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| Programming the Intel 8253 Programmable Interval Timer |
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Written for the PC-GPE by Mark Feldman
e-mail address : u914097@student.canberra.edu.au
myndale@cairo.anu.edu.au
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| THIS FILE MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED |
| SEPARATE TO THE ENTIRE PC-GPE COLLECTION. |
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| Disclaimer |
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I assume no responsibility whatsoever for any effect that this file, the
information contained therein or the use thereof has on you, your sanity,
computer, spouse, children, pets or anything else related to you or your
existance. No warranty is provided nor implied with this information.
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| Introduction |
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The PIT chip has 3 channels, each of which are responsible for a different
task on the PC:
Channel 0 is responsible for updating the system clock. It is usually
programmed to generate around 18.2 clock ticks a second. An interrupt 8 is
generated for every clock tick.
Channel 1 controls DMA memory refreshing. DRAM is cheap, but it's memory
cells must be periodically refreshed or they quickly lose their charge. The
PIT chip is responsible for sending signals to the DMA chip to refresh
memory. Most machines are refreshed at a higher rate than neccesary, and
reprogramming channel 1 to refresh memory at a slower rate can sometime speed
up system performance. I got a 2.5 MHz speed-up when I did it to my 286, but
it didn't seem to work on my 486SUX33.
Channel 2 is connected to the speaker. It's normally programmed to generate
a square wave so a continuous tone is heard. Reprogramming it for "Interrupt
on Terminal Count" mode is a nifty trick which can be used to play 8-bit
samples from the PC speaker.
Each channel has a counter which counts down. The PIT input frequency is
1193181 ($1234DD) Hz. Each counter decrements once for every input clock
cycle. "Terminal Count", mentioned several times below, is when the counter
reaches 0.
Loading the counters with 0 has the same effect as loading them with 10000h,
and is the highest count possible (approx 18.2 Hz).
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| The PIT Ports |
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The PIT chip is hooked up to the Intel CPU through the following ports:
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| Port Description |
|_______________________________________|
| 40h Channel 0 counter (read/write) |
| 41h Channel 1 counter (read/write) |
| 42h Channel 2 counter (read/write) |
| 43h Control Word (write only) |
\_______________________________________/
_____________________________________________________________________________
| The Control Word |
\__________________/
_________________________________
| 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
\___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___/
\___/ \___/ \_______/ \__ BCD 0 - Binary 16 bit
| | | 1 - BCD 4 decades
__________________|_____ | |
| Select Counter | | \__________ Mode Number 0 - 5
| 0 - Select Counter 0 | |
| 1 - Select Counter 1 | | ______________________________
| 2 - Select Counter 2 | | | Read/Load |
\______________________/ | | 0 - Counter Latching |
\_________| 1 - Read/Load LSB only |
| 2 - Read/Load MSB only |
| 3 - Read/Load LSB then MSB |
\____________________________/
_____________________________________________________________________________
| The PIT Modes |
\_______________/
The PIT is capable of operating in 6 different modes:
MODE 0 - Interrupt on Terminal Count
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When this mode is set the output will be low. Loading the count register
with a value will cause the output to remain low and the counter will start
counting down. When the counter reaches 0 the output will go high and remain
high until the counter is reprogrammed. The counter will continue to count
down after terminal count is reached. Writing a value to the count register
during counting will stop the counter, writing a second byte starts the
new count.
MODE 1 - Programmable One-Shot
______________________________
The output will go low once the counter has been loaded, and will go high
once terminal count has been reached. Once terminal count has been reached
it can be triggered again.
MODE 2 - Rate Generator
_______________________
A standard divide-by-N counter. The output will be low for one period of the
input clock then it will remain high for the time in the counter. This cycle
will keep repeating.
MODE 3 - Square Wave Rate Generator
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Similar to mode 2, except the ouput will remain high until one half of the
count has been completed and then low for the other half.
MODE 4 - Software Triggered Strobe
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After the mode is set the output will be high. Once the count is loaded it
will start counting, and will go low once terminal count is reached.
MODE 5 - Hardware Triggered Strobe
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Hardware triggered strobe. Similar to mode 5, but it waits for a hardware
trigger signal before starting to count.
Modes 1 and 5 require the PIT gate pin to go high in order to start
counting. I'm not sure if this has been implemented in the PC.
_____________________________________________________________________________
| Counter Latching |
\__________________/
Setting the Read/Load field in the Control Word to 0 (Counter Latch) causes
the appropriate channel to go into a sort of "lap" mode, the counter keeps
counting down internally but it appears to have stopped if you read it's
values through the channel's counter port. In this way you get a stable count
value when you read the counter. Once you send a counter latch command you
*must* then read the counter.
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| Doing Something Useful |
\________________________/
Ok, so let's say we are writing a game and we need to have a certain
routine called 100 times a second and we want to use channel 0 to do all
this timing in the background while the main program is busy doing other
stuff.
The first thing we have to realise is that BIOS usually uses channel 0 to
keep track of the time, so we have 3 options:
1) Have our own routine handle all timer interrupts. This will effectively
stop the PC clock and the system time will be wrong from that point on.
The clock will be reset to the proper time the next time the computer
is turned off and on again, but it's not a nice thing to do to someone
unless you really have to.
2) Have our routine do whatever it has to do and then call the BIOS handler.
This would be fine if our program was receiving the usual 18.2 ticks
a second, but we need 100 a second and calling the BIOS handler for every
tick will speed up the system time. Same net result as case 1.
3) Have our routine do the interrupt handling and call the BIOS handler only
when it needs to be updated! BINGO!
The PIT chip runs at a freqency of 1234DDh Hz, and normally the BIOS timer
interrupt handler is called for every 10000h cycles of this clock. First we
need to reprogram channel 0 to generate an interrupt 100 times a second, ie
every 1234DDh / 100 = 11931 cycles. The best thing to do is keep a running
total of the number of clock ticks which have occurred. For every interrupt
generated we will add 11931 to this total. When it reaches 10000h our handler
will know it's time to tell BIOS about it and do so.
So let's get into some good old Pascal code. First we'll define a few
constants and variables our program will need:
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Uses Crt, Dos;
{$F+} { Force far mode, a good idea when mucking around with interrupts }
const TIMERINTR = 8;
PIT_FREQ = $1234DD;
var BIOSTimerHandler : procedure;
clock_ticks, counter : longint;
______________________________________________________________________/
The clock_ticks variable will keep track of how many cycles the PIT has
had, it'll be intialised to 0. The counter variable will hold the new
channel 0 counter value. We'll also be adding this number to clock_ticks
every time our handler is called.
Next we need to do some initialization:
_______________________________________________________________________
procedure SetTimer(TimerHandler : pointer; frequency : word);
begin
{ Do some initialization }
clock_ticks := 0;
counter := $1234DD div frequency;
{ Store the current BIOS handler and set up our own }
GetIntVec(TIMERINTR, @BIOSTimerHandler);
SetIntVec(TIMERINTR, TimerHandler);
{ Set the PIT channel 0 frequency }
Port[$43] := $34;
Port[$40] := counter mod 256;
Port[$40] := counter div 256;
end;
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Pretty straightforward stuff. We save the address of the BIOS handler,
install our own, set up the variables we'll use and program PIT channel 0
for the divide-by-N mode at the frequency we need.
This next bit is what we need to do once our program is finished. It just
resets everything back to normal.
_______________________________________________________________________
procedure CleanUpTimer;
begin
{ Restore the normal clock frequency }
Port[$43] := $34;
Port[$40] := 0;
Port[$40] := 0;
{ Restore the normal ticker handler }
SetIntVec(TIMERINTR, @BIOSTimerHandler);
end;
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Ok, here's our actual handler. This particular handler just writes an
asterix (*) to the screen. Then it does the checks to see if the BIOS
handler should be called. If so it calls it, if not it acknowledges the
interrupt itself.
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procedure Handler; Interrupt;
begin
{ DO WHATEVER WE WANT TO DO IN HERE }
Write('*');
{ Adjust the count of clock ticks }
clock_ticks := clock_ticks + counter;
{ Is it time for the BIOS handler to do it's thang? }
if clock_ticks >= $10000 then
begin
{ Yep! So adjust the count and call the BIOS handler }
clock_ticks := clock_ticks - $10000;
asm pushf end;
BIOSTimerHandler;
end
{ If not then just acknowledge the interrupt }
else
Port[$20] := $20;
end;
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And finally our calling program. What follows is just an example program
which sets everything up, waits for us to press a key and then cleans up
after itself.
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begin
SetTimer(Addr(Handler), 100);
ReadKey;
CleanUpTimer;
end.
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| References |
\____________/
Title : "Peripheral Components"
Publisher : Intel Corporation
ISBN : 1-55512-127-6
|
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