APU Sweep
A NES APU sweep unit can be made to periodically adjust a pulse channel's period up or down.
Each sweep unit contains the following: divider, reload flag.
$4001 | EPPP.NSSS | Pulse channel 1 sweep setup (write) |
$4005 | EPPP.NSSS | Pulse channel 2 sweep setup (write) |
bit 7 | E--- ---- | Enabled flag |
bits 6-4 | -PPP ---- | The divider's period is set to P + 1 |
bit 3 | ---- N--- | Negate flag |
bits 2-0 | ---- -SSS | Shift count (number of bits) |
Side effects | Sets the reload flag |
NOTE: The term "shifter result" used in the following description is equivalent to [shift-result + current period]. That is, it does not mean the result of the right-shift alone.
When clocked by the frame counter, the divider is first clocked and then if the reload flag is set, it is cleared and the divider is reloaded.
The channel's 11-bit raw timer period is shifted right by the shift count (using a barrel shifter), then either added to or subtracted from* the channel's raw period, yielding the target period. When the channel's current period is less than 8 or the target period is greater than $7FF, the channel is silenced (0 is sent to the mixer) but the channel's current period remains unchanged. Otherwise, if the enable flag is set and the shift count is non-zero, when the divider outputs a clock, the channel's period is updated.
Note that the sweep unit can silence a channel even when the enabled flag is clear and even when the sweep divider is not outputting a clock signal. To fully disable a sweep unit, write $08 to turn on the negate flag so that the final shifter result is not greater than the channel's period and therefore not greater than $7FF.
For reasons unknown, pulse channel 1 hardwires its carry input rather than using the state of the negate flag, resulting in the subtraction operation adding the one's complement instead of the expected two's complement (as pulse channel 2 does). As a result, a negative sweep on pulse channel 1 will subtract the shifted period value minus 1.