APU Noise

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Revision as of 11:39, 26 February 2010 by Blargg (talk | contribs) (Reworked shift register description to never use more than 15 bits)
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The NES APU noise channel generates pseudo-random 1-bit noise at 16 different frequencies.

The noise channel contains the following: envelope generator, timer, shift register with feedback, length counter.

   Timer --> Shift Register   Length Counter
                   |                |
                   v                v
Envelope -------> Gate ----------> Gate --> (to mixer)
$400C --le.eeee Length counter halt and envelope (write)
 
$400E L---.PPPP Loop and period (write)
bit 7 L--- ---- Loop flag
bits 3-0 ---- PPPP The timer period is set to entry P of the following:
Rate  $0 $1  $2  $3  $4  $5   $6   $7   $8   $9   $A   $B   $C    $D    $E    $F
      --------------------------------------------------------------------------
NTSC   4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 96, 128, 160, 202, 254, 380, 508, 762, 1016, 2034, 4068
PAL    4, 7, 14, 30, 60, 88, 118, 148, 188, 236, 354, 472, 708,  944, 1890, 3778
 
$400F llll.l--- Length counter load and envelope restart (write)

The shift register is 15 bits wide, with bits numbered
14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0

When the timer clocks the shift register, the following actions occur in order:

  1. Feedback is calculated as the exclusive-OR of bit 0 and one other bit: bit 6 if loop is set, otherwise bit 1.
  2. The shift register is shifted right by one bit.
  3. Bit 14, the leftmost bit, is set to the feedback calculated earlier.

This results in a pseudo-random bit sequence, 32767 bits long when loop is clear, otherwise 93 bits long (the particular 93-bit sequence depends on where in the 32767-bit sequence the shift register was when loop was set).

The mixer receives the current envelope volume except when

On power-up, the shift register is loaded with the value 1.