-- D1
AUDIO OUT <--|7    10|<-- D0
      GND ---|8     9|    not connected*
             `-------'
      * -- omitted from this Verilog implementation

Difference from the original hardware

This Verilog implementation is a completely digital and synchronous design that differs from the original SN76489 design which incorporated analog parts.

Audio signal output While the original chip had integrated OpAmp to sum generated channels in analog fashion, this implementation does digital signal summation and digital output. The module provides two alternative outputs for the generated audio signal:

digital 8-bit audio output suitable for external Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)
pseudo analog output through Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

Separate 4 channel output Outputs of all 4 channels are exposed along with the master output. This allows to validate and mix signals externally. In contrast the original chip was limited to a single audio output pin due to the PDIP-16 package.

No DC offset This implementation produces output 0/1 waveforms without DC offset.

No /CE and READY pins Chip enable control pin /CE is omitted in this design for simplicity. The behavior is the same as if /CE is tied low and the chip is considered always enabled.

Unlike the original SN76489 which took 32 cycles to update registers, this implementation handles register writes in a single cycle and chip behaves as always READY.

Synchronous reset and single phase clock The original design employed 2 phases of the clock for the operation of the registers. The original chip had no reset pin and would wake up to a random state.

To make it easier to synthesize and test on FPGAs this implementation uses single clock phase and synchronous reset for registers.

A configurable clock divider was introduced in this implementation.

the original SN76489 with the master clock internally divided by 16. This classical chip was intended for PAL and NTSC frequencies. However in BBC Micro 4 MHz clock was employed.
SN94624/SN76494 variants without internal clock divider. These chips were intended for use with 250 to 500 KHz clocks.
high frequency clock configuration for TinyTapeout, suitable for a range between 25 MHz and 50 Mhz. In this configuration the master clock is internally divided by 128.

The reverse engineered SN76489

This implementation is based on the results from these reverse engineering efforts:

Annotations and analysis of a decapped SN76489A chip.
Reverse engineered schematics based on a decapped VDP chip from Sega Mega Drive which included a SN76496 variant.

How to test

The data bus of the SN76489 chip has to be connected to microcontroller and receive a regular stream of commands. The SN76489 produces audio output and has to be connected to a speaker. There are several ways how the overall schematics can be established.

8-bit parallel output via DAC One option is to connect off the shelf data parallel Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) for example Digilent R2R Pmod to the output pins and route the resulting analog audio to piezo speaker or amplifier.

  uController              SN76489
  ,---------.            ,---._.---. 
  |         |    4 Mhz ->|CLK  SEL0|<-- 0
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D0   SEL1|<-- 0
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D1       |         ,----------.
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D2   OUT0|-------->|LSB       |
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D3   OUT1|-------->|          |  
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D4   OUT2|-------->|   pDAC   |  Headphones
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D5   OUT3|-------->|    or    |      or    
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D6   OUT4|-------->| RESISTOR |    Buzzer    
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D7   OUT5|-------->|  ladder  |         /|
  |    GPIOx|----------->|/WE  OUT6|-------->|          |     .--/ |
  `---------'            |     OUT7|-------->|MSB       |-----|    |
                         `---------'         `----------'     `--` |
                                                               |  `|
                                                               |
                                                          GND ---

AUDIO OUT through RC filter Another option is to use the Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) AUDIO OUT pin that combines 4 channels with the Resistor-Capacitor based low-pass filter or better the Operation Amplifier (Op-amp) & Capacitor based integrator:

  uController              SN76489
  ,---------.            ,---._.---. 
  |         |    4 Mhz ->|CLK  SEL0|<-- 0
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D0   SEL1|<-- 0
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D1       |
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D2       |
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D3       |          C1
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D4       |     ,----||----.
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D5       |     |          | 
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D6       |     |  Op-amp  |        Speaker     
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D7  AUDIO|     |   |X     |            /|
  |    GPIOx|----------->|/WE  OUT |-----+---|-X    |   C2   .--/ |
  `---------'            `---------'         |  }---+---||---|    |
                                          ,--|+/             `--` |
                                          |  |/               |  `|
                                          |                   |
                                     GND ---             GND ---

Separate channels through the Op-amp The third option is to externally combine 4 channels with the Operational Amplifier and low-pass filter:

  uController              SN76489
  ,---------.            ,---._.---. 
  |         |    4 Mhz ->|CLK  SEL0|<-- 0
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D0   SEL1|<-- 0
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D1       |
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D2       |
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D3       |           C1
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D4       |      ,----||----.
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D5  chan0|---.  |          | 
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D6  chan1|---+  |  Op-amp  |        Speaker
  |    GPIOx|----------->|D7  chan2|---+  |   |X     |            /|
  |    GPIOx|----------->|/WE chan3|---+--+---|-X    |   C2   .--/ |
  `---------'            `---------'          |  }---+---||---|    |
                                           ,--|+/             `--` |
                                           |  |/               |  `|
                                           |                   |
                                      GND ---             GND ---

Summary of commands to communicate with the chip

The SN76489 is programmed by updating its internal registers via the data bus. Below is a short summary of the communication protocol of SN76489. Please consult SN76489 Technical Manual for more information.

Command	Description	Parameters
`1cc0ffff`	Set tone fine frequency	`f` - 4 low bits, `c` - channel #
`00ffffff`	Follow up with coarse frequency	`f` - 6 high bits
`11100bff`	Set noise type and frequency	`b` - white/periodic, `f` - frequency control
`1cc1aaaa`	Set channel attenuation	`a` - 4 bit attenuation, `c` - channel #

NF1	NF0	Noise frequency control
0	0	Clock divided by 512
0	1	Clock divided by 1024
1	0	Clock divided by 2048
1	1	Use channel #2 tone frequency

Write to SN76489 Hold /WE low once data bus pins are set to the desired values. Pull /WE high before setting different value on the data bus.

Note frequency

Use the following formula to calculate the 10-bit period value for a particular note :

$ tone period_{cycles} = clock_{frequency} / (32_{cycles} * note_{frequency}) $

For example 10-bit value that plays 440 Hz note on a chip clocked at 4 MHz would be:

$ tone period_{cycles} = 4000000 Hz / (32_{cycles} * 440 Hz) = 284 = 11C_{hex} $

An example to play a note accompanied with a lower volume noise

D7	D6/5	D4..D0	Explanation
`1`	`00`	`01100`	Set channel #0 tone low 4-bits to $C_{hex} = 1100_{bin}$
`0`	`00`	`10001`	Set channel #0 tone high 6-bits to $11_{hex} = 010001_{bin}$
`1`	`00`	`10000`	Set channel #0 volume to 100%, attenuation 4-bits are $0_{dec} = 0000_{bin}$
`1`	`11`	`00100`	Set channel #3 noise type to white and divider to 512
`1`	`11`	`11000`	Set channel #3 noise volume to 50%, attenuation 4-bits are $8_{dec} = 1000_{bin}$

Timing diagram


CLK   ____      ____      ____      ____      ____      ____         
   __/    `____/    `____/    `____/    `____/    `____/    `___ ...
     |        |         |         |         |         |
     |        |         |         |         |         |

/WE _       __        __        __        __        _______
     `_____/  `______/  `______/  `______/  `______/   *
                                                       ^
D7..D0_______  ________  ________  ________  ________  |
   _/10001100  00010001  10010000  11100100  11111000`_|______
      chan#0    chan#0    chan#0    chan#3    chan#3   |
    tone=h??C   =h11C    atten=0    div=16    atten=8  |
      h011C = 440 Hz              /16 = ~1 Khz         |
                                 white noise           |
                                                       |
                                                 noise restarts
                                            after /WE goes high and
                                     there was a write to noise register

Configurable clock divider

Clock divider can be controlled through SEL0 and SEL1 control pins and allows to select between 3 chip variants.

SEL1	SEL0	Description	Clock frequency
0	0	SN76489 mode, clock divided by 16	3.5 .. 4.2 MHz
1	1	-----//-----	3.5 .. 4.2 MHz
0	1	SN76494 mode, no clock divider	250 .. 500 kHZ
1	0	New mode for TT05, clock div. 128	25 .. 50 MHz

SEL1	SEL0	Formula to calculate the 10-bit tone period value for a note
0	0	$clock_{frequency} / (32_{cycles} * note_{frequency})$
1	1	-----//-----
0	1	$clock_{frequency} / (2_{cycles} * note_{frequency})$
1	0	$clock_{frequency} / (256_{cycles} * note_{frequency})$

Some examples of music recorded from the chip simulation

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghBGasckpSY](Crazee Rider BBC Micro game)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXLAdA02I-w](MISSION76496 tune for Sega Master System)

External hardware

DAC (for ex. Digilent R2R PMOD), RC filter, amplifier, speaker

#	Input	Output	Bidirectional
0	D0 data bus	digital audio LSB	(in) /WE write enable
1	D1 data bus	digital audio	(in) SEL0 clock divider
2	D2 data bus	digital audio	(in) SEL1 clock divider
3	D3 data bus	digital audio	(out) channel 0 (PWM)
4	D4 data bus	digital audio	(out) channel 1 (PWM)
5	D5 data bus	digital audio	(out) channel 2 (PWM)
6	D6 data bus	digital audio	(out) channel 3 (PWM)
7	D7 data bus	digital audio MSB	(out) AUDIO OUT master (PWM)

201 Classic 8-bit era Programmable Sound Generator SN76489