Can I use PPUGenLatch's value again?

[thomson]

I'm trying to develop nes emulator and I have a question about PPUGenLatch.
I read Wiki (PPU registers),and understood this latch came from capacitance of very long traces.
But I think if we read this value, it should be unset because remaining electric charges will disappear.

Am I wrong ? Can anyone help me?

Thank you.

[lidnariq]

They're just capacitors, not core memory. It's not the process of reading that causes the value to be lost: the output is buffered, not connected using an analog mulitplexer.

[tepples]

I did some experiments with the phenomenon that FCEUX calls PPUGenLatch about a year ago when I was working on a controller detection routine. I found that reading it 64 times in a row did not unset it. See Riding the open bus.

[thomson]

Thank you for your reply.

I suppose "capacitance of very long traces" means parasitic capacitance.
It can read many times because MOS has high input impedance and it will not decay in PPU cycle.

Is my understanding correct?

[lidnariq]

Yes.

You can see the relevant bits of metal in the die by looking at Visual2C02.
(Go to the empty box next to the "Find" button and search for _io_db0 through _io_db_7)

[thomson]

Thank you so much.