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Game of Life
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<body>
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<tt>Game of Life example program</tt><br/>
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<tt>Copyright 2012-2013, Sinclair R.F., Inc.</tt><br/>
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<h1>Introduction</h1>
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<i>Conway's Game of Life</i>, see
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life">Wikipedia</a>,
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is used as an example of a more complicated SSBCC.9x8 application.<br/><br/>
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The processor is used to propagate the machine state on a periodic basis as
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controlled by user input, the FPGA fabric is used to generate the output
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video, and several external SRAM are used as a ping pong buffer for the video
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display.<br/><br/>
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Scripts to build the game for various development boards are listed by FPGA
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vendor name.<br/><br/>
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<h1>Theory of Operation</h1>
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The bit pattern for the game of life is stored in a 256x256 memory as 256x32
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8-bit values. I.e., in 8 kB of RAM. Two copies of this memory are used,
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one for the image being displayed and one for the image being
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computed.<br/><br/>
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The processor reads three lines of the image into buffers and computes the new
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line of output based on those. This architecture allows the processor to do
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an in-place update for the maximum update rate.<br/><br/>
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<h1>Serial Protocol</h1>
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This section lists the commands to configure and operate the game.<br/><br/>
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<table>
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<tr>
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<th valign="top" align="left">Command</th>
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<th valign="top" align="left">Description</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">c</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">clear the game and turn off wrapping</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">h</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">halt the game</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">i I</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">set the update interval to I<br/>
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Note: I must be between 0 and 255 inclusive
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">r</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">run the game indefinitely</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">s</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">step the game (do one iteration of the game)</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">w</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">toggle wrapping</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">+ N M</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">set the pixel on the N'th column and M'th row<br/>
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Note: N and M must be within the size constraints for the game (nominally
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top" align="left">- N M</td>
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<td valign="top" align="left">clear the pixel on the N'th column and M'th row</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<h1>Digital to NTSC Converter</h1>
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<ul>
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<li>See <a href="http://naturetm.com/?p=47">MSP430 project</a>.<br/><br/>
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</li>
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<li>See
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<a href="http://www.batsocks.co.uk/readme/video_timing.htm">timing and sync</a>
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for source information for the above.<br/><br/>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</html>
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