Chips › Graphics & video › Console graphics › Ricoh NES PPU (2C02)

Ricoh NES PPU (2C02)

1983

Ricoh's 2C02 Picture Processing Unit, the graphics chip that drew the NES's tiled backgrounds and sprites onto the TV.

Machines

NES-101 Top Loader

Nintendo Famicom

Nintendo NES

Emulators

EmulatorTypeLicenseSite
FCEUXdownloadableGPL-2.0Website ↗
JSNESonlineGPL-3.0Website ↗
JnesdownloadableFreewareWebsite ↗
MesendownloadableGPL-3.0Website ↗
Mesen2downloadableGPL-3.0Website ↗
NESboxonlineMITWebsite ↗
NESticledownloadableFreewareWebsite ↗
NestopiadownloadableGPL-2.0Website ↗
Nestopia UEdownloadableGPL-2.0Website ↗
NintacodownloadableFreewareWebsite ↗
NintendulatordownloadableGPL-2.0Website ↗
VirtuaNESdownloadableFreewareWebsite ↗
aresdownloadableISCWebsite ↗
higandownloadableGPL-3.0Website ↗
nemulatordownloadableFreewareWebsite ↗
puNESdownloadableGPL-2.0Website ↗

Reference & documentation

External technical references for programming Ricoh NES PPU (2C02) and for writing emulators.

ResourceTypeNotes
NTSC 2C02 Technical Reference (Brad Taylor) ↗DatasheetDefinitive 2C02 internals: registers, timing, rendering, scrolling
PPU registers - NESdev Wiki ↗Memory mapThe eight $2000-$2007 memory-mapped PPU registers
PPU OAM - NESdev Wiki ↗Memory mapSprite OAM 4-byte layout and DMA
PPU pinout - NESdev Wiki ↗Pinout40-pin 2C02 pinout with signal descriptions
PPU programmer reference - NESdev Wiki ↗ProgrammingProgrammer guide: registers, memory, palettes, sprites
PPU rendering - NESdev Wiki ↗ReferenceCycle-by-cycle rendering pipeline and scanline timing
PPU frame timing - NESdev Wiki ↗ReferenceFrame/scanline timing including odd-frame skipped cycle
PPU sprite evaluation - NESdev Wiki ↗ReferencePer-scanline sprite evaluation and secondary OAM
Emulator tests - NESdev Wiki ↗Test suiteCatalog of PPU accuracy/conformance test ROMs
ppu_vbl_nmi test ROMs (blargg) ↗Test suitePPU VBL flag and NMI timing tests
Visual 2C02 - NESdev Wiki ↗ToolTransistor-level 2C02 simulator (Visual 6502 core)