Midway Zeus

Midway Zeus Hardware

This topic is primarily focused on the 3D graphics hardware of the Zeus. The Zeus chip is a Midway custom 3D controller that is capable of high polygon rates. Not much is yet known about the chip, but a number of details have been reverse engineered. This page describes what is currently known/understood.

Main CPU

The main CPU driving the Zeus is -- at least in the case of Mortal Kombat 4 -- a TMS32C032 DSP running at 60 MHz.

Zeus 3D Graphics

The Zeus chip is memory mapped into the main CPU's address space at addresses from $880000-$8803FF. Keep in mind that the TMS32C032 only accesses 32-bit memory, so each of the 1,024 addresses is 32 bits wide (i.e., address $880000 references one 32-bit word, and address $880001 references a completely independent 32-bit word).

As with most external chips, the memory map for the Zeus consists of a number of registers, in this case 512 registers. One interesting aspect is that the Zeus internally appears to be a 32-bit chip, but can be accessed in (and defaults to) a 16-bit mode. The way this is done is that in 16-bit mode, accesses to odd addresses reference the upper 16 bits of a register, while accesses to even addresses reference the lower 16 bits of a register. When the chip is switched to 32-bit mode, almost all accesses are to the even registers. It is not clear what happens if you read or write to an odd address when the chip is in 32-bit mode, though the games on the hardware occasionally do so.

The 512 registers on the chip are described by their addresses. So register 0 maps to address $000, while register 1 maps to address $002, etc. This helps keep things straight when referring back to the code.

Wave RAM

The Zeus chip provides access to some local RAM called "Wave RAM" in the diagnostic tests. There are two banks of Wave RAM, 8MB each, for a total of 16MB of 3D graphics RAM. Wave RAM holds the frame buffers, textures, model data, palettes, and other tables used by the Zeus.

Most references to Wave RAM are done in terms of what I suspect are row/column addresses. The low 12 bits of an address are the column, and the upper 12 bits of an address are the row (the top 8 bits are used for other purposes). Wave RAM appears to be configured as 512 columns, so really only 9 of the 12 lower bits are used. 11 of the 12 upper bits are used, giving 512 * 2048 (1M) addressable locations.

Direct access to Wave RAM from the CPU is done in 8 byte (64-bit) chunks. This is where the 8MB comes from (512 * 2048 * 8).

Wave RAM appears to be addressed in several different ways. The most common format for referencing a Wave RAM address is to use a special length/row/column format as follows:

Bit	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03	02	01	00
	?	?	L	L	L	L	L	L	x	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	x	x	x	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C

I will call this form "block form", since it is used to reference not only an address but a block of data up to 512 bytes long. I also call it "block form" because everything is specified in terms of 8-byte "blocks". The actual byte address into Wave RAM is given by (8 * (C | (R << 9))). The length 'L' specifies a length of 1-64 blocks (0 means 1 block, 63 means 64 blocks).

When accessing Wave RAM via the direct RAM access registers, a similar form is used but without the length:

Bit	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03	02	01	00
	x	x	x	x	x	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C

I will call this form "expanded form", since the R and C parts are expanded out to 16 bits each. Data is written/read via two 32-bit registers $0B0 and $0B2. The address of writes is controlled by register $0B4, and writing modes are controlled by register $0B6.

The frame buffer consists of 15-bit RGB pixels. It appears that the frame buffer and depth buffer are interleaved at two-pixel intervals. If Pn represents a pixel value, and Zn represents a depth value, it is ordered as:

P0

P1

Z0

Z1

P2

P3

Z2

Z3

...

When initializing buffers, the depth value is often written as $7FFF.

Register Map

Address	R/W	Purpose
$006	W	Low 16 bits specify texture mode
$058	W	Usually written after $05A; after writing, waits for read from $0F6 to return with bit 4 cleared
$05A	W	Usually written immediately before writing $058
$068	W	Written at startup: $00030000 = toggled on then off at startup
$070	W	Seems to specify the X coordinate of a model (written as 16-bit from FIFO command $17)
$072	W	Seems to specify the Y coordinate of a model (written as 16-bit from FIFO command $17)
$074	W	Seems to specify the Z coordinate of a model (written as 16-bit from FIFO command $17)
$080	W	Master control; configures some core chip behavior: $40000000 = set along with $02000000 when enabling FIFO empty interrupt $02000000 = enable internal data FIFO empty interrupt $01000000 = cleared along with $02000000 when disabling FIFO empty interrupt $00020000 = 16-bit (0) or 32-bit (1) mode $00000080 = set just before writing direct command to $60 $00000040 = set just before writing direct command to $60 $00000008 = cleared just before writing to offsets $200-$3FF
$084	W	$00000080 = select render page? (generally set when $CC is set to $000000 and clear when $CC is set to $800000)
$0B0	R/W	Data port for direct RAM access
$0B2	R/W	Data port for direct RAM access
$0B4	W	Address for direct RAM access in expanded form
$0B6	W	Direct RAM access control $80000000 = enable writes to wave RAM 0 $40000000 = enable writes to wave RAM 1 $02000000 = perform access on write to B0(0) or B2(1) ????? $00800000 = enable writes from [$B2] to depth buffer $00400000 = enable writes from [$B0] to depth buffer $00200000 = enable writes from [$B2] to RAM buffer $00100000 = enable writes from [$B0] to RAM buffer $00020000 = auto increment the address $00010000 = perform a read when the address is written $00000001 = enable direct RAM access Examples: $80A00000 when writing a single pixel (address written each time) $80A20001 when writing the right pixel of a pair (autoinc assumed) $80F60001 when writing the middle pairs of pixels (autoinc assumed) $80520001 when writing the left pixel of a pair (autoinc assumed) $82F00001 when testing wave RAM page 1 (address written each pair) $42F00001 when testing wave RAM page 0 (address written each pair) $82F60001 when uploading to wave RAM page 1 (autoinc assumed) $42F60001 when uploading to wave RAM page 0 (autoinc assumed)
$0C0	W	Written at startup = $801F2500
$0C2	W	Written at startup = $0015E591
$0C4	W	Written at startup = $000C0042 (HSYNC start/HSYNC end?)
$0C6	W	Written at startup = $0211007F (HTOTAL/HBLANK end?)
$0C8	W	Written at startup = $010300FF (VSYNC start/VBLANK start?)
$0CA	W	Written at startup = $01160107 (VTOTAL/VSYNC end?)
$0CC	W	Written at startup = $00000000 (display start address? switches to $00800000)
$0CE	W	Written at startup = $00C87620
$0E0	W	Data FIFO (see FIFO commands, below)
$0F2	R	Looped on until it returns a stable value; must change frequently; PRNG? current video line?
$0F4	R	Status register $00000800 = VBLANK? code waits for it to clear to 0 and then reset to 1 $00000140 = tested together in tight loop until both are 0 $00000008 = internal data FIFO full $00000004 = tested in tight loop along with $00000002 until at least one is set $00000002 = tested in tight loop after handling FIFO interrupt until set
$0F6	R	Status register 2 $00000010 = tested in tight loop after writing 5A/59/58 until set to 0
$200-$3FF	W	Unknown, but written in a loop with master control bit $00000008 cleared Possible fast buffer clear? One set of writes stores $7F7F to all entries. A second set writes $E00,$25,$E01,$25,...,$E7F,$25. A third set writes $52,$A0000000,...

FIFO Commands

Commands are written through the FIFO register ($0E0). There is a whole mechanism in the chip for overflowing the FIFO, returning status in the status register ($0F2) and signalling an interrupt when there is space freed up to continue pumping data. But so far we don't need to emulate that, since we are being simplistic and pretending the whole chip runs infinitely fast.

FIFO commands are a stream of 32-bit data. The top 8 bits (or is it 7 bits?) of the first 32-bit word indicate the command. Some commands require just a single 32-bit word, while others require multiple words to follow.

Several FIFO commands appear to be able to write back to registers. Most registers are written either directly (via accessing memory $880000-$8803FF) or indirectly (via FIFO commands), but a few are accessed in both ways, and match up reasonably well. From what I can tell, only the low 64 registers (from $000-$07F) can be written via the FIFO. This makes sense as the registers higher up are less frequently accessed and appear to be primarily for control.

Command	Words	Format	Description
$00/$01	2	$00aaaaaa $bbbbbbbb	Set an internal data pointer. The low 24 bits (a) of the first word specify which internal pointer to set and probably some mode bits. It is not known if these pointers are associated with registers or if they are only accessible internally. The second word (b) specifies the actual pointer, in block form. The top 8 bits of the pointer value is the length of the data referenced (minus one). The low 24 bits of the pointer value are the row/column addresses (12 bits each). Some known values of 'a' for pointers: $008000: set pointer to model data to render $00C040: set pointer to palette to use for texture lookups $00C0B0: set pointer to texture to use for rendering (I think this is wrong) $80C0A5: set pointer to something (unknown)
$13	1	$13aaaaaa	Render a model which has been previously configured by the internal data pointers. Invasion uses this; MK4 does not appear to do it this way. It is unknown if the data in (a) represents anything useful.
$17	1	$17aabbbb	Write a 16-bit value to a register. The register index (a) is specified in bits 16-22, allowing for references to registers $000-$07F. Odd register numbers write to the top 16 bits. Even register numbers write to the low 16 bits. (Does this make sense for registers $070,$072,$074 which write X,Y,Z coordinates for the rain effect in MK4?) The data to be written is specified in the low 16 bits (b).
$18	2	$18aabbbb $cccccccc	Write a 32-bit value to a register. The register index is (a) specified in bits 16-22, allowing for references to registers $000-$07F. It is unknown if the low bits (b) mean anything. The second word (c) contains the 32-bit value to write.
$1A	1	$1A000000	Synchronize the pipeline, or something. These are scattered throughout the data.
$1C	8	$1Caabbbb $ccccdddd $eeeeffff $gggghhhh $iiiijjjj $kkkkkkkk $llllllll $mmmmmmmm	Set rotation matrix and translation vector. This command specifies a rotation matrix to be applied to all models rendered, along with a translation vector. The matrix is a set of 9 1.1.14 values packed in an odd order. The top row is (ffff eeee bbbb). The middle row is (hhhh gggg cccc). The bottom row is (jjjj iiii dddd). The translation vector (k l m) is in 1.15.16 format.
$23	2	$23aabbbb $ccccdddd	Specify some other vector (bbbb cccc dddd). It is unknown what this is.
$25/$30	4	$25aaaaaa $bbbbbbbb $cccccccc $dddddddd	Some sort of display control. Bit 7 of (a) is toggled on each frame. Does this select the page? The other data is completely unknown. It is also strange that MK4 uses $25 and Invasion uses $30, but they both appear to be the same commands.
$67	3	$67aaaaaa $bbbbbbbb $cccccccc	Render a model stored in Wave RAM. It is unknown if (a) means anything. (b) is a pointer to the model data, with the length of the data in the upper 8 bits and the row/column in the lower 24 bits. (c) specifies information about the texture. The address of the texture in Wave RAM seems to come from bits 0-15 and bits 26-31. The texture mode comes from bits 16-25 and controls information such as the texture width and format. Model data is stored in Wave RAM as another sequence of command words that is similar but not identical to the FIFO commands.

Model Commands

Model commands are stored as a stream of data in Wave RAM. A pointer to the model is specified either through FIFO command $67 or by writing command $00008000 and specifying the pointer to the model data there. The pointer to model data contains a 6-bit length in bits 24-29 and a row/column pointer in bits 0-23. The 6-bit length is the length of the model data in 8 byte chunks, minus 1. Thus, a length of $3F references 64 8-byte chunks.

It is possible that the commands below are related to the FIFO commands (it would make sense). However, there is not a perfect overlap and at least one conflict.

Command	8-Byte Chunks	Format	Description
$08	2	$08000000 $00000000	Indicate end of model data.
$0C	1	$0Caaaaaa $bbbbbbbb	Set an internal data pointer. This is similar to the $00/$01 FIFO command. Note that for models that require more than 64 8-byte chunks of data, this command can be used to chain to another chunk of data by specifying a=$008000 and b=pointer to the next chunk.
$19	1	$19aa0000 $bbbbbbbb	Set a 32-bit register value. This is similar to the $18 FIFO command.
$25/$30	7	$30aaaaaa $bbbbbbbb $ccccdddd $eeffgggg $hhhhiiii $jjkkllll $mmmmnnnn $ooppqqqq $rrrrssss $ttuuvvvv $wwwwwwww $xxxxxxxx $yyyyyyyy $zzzzzzzz	Specify a quad for rendering. It is unknown what (a) is, but it is sometimes written as $808080, which looks like an RGB scale factor of some sort. (b) is completely unknown. (c,d,g) represents the X,Y,Z of the first vertex, in 1.13.2 format. (Note that 1.13.2 × 1.1.14 (matrix value) gives 1.14.16 which can be directly added to the 1.15.16 translation vector.) The texture coordinates of the first vertex are specified by (e,f). This pattern is repeated for the remaining 3 vertices. Vertex 2's X,Y,Z come from (h,i,l), and texture coordinates from (j,k). Vertex 3's X,Y,Z come from (m,n,q) and texture coordinates from (o,p). Vertex 4's X,Y,Z come from (r,s,v) and texture coordinates from (t,u). It is unknown what w, x, y, and z represent. An interesting note here is that this command intersects the FIFO command $25/$30 perfectly. That is, MK4 uses $25 in the FIFO and $25 in the model data. Invasion uses $30 in the FIFO and $30 in the model data. This bolsters the case that the commands are related.

Textures

Texture references are a little baffling at the moment. It is clear that a texture is specified by the third word in FIFO command $67 (used by MK4), or in part by a write to register $06 (used by Invasion).

The format of the FIFO command word, based on analyzing the code, appears to be something like this:

Bit	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03	02	01	00
	A	A	A	A	A	A	B	W	W	W	D	C	C	C	C	C	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A

The various 'A' bits seem to go together to form an address of sorts (more on that in a minute).

The 'B' bit's purpose is unknown at this time.

The three 'W' bits control the width of the texture. The width appears to be 512 >> W, giving potential widths of 512, 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, and 4.

The 'D' bit controls whether the texture data is 8bpp or 4bpp. All textures so far appear to be palettized, so a palette base must be set prior to rendering.

The purpose of the 5 'C' bits is unknown at this time.

So, back to the address. The weird thing about texture addressing is that the width specified by the 'W' bits seems to affect the texture address. In essence, if you treat Wave RAM as an array of bytes arranged with a width of 'W', the address 'A' is simply the row number.

W	Width	Wave RAM Address
0	512(?)	'A' << 9
1	256	'A' << 8
2	128	'A' << 7
3	64	'A' << 6
4	32	'A' << 5
5	16	'A' << 4
6	8	'A' << 3
7	4	'A' << 2