Input and Output

Input and Output (Unit 4.5)

We will learn to use bits to manipulate the peripheral devices.

Screen Memory Map

There is a display unit (256 * 512, b/w)

The Screen Memory Map is a sequence of 16-bit values, each of which is called “a word”. Altogether we have 8k (8192), 16-bit words, because there should be this much bits (one for each pixel).

Note that the read/write operations are only 16-bit, not individual bits.

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Hello, Time!

Sequential Logic (Unit 3.1)

In this unit we introduce the issue of time into the system, since we didn’t have the notion of change before. To simplify the concept, we divide time into atomic pieces, which is clock.

Clock (Integer Time Unit)

Clock can be viewed as an oscillator at a certain fixed rate, of which each cycle is treated as a time unit, like time 0, time 1 and so on.

The signals are viewed as a indivisible thing as if nothing changes within each time unit. As a input signal is renewed every cycle, the output signal instantaneously follows (几乎同时).

You may wonder if this is real. Indeed, there may be delay in physical electrical signals. But, we can think it as a way that the voltage change (the grey area in the screenshot below) happens between cycles, while luckily, the cycles are a little bit wider than this instability. So, it is safe to ignore it and focus on the end of each time unit.

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