Revolution Audio System

This project develops BAudio, a custom audio engine designed for the Macronix 16-bit programmable DSP used in the Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and Wii U. The DSP acts as a slave processor dedicated to real-time audio processing, with built-in hardware support for ADPCM decoding to offload tasks from the CPU.

The system leverages 16 MB of ARAM to store PCM/ADPCM audio data, while also allowing additional data such as textures, animations, or other game assets. All DSP logic is implemented in assembly microcode, requiring careful instruction and memory optimization to operate efficiently within hardware constraints.

BAudio handles PCM/ADPCM playback, FM synthesis, mixing, ADSR envelopes, and DSP effects such as filtering, reverb, and Dolby Pro Logic II, along with message-based commands. The project demonstrates low-level DSP programming techniques and the creation of a reliable, high-performance audio pipeline in a constrained embedded environment as a 8KB program.

• Clock: 81 MHz (GameCube) / 121.5 MHz (Wii)

• Data Width: 16-bit, Big Endian

• Memory:

  • Data RAM: 8 KB

  • Data ROM: 4 KB

  • Instruction RAM: 8 KB

  • Instruction ROM: 8 KB

• Hardware Features: Built-in DSP ADPCM decoder

• Boot ROM: Contains initialization microcode and data tables

• DSP IDE & Simulator – For writing, testing, and debugging DSP microcode in a virtual environment.

• DSP Assembler – Converts assembly source code into machine instructions for the DSP.

• DSP Linker – Links multiple object files and resolves addresses for DSP execution.

• hex2bin – Converts hexadecimal output files into binary or C format for loading onto the DSP.

• mxhex2h – Converts DSP hex files into C header files for integration with CPU-side code.