Atari POKEY (C012294) pin-out

The Atari POKEY is a digital I/O chip found in the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and many arcade games in the 1980s. Its name comes from POtentiometer and KEYboard, as it was commonly used to sample (ADC) potentiometers (such as game paddles) and scan matrices of switches (such as a computer keyboard). POKEY is also well known for its sound effect and music generation capabilities, producing a distinctive square wave sound popular among chip tune aficionados. The LSI chip has 40 pins and is identified as C012294. Image File history File links Atari POKEY chip pin-out File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Input/output, or I/O, is the collection of interfaces that different functional units (sub-systems) of an information processing system use to communicate with each other, or to the signals (information) sent through those interfaces. ... Look up chip in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An Atari 800XL, one of the most popular machines in the series. ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... This article or section should include material from AD converters In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D, or A to D) is a device that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. ... Schematic symbol for a potentiometer. ... A paddle is a game controller with a round wheel and one or more fire buttons, where the wheel is typically used to control movement of the player object along one axis of the video screen. ... A computer keyboard is a peripheral modeled after the typewriter keyboard. ... A square wave is a kind of basic waveform. ... Chiptune or chip music is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis. ... Integrated circuit showing memory blocks, logic and input/output pads around the periphery A monolithic integrated circuit (also known as IC, microchip, silicon chip, computer chip or chip) is a miniaturized electronic circuit (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) which has been manufactured in the surface...

The USPTO granted U.S. Patent 4,314,236 to Atari on February 2, 1982 for an "Apparatus for producing a plurality of audio sound effects". This referred to POKEY's sound generation abilities. The inventors listed were Steven T. Mayer and Ronald E. Milner. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent and trademark protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions and corporate and product identification. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

No longer manufactured, POKEY is emulated in software by classic arcade emulators (e.g. MAME) and Atari 8-bit emulators. MAME is a computer software program for personal computers. ...

Features

• Audio
  • 4 semi-independent audio channels
  • Channels may be configured as one of:
    • Four 8-bit channels
    • Two 16-bit channels
    • One 16-bit channel and two 8-bit channels
  • Per-channel volume, frequency, and waveform (square wave with variable duty cycle or polynomial noise)
  • High-pass filter
• Keyboard scan (up to 64 keys)
• Potentiometer ports (8 independent ports, each with 8-bit resolution)
• Timers (audio channels 1, 2, and 4 can be configured to cause timer interrupts when they cross zero)
• Random number generator (8 or 9 bits of a 17-bit polynomial counter can be read)
• Serial I/O port
• IRQ interrupts

Volume, also called capacity, is a quantification of how much space an object occupies. ... Sine waves of various frequencies; the lower waves have higher frequencies than those above. ... Waveform quite literally means the shape and form of a signal, such as a wave moving across the surface of water, or the vibration of a plucked string. ... A square wave is a kind of basic waveform. ... In telecommunication, the term duty cycle has the following meanings: In an ideal pulse train, that is, one having rectangular pulses, the ratio of the pulse duration to the pulse period. ... In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression in which constants and powers of variables are combined using (only) addition, subtraction, and multiplication. ... A high-pass filter is a filter that passes high frequencies well, but attenuates (or reduces) frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency. ... Schematic symbol for a potentiometer. ... A random number generator is a computational or physical device designed to generate a sequence of numbers that does not have any easily discernable pattern, so that the sequence can be treated as being random. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article is about the computer interface. ... In computer science, an interrupt is a signal from a device which typically results in a (register) context switch: that is, the processor sets aside what its doing and does something else. ...

Pokey music

The design of the POKEY made it possible for games to have polyphonic music and sound effects of up to four channels. One of the sound-engines developed for the Atari 8-bit family was called the AMP engine (Advanced Music Processor). This was used by the musician Gary Gilbertson. Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ... Gary Gilbertson was a music composer for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. ...

Now it is possible to emulate the POKEY's sound capabilities in software. This can be done with the SAP player[1].

See also

• George's Television Interface Adapter (GTIA)
• Color Television Interface Adapter (CTIA)
• ANTIC
• Sound chip
• Chiptune
• AMP engine
• MOS Technology SID
• General Instruments AY-3-8912
• Atari SAP music format

Georges Television Interface Adapter is the successor to the CTIA chip used in the Atari 8-bit Computers. ... The Color Television Interface Adapter is the graphics chip used in the Atari 400 and Atari 800 home computers. ... ANTIC (Alpha-Numeric Television Interface Circuit) was an early video system chip used in the Atari 8-bit family of microcomputers as well as some of Ataris video game consoles of the 1980s. ... A sound chip is an integrated circuit (i. ... MOS 6581 and 8580 Commodore 64 SID chips Chiptune, or chip music is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis. ... MOS Technology SIDs: The right image shows a 6581 from MOS Technology, at the time they were known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG) and the left image shows an 8580 from MOS Technology. ... The AY-3-8912 was a 3-voice sound chip designed by General Instruments. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

External links

• ASMA — Atari SAP Music Archive A collection of POKEY chip-music (SAP) players and SAP music from various Atari 8-bit games.
• The Breadboard Pokey Project.
• Adept's Sound Corner - POKEY emulation page

• POKEY Chip data sheet