General presentation

PPS4 system is a set of MOS components that allows one to build a programmable system. This set of devices first appeared in 1972. There are 50 instructions. Each of them is 8-bit wide. Data words are 4-bit wide. Some components such as A17xx have capabilities of I/O advanced control. The addition of 2 8-digit decimal numbers takes 240us. Parallel transfer of RAM to I/O is performed in 28us for 4-bit words, or 36us for 8-bit, 56us for 12-bit.
In term of power supply, the PPS4 devices, also called « spider chips » are rather difficult. The supply voltage is [+5V, -12V]. On one hand, this is more than usual. This is too much for standard MOSFETs of nowadays. Modern MOSFETs are often limited to 15V (Vgs, Vds). On the other hand, PPS4 operate in negative logic. A one level corresponds to -12V, while a zero is +5V. VDD = -12V. VSS = +5V. This is an upside down world.
Instead of saying [+5V, -12V], one could have said [0, -17V]. [+5V, -12V] is more usual because PPS4 chips are often talking with TTL devices, that operate at 5V. Thus one has +5V, 0V for feeding TTLs, and +5V, -12V for the PPS4s.

Datasheet (in scanned Pdf) Here

Article wikichip for PPS4 There

Article wikichip for PPS4/2 (evolution of PPS4) There

---

Clock signals

In a PPS4 architecture, every component of the system is synchronized through 2 clock signals named A and /B.

These 2 signals are generated from a parent clock running at 3,579545MHz (this value was chosen because this was the frequency of cheap crystals that were widespread in the 70's. They were installed in every color TV in those times)

3,579545MHz gives us a tick length of about 279ns. A Clock period is made of n ticks, while /B's frequency is twice A's, inverted and delayed by one tick. This delay of one tick is very important, because it determines the four phases of the PPS system. Thus, the 4 in PPS4 (and not the 4 for 4-bit, which is half true).

The value of n is not arbitrary. The recommendation (and generally applied value) is 18. Hence A frequency is around 200KHz and /B is 400KHz. Other standard values for n are 14 (F(A)=256KHz) et 12 (F(A)=298KHz).

The 10706 chip is the original A&/B clock generator from the cheap 3.57MHz crystal. configuration pins select n to 14 or 18. On the PPS4 successors, called PPS4/2, A and /B are internally generated by the micrprocessor (11660 generates A&/B at n=18, while on the version 1 one needed uP 10660 + 10706 for separate clocks generation).

One actually imagines that any value for n is acceptable, as for the 3.57MHz crystal. The only constraint resides in the speed capability of MOS signals. But in theory, max frequency of such an architecture is very high.

---

Bus signals

There are 21 signals in the PPS4 bus system:

• A/B1..A/B12 are the address lines. They are written by the uP and read by the devices
• I/D1..I/D8 are the data lines. I/D1..I/D4 are read only by the uP I/D5..I/D8 are bidirectional. This is because I/D1..I/D8 are typically conveyed from ROM to uP in that unique direction while I/Os are only held by I/D1..I/D4, but in both directions pôtentially
• SPO is the reset. Generated by the uP, synchronized on PHI2.
• W/IO has different role depending on whether the current phase is handling I/Os or RAM. During RAM transfer, it specifies if it is a read or a write access. When the RAM is not accessed, W/IO is used for I/O device selection.

---

Devices

A17xx

Pinout A17xx

ROM

---

Différences entre PPS4 et PPS4/2

• The PPS-4/2 CPU uses an identical instruction set as the PPS-4 CPU but includes the clock generator function within the CPU circuit as well. When a conventional NTSC color TV crystal (3.579545 MHz) is connected to the XTAL1 and XTAL0 pins and the VCLOCK pin is connected to VDD, the CPU circuit will generate the 198.864KHz system clock signals. These signals, A and /B, are used internally in the CPU and are made available to all of the PPS-4/2 and PPS-4 circuits in the system.
• An additional feature in the PPS-4/2 CPU is an expanded discrete output capability. This capability is achieved by using the same instruction (DOA) as in the PPS-4 CPU but providing more I/O control. In the PPS-4 the DOA instruction causes the contents of the accumulator (A) to be transferred to an output buffer and then retained until another DOA instruction is executed. The contents of this buffer controls the output drivers. In the PPS-4/2 CPU this same function is performed but, additionally, the contents of the X register are transferred to a similar second set of buffers and drivers (DIO) so that the DOA instruction causes 8 bits to be available to external devices.

---

Pinout des principaux composants pps4

On constate sur ce tableau que le pinout des principaux signaux ne suit pas de logique particulière.