generator power yamaha

The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice programmable sound generator (PSG) designed by General Instrument, initially for use with their 16-bit CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series of 8-bit microcomputers. The 8910 and its variants became popular chips in many arcade games, and was used on, among others, the Intellivision and Vectrex video game consoles and the MSX, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Oric 1 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128/+2/+3 home computers as well as the Mockingboard sound card for the Apple II family. It was also produced under license by Yamaha as the YM2149.

It produced very similar results to the Texas Instruments SN76489 and was on the market for a similar period.

The chips are no longer made, but a declining stock is still obtainable for servicing vintage machines. POWER GENERATOR SUPERSTORE! Electric Generators - Home Backup. A VHDL equivalent description has been written, for use in FPGA recreations of arcade machines and the machine like those mentioned above. The VHDL source code is available on the net, and compiles to fill about 10% of a Xilinx XC2S300 FPGA.

Description

The 8910 was essentially a state machine, with the state being set up in a series of sixteen 8-bit registers. These were programmed over an 8-bit bus that was used both for addressing and data by toggling one of the external pins.