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Forums > C64 Coding > Timing Challenge
2017-04-28 12:12
TWW

Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 545
Timing Challenge

Hello everyone. Figured I'd give you a small challenge before the weekend in terms of making a timing delay routine with the least amount of bytes and without destroying any registers for the following amounts of cycles:

26 cycles delay:
    pha         // 3
    pha         // 3
    pha         // 3
    nop         // 2
    bit $00     // 3
    pla         // 4
    pla         // 4
    pla         // 4 <- 26 cycles | 9 bytes


27 cycles delay:
    pha         // 3
    pha         // 3
    pha         // 3
    nop         // 2
    nop         // 2
    nop         // 2
    pla         // 4
    pla         // 4
    pla         // 4 <- 27 cycles | 9 bytes


31 cycles delay:
    pha             // 3
    lda #%00001000  // 2
    lsr             // 2 2 2 2
    bcc *-1         // 3 3 3 2
    bit $00         //       3
    pla             //       4 <- 31 cycles | 9 bytes


32 cycles delay:
    pha             // 3
    lda #%00001000  // 2
    lsr             // 2 2 2 2
    bcc *-1         // 3 3 3 2
    nop             //       2
    nop             //       2
    pla             //       4 <- 32 cycles | 9 bytes


31 cycles delay:
    pha             // 3
    lda #%00001000  // 2
    lsr             // 2 2 2 2
    bcc *-1         // 3 3 3 2
    nop             //       2
    nop             //       2
    nop             //       2
    pla             //       4 <- 34 cycles | 10 bytes


I have posted my solutions for reference and hope to see creative (hehe got it?) solutions ;-) Have a nice weekend^^
2017-04-28 12:21
JackAsser

Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014
Obviosly SP, Flags and stack may be clobbered
2017-04-28 12:43
soci

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 480
.1000	20 03 20		jsr wait26

.2003	20 07 20	wait26	jsr +
.2006	ea			nop
.2007	60		+	rts
2017-04-28 13:09
soci

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 480
.1000	18		wait27	clc
.1001	b0			gcc +
.1002	38		-	sec
.1003	08		+	php
.1004	28			plp
.1005	90 fb			bcc -
.1007	ea			nop
2017-04-28 13:25
soci

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 480
.1000	20 07 28	jsr $2807		jsr wait31

.2807	20 08 28	jsr $2808	wait31  jsr wait31+1
.280a	60		rts			rts

Same idea can be used to shorten the 27 cycle delay above:
.1000	20 23 28	jsr $2823		jsr wait27

.2823	20 24 28	jsr $2824	wait27  jsr wait27+1
.2826	60		rts			rts

Or the 26 cycle one:
.1000	20 c8 28	jsr $28c8		jsr wait26

.28c8	20 c9 28	jsr $28c9	wait26  jsr wait26+1
.28cb	60		rts			rts

Etc.
2017-04-28 13:38
Bob

Registered: Nov 2002
Posts: 71
cool... but what is the point for throwing away cycles ?
I'll rather use them ;)
2017-04-28 18:48
TWW

Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 545
Quoting JackAsser
Obviosly SP, Flags and stack may be clobbered


Sorry, should have been more specific, Flags can be messed with although the SP should be intact but the stack may be used as long as SP is restored upon exit.
2017-04-28 20:13
ChristopherJam

Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1409
Standard opcodes only, or are illegals allowed?

Can the routine require a page crossing at a given point within the sequence, or should we assume the sequence is all on the same page?
2017-04-30 21:07
TWW

Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 545
IOPs and page alignment trickery allowed ;-)
2017-05-02 06:11
HCL

Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 728
I would go for Soci:s method, or something with JMP to share the code. Like..:
Wait10
  jmp Wait7
Wait9
  jmp Wait6
Wait8
  jmp Wait5

Wait7
  jmp Wait4
Wait6
  jmp Wait3
Wait5
  jmp Wait2

Wait4
  nop
Wait2
  nop
  rts

Wait3
  bit 0
  rts
2017-05-02 06:44
Trash

Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 122
I wouldnt consider size at all...
wait63 .byte $c9 ; cmp#
wait62 .byte $c9 ; cmp#
...
wait3 .byte $24 ; bit $
wait2 .byte $ea ; nop
rts ; 63 bytes for all delays between 69 and 8 cycles


...unless I had a really specific case
2017-05-02 18:03
soci

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 480
Exactly, just JSR into the slide and each new delay costs only 3 bytes. For large enough number of different delays it might worth it.
2017-05-02 19:01
lft

Registered: Jul 2007
Posts: 369
What if we disallow stack usage? Then the JSR approach doesn't work anymore. Is that an interesting challenge?
2017-05-03 08:51
JackAsser

Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014
Quote: What if we disallow stack usage? Then the JSR approach doesn't work anymore. Is that an interesting challenge?

27 cycle delay in 10 bytes, no stack usage:
stx :++ +1
ldx #4
:dex
bne :-
:ldx #0
2017-05-03 12:56
Oswald

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094
1 rasterline is about ldx #7-8. memories from 26 years ago :)
2017-05-03 14:09
HCL

Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 728
It is somewhat unclear what the challenge really is.. except for wasting cycles in different ways :)
2017-05-04 07:52
Pex Mahoney Tufvesson

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 52
I would use the REU for doing nothing. At program init, write #0 to $df08, then assume number of (cycles-10) we want to waste in accumulator:

sta $df07
lda #$b0
sta $df01

Done! Anything between approximately 10 - 265 cycles wasted, in 8 bytes of code.

@HCL, the real challenge is to make a demo for X'2018. :)
2017-05-04 08:58
ChristopherJam

Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1409
Some shorter delays..
; minimal bytes, no IOPS
; preserves a,x,y,sp
; may clobber stack and flags

; 2 cycles (1 byte)
    nop

; 3 cycles (2 bytes)
    bit 3

; 4 cycles (2 bytes)
    nop
    nop

; 5 cycles (3 bytes)
    nop
    bit 3

; 6 cycles (3 bytes)
    nop
    nop
    nop

; 7 cycles (2 bytes)
    pha
    pla

; 8 cycles (4 bytes)
    nop
    nop
    nop
    nop

; 9 cycles (3 bytes)
    pha
    nop
    pla

;10 cycles (4 bytes)
    pha
    bit 3
    pla

;11 cycles (4 bytes)
    pha
    nop
    nop
    pla

;12 cycles (5 bytes)
    pha
    nop
    bit 3
    pla

;13 cycles (5 bytes)
    pha
    nop
    nop
    nop
    pla

;14 cycles (4 bytes)
    pha
    pha
    pla
    pla

2017-05-04 12:10
MagerValp

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1078
You can replace three nops with cmp ($00,x) and save a byte.
2017-05-04 12:32
JackAsser

Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014
Quote: You can replace three nops with cmp ($00,x) and save a byte.

Same goes for the 5c delay with nop+bit => cmp ($00),y
2017-05-04 13:25
MagerValp

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1078
Not for any Y though, it's 6 cycles on page crossing. If you can sacrifice a zp address you can use INC/DEC zp instead.
2017-05-04 14:28
ChristopherJam

Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1409
Quote: You can replace three nops with cmp ($00,x) and save a byte.

Oh, good point. For some reason I was only considering BIT, which doesn't have anywhere near as many addressing modes.
2017-05-05 10:02
Kruthers

Registered: Jul 2016
Posts: 21
Slight tangent, but this thread reminds me of the timing hell I was in working on Sidistic. I had to constantly adjust timing all over the place, which would cause code to adjust and cross pages, changing timing.... it was driving me nuts.

So I wrote a macro that would always use 8 bytes to burn any amount of cycles (except 2 or 4, grrr!) Always wondered if that would be useful to anyone else, though it needs to trash a register and/or a ZP location for some amounts of delay.

But what still nags me: is there some way to burn 4 cycles in 8 bytes that I missed? Obviously, without using page crossing...
2017-05-05 11:18
Frantic

Registered: Mar 2003
Posts: 1648
Quote: Slight tangent, but this thread reminds me of the timing hell I was in working on Sidistic. I had to constantly adjust timing all over the place, which would cause code to adjust and cross pages, changing timing.... it was driving me nuts.

So I wrote a macro that would always use 8 bytes to burn any amount of cycles (except 2 or 4, grrr!) Always wondered if that would be useful to anyone else, though it needs to trash a register and/or a ZP location for some amounts of delay.

But what still nags me: is there some way to burn 4 cycles in 8 bytes that I missed? Obviously, without using page crossing...


The only solution (to burn 4 cycles in 8 bytes) I can think of is one of the bxx branch instructions precisely when the branch is always taken due to some known register/flag state AND crossing a page boundary, since you could then skip some bytes in 4 cycles. ....so this clearly does not adhere to your specification, but my point is just that this is the only way I can think of.
2017-05-05 18:47
Kruthers

Registered: Jul 2016
Posts: 21
Quote: The only solution (to burn 4 cycles in 8 bytes) I can think of is one of the bxx branch instructions precisely when the branch is always taken due to some known register/flag state AND crossing a page boundary, since you could then skip some bytes in 4 cycles. ....so this clearly does not adhere to your specification, but my point is just that this is the only way I can think of.

Yeah, pretty much what I figured. At first I held out hope that some illegal instruction would help, but after reading groepaz' doc was surprised that there are no weird branches out of all those unused opcodes. I guess a "branch slowly" was wishful thinking. ;)
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