2.6 KiB
Synopsis
A sprite compiler that targets 16-bit 65816 assembly code on the Apple IIgs computer. The sprite compiler uses informed search techniques to generate optimal code for whole-sprite rendering.
Example
The compiler takes a simple masked, sparse byte sequence which are represented by (data, mask, offset) tuples. During the search, it tracks the state of the 65816 CPU registers in order to find an optimal sequence of operations to generated the sprite data. The space of possible actions are defined by the subclasses of the CodeSequence class.
Currently, the compiler can only handle short, unmasked sequences, but it does correctly find optimal code sequences. Here is a sample of the code that the compiler generates
Data = $11
TCS ; 2 cycles
SEP #$10 ; 3 cycles
LDA #$11 ; 2 cycles
STA 00,s ; 4 cycles
REP #$10 ; 3 cycles
; Total Cost = 14 cycles
Data = $11 $22
TCS ; 2 cycles
LDA #$2211 ; 3 cycles
STA 00,s ; 5 cycles
; Total Cost = 10 cycles
Data = $11 $22 $11 $22
TCS ; 2 cycles
LDA #$2211 ; 3 cycles
STA 00,s ; 5 cycles
STA 02,s ; 5 cycles
; Total Cost = 15 cycles
Data = $11 $22 $33 $44 $55 $66
ADC #5 ; 3 cycles
TCS ; 2 cycles
PEA $6655 ; 5 cycles
PEA $4433 ; 5 cycles
PEA $2211 ; 5 cycles
; Total Cost = 20 cycles
Data = $11 $22 $11 $22 $11 $22 $11 $22
ADC #7 ; 3 cycles
TCS ; 2 cycles
LDA #$2211 ; 3 cycles
PHA ; 4 cycles
PHA ; 4 cycles
PHA ; 4 cycles
PHA ; 4 cycles
; Total Cost = 24 cycles
Limitations
The current state representation removes data from the sparse byte array whenever a store action is queued. This prevents certain optimizations that redundently store the same byte more than once, in order to minimize other operations. For example, the byte sequence $11 $22 $22 currently generates the following, sub-optimal code sequence
TCS ; 2 cycles
SEP #$10 ; 3 cycles
LDA #$11 ; 2 cycles
STA 00,s ; 4 cycles
REP #$10 ; 3 cycles
LDA #$2222 ; 3 cycles
STA 01,s ; 5 cycles
; Total Cost = 22 cycles
The optimal code sequence is
TCS ; 2 cycles
LDA #$2211 ; 3 cycles
STA 00,s ; 5 cycles
LDA #$2222 ; 3 cycles
STA 01,s ; 5 cycles
; Total Cost = 18 cycles
Notice that byte 1 ($22) is loaded redundently, which results in the 16-bit LDA/STA code being 2 cycles slower than the equivalent 8-bit code. However, this 2-cycle penalty is more than made up for by the savings gained from avoiding the 6-cycle SEP/REP pair in order to enter and exit 8-bit mode, resulting in a net savings of 4 cycles.
License
MIT License