In the last article, I described the sequencer, which is the heart of a CPU, and a few other blocks that perform various tasks. But how is it all orchestrated to perform useful work?
Enter the PLA and the Timing matrix – the mind of a CPU.
Category: FPGA
A Z80 : The Heart
Click on any image to open a higher-resolution version.
This is how it all works.
The sequencer is “the heart” of a CPU. It gets the external clock which in turn toggles two rows of flip-flops that generate machine cycles (M-cycles) and clock periods (T-states).
9 Comments
A Z80 From the Ground Up
A-Z80 is a conceptual implementation of the venerable Zilog Z80 processor targeted to synthesize and run on a modern FPGA device. It differs from the existing (mostly Verilog) Z80 implementations in that it is designed from the ground up through the schematics and low-level gates.
A Poem by FPGA
This article is about using an Altera FPGA board to generate images on a VGA monitor.
