In keeping with a lot of the previous logs, the recent GPU writeup is now obsolete. As predicted, better insight gained through the software design is driving hardware changes. In this case the GPU can be simplified by moving the slower counters to software.

The original GPU design takes care of almost all video timing, so the CPU interpreter loop can synchronize with a standard baud rate. If the baud rate can be aligned with the display then the same timing overhead can be used for both serial and video. This can be achieved by using a horizontal scan frequency of 38.4 kHz and a baud rate of 38400 (or dividing down to 19200, 9600, etc).

Running the VESA GTF against this for a standard vertical frequency gives the following mode line:

# 640x490 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 38.40 kHz; pclk: 31.95 MHz
Modeline "640x490_75.00"  31.95  640 672 736 832  490 491 494 512  -HSync +Vsync

The exact dot clock is 31.9488 MHz and this is available in a 31.95 MHz crystal. The mode defines 490 lines, but only 480 would be displayed with 5 additional vertical blanking lines at the top and bottom of the screen.

With this change both the scan and vertical counters can be eliminated and replaced with registers that are updated every horizontal scan. An additional chip of gates is also eliminated to reduce the design by a total of 4 chips.