Unpredictable Things
Normally, I/O ports should be accessed only at their corresponding size (ie.
16bit read/write for 16bit ports), and of course, only existing memory and I/O
addresses should be used. When not recursing that rules, some more or less
(un-)predictable things may happen...
I/O Write Datasize
Address Content W.8bit W.16bit W.32bit
00000000h-00xFFFFFh Main RAM OK OK OK
1F800000h-1F8003FFh Scratchpad OK OK OK
1F801000h-1F801023h MEMCTRL (w32) (w32) OK
1F80104xh JOY_xxx (w16) OK CROP
1F80105xh SIO_xxx (w16) OK CROP
1F801060h-1F801063h RAM_SIZE (w32) (w32) OK (with crash)
1F801070h-1F801077h IRQCTRL (w32) (w32) OK
1F8010x0h-1F8010x3h DMAx.ADDR (w32) (w32) OK
1F8010x4h-1F8010x7h DMAx.LEN OK OK OK
1F8010x8h-1F8010xFh DMAx.CTRL/MIRR (w32) (w32) OK
1F8010F0h-1F8010F7h DMA.DPCR/DICR (w32) (w32) OK
1F8010F8h-1F8010FFh DMA.unknown IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE
1F801100h-1F80110Bh Timer 0 (w32) (w32) OK
1F801110h-1F80111Bh Timer 1 (w32) (w32) OK
1F801120h-1F80112Bh Timer 2 (w32) (w32) OK
1F801800h-1F801803h CDROM OK ? ?
1F801810h-1F801813h GPU.GP0 ? ? OK
1F801814h-1F801817h GPU.GP1 ? ? OK
1F801820h-1F801823h MDEC.CMD/DTA ? ? OK
1F801824h-1F801827h MDEC.CTRL ? ? OK
1F801C00h-1F801E7Fh SPU (i16) OK OK
1F801E80h-1F801FFFh SPU.UNUSED IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE
1F802020h-1F80202Fh DUART OK ? ?
1F802041h POST OK ? ?
FFFE0130h-FFFE0133h CACHE.CTRL (i32) (i32) OK
OK works
(w32) write full 32bits (left-shifted if address isn't word-aligned)
(w16) write full 16bits (left-shifted if address isn't halfword-aligned)
(i32) write full 32bits (ignored if address isn't word-aligned)
(i16) write full 16bits (ignored if address isn't halfword-aligned)
CROP write only lower 16bit (and leave upper 16bit unchanged)
Non-4-byte aligned 8bit/16bit writes to RAM_SIZE do crash (probably because the "(w32)" effect is left-shifting the value, so lower 8bit become zero).
Results on unaligned I/O port writes (via SWL/SWR opcodes) are unknown.
I/O Read Datasize
In most cases, I/O ports can be read in 8bit, 16bit, or 32bit units, regardless
of their size, among others allowing to read two 16bit ports at once with a
single 32bit read. If there's only one 16bit port within a 32bit region, then
32bit reads often return garbage in the unused 16bits. Also, 8bit or 16bit VRAM
data reads via GPUREAD probably won't work? Expansion 2 Region can be accessed
only via 8bit reads, and 16bit/32bit reads seem to cause exceptions (or rather:
no such exception!) (except, probably 16bit reads are allowed when the region
is configured to 16bit databus width).
There are at least some special cases:
FFFE0130h-FFFE0133h 8bit (+16bit?) read works ONLY from word-aligned address
I/O Write Datasize
Performing a 8-bit or 16-bit write (sb/sh) will place the entirety of the GPR
on the bus, regardless of the write size. Therefore, the data is not masked.
This has an effect when performing a narrower write to a wider address, for example
the DMA controller, but not others such as the CD-ROM controller.
Emulators should therefore treat all access widths as having 32 bits of data, but depending on the device perform masking/splitting (see Memory Control).
The CD audio visualizer (aka Soundscope) in the SCPH-7xxx series of consoles is an example of where this behavior is required, as it issues halfword writes to the DMA controller addresses.
Cache Problems
The functionality of the Cache is still widely unknown. Not sure if DMA
transfers are updating or invalidating cache. Cached Data within KSEG0 should
be automatically also cached at the corresponding mirrored address in KUSEG and
vice versa. Mirrors within KSEG1 (or within KUSEG) may be a different thing,
eg. when using addresses spead across the first 8MB region to access the 2MB
RAM. Same problems may occor for Expansion and BIOS mirrors, although, not sure
if that regions are cached.
Writebuffer Problems
The writebuffer seems to be disabled for the normal I/O area at 1F801000h,
however, it appears to be enabled for the Expansion I/O region at 1F802000h
(after writing to 1F802041h, the BIOS issues 4 dummy writes to RAM, apparently
(?) in order to flush the writebuffer). The same might apply for Expansion
Memory region at 1F000000h, although usually that region would contain ROM, so
it'd be don't care whether it is write-buffered or not.
CPU Load/Store Problems
XXcpuREG ---> applies ONLY to LOAD (not to store)
Memory read/write opcodes take a 1-cycle delay until the data arrives at the
destination, ie. the next opcode should not use the destination register (or
more unlikely, the destination memory location) as source operand. Usually,
when trying to do so, the second opcode would receive the OLD value - however,
if an exception occurs between the two opcodes, then the read/write operation
may finish, and the second opcode would probably receive the NEW value.
CPU Register Problems - R1 (AT), R26 (K0), R29 (SP)
Exception handlers cannot preserve all registers, before returning, they must
load the return address into a general purpose register (conventionally R26 aka
K0), so be careful not to use that register, unless you are 100% sure that no
interrupts and no other exceptions can occur. Some exception handlers might
also destroy R27 aka K1 (though execption handler in the PSX Kernel leaves that
register unchanged).
Some assemblers (not a22i in nocash syntax mode) are internally using R1 aka AT
as scratch register for some pseudo opcodes, including for a "sw rx,imm32"
pseudo opcode (which is nearly impossible to separate from the normal "sw
rx,imm16" opcode), be careful not to use R1, unless you can trust your
assembler not to destroy that register behind your back.
The PSX Kernel uses "Full-Decrementing-Wasted-Stack", where "Wasted" means that
when calling a sub-function with N parameters, then the caller must
pre-allocate N works on stack, and the sub-function may freely use and destroy
these words; at [SP+0..N*4-1].
Locked Locations in Memory and I/O Area
00800000h ;-when Main RAM configured to end at 7FFFFFh
1F080000h 780000h ;-when Expansion 1 configured to end at 7FFFFh
1F800400h C00h ;-region after Scratchpad
1F801024h 1Ch ;\
1F801064h 0Ch ;
1F801078h 08h ;
1F801140h 6C0h ; gaps in I/O region
1F801804h 0Ch ;
1F801818h 08h ;
1F801828h 3D8h ;/
1F802080h 3FDF80h ;-when Expansion 2 configured to end at 7Fh
1FC80000h 60380000h ;-when BIOS ROM configured to end at 7FFFFh
C0000000h 1FFE0000h ;\
FFFE0020h E0h ; gaps in KSEG2 (cache control region)
FFFE0140h 1FEC0h ;/
Mirrors in I/O Area
1F80108Ch+N*10h - D#_CHCR Mirrors - (N=0..6, for DMA channel 0..6)
Garbage Locations in I/O Area
1F801062h (2 bytes) ;\
1F801072h (2 bytes) ; unused addresses in Memory and Interrupt Control area
1F801076h (2 bytes) ;/
1F801102h (2 bytes) ;\
1F801106h (2 bytes) ; unused addresses in Timer 0 area
1F80110Ah (6 bytes) ;/
1F801112h (2 bytes) ;\
1F801116h (2 bytes) ; unused addresses in Timer 1 area
1F80111Ah (6 bytes) ;/
1F801122h (2 bytes) ;\
1F801126h (2 bytes) ; unused addresses in Timer 2 area and next some bytes
1F80112Ah (22 bytes) ;/
1F801820h (4 bytes) ;-read MDEC Data-Out port (if there is no data)
FFFE0000h (32 bytes) ;\
FFFE0100h (48 bytes) ; unused addresses in Cache control area
FFFE0132h (2 bytes) ; (including write-only upper 16bit of Port FFFE0130h)
FFFE0134h (12 bytes) ;/
Usually returns zeros in most cases. Except that, the first byte on a 10h-byte boundary often returns the lower 8bit of the memory address (eg. [FFFE0010h]=10h). And, when [FFFE0130h].Bit11=0, then reading from these registers does return the 32bit opcode that is to be executed next (or at some locations, the opcode thereafter).
PSX as Abbreviation for Playstation 1
In gaming and programming scene, "PSX" is most commonly used as abbreviation
for the original Playstation series (occasionally including PSone). Sony has
never officially used that abbreviation, however, the Playstation BIOS contains
the ASCII strings "PSX" and "PS-X" here and there. The letters "PS" are widely
believed to stand for PlayStation, and the meaning of the "X" is totally
unknown (although, actually it may stand for POSIX.1, see below).
PSX as Abbreviation for POSIX.1
According to JMI Software Systems, "PSX" is a trademark of themselves, and
stands for "single-user, single-group, subset of POSIX.1" (POSIX stands for
something commonly used by HLL programmers under UNIX or so). That "PSX" kernel
from JMI is available for various processors, including MIPS processors, and
like the playstation, it does include functions like "atoi", and does support
TTY access via Signetics 2681 DUART chips. The DTL-H2000 does also have
POSIX-style "PSX>" prompt. So, altogether, it's quite possible that Sony has
licensed the kernel from JMI.
PSX as Abbreviation for an Extended Playstation 2
As everybody agrees, PSX should be used only as abbreviation for Playstation 1,
and nobody should never ever use it for the Playstation 2. Well, nobody, except
Sony... despite of the common use as abbreviation for Playstation 1 (and
despite of the JMI trademark)... in 2003, Sony has have released a "Playstation
2 with built-in HDD/DVD Videorecorder" and called that thing "PSX" for the best
of confusion.