Clock Signal: Difference between revisions

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|title = Clock Signal

|logo = CLK_(emulator)_Icon.png

|logowidth = 120

|developer = [[User:Tommy|Thomas Harte]]

|version = {{~~clkver~~}}

|version = {{Version|Clk}}

|active = Yes

|platform = Linux, macOS

|platform = [[Emulators on BSD|BSD]]<br/>[[Emulators on Linux|Linux]]<br/>[[Emulators on macOS|macOS]]

|accuracy = Subcycle

|prog-lang = C++; Mac bindings in Objective-C and Swift

|prog-lang = {{Proglang|C++}}; Mac bindings in {{Proglang|Objective-C}} and {{Proglang|Swift}}

|download = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases Official releases] (macOS)

|download = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases Official releases] (macOS); [http://snapcraft.io/clock-signal Snapcraft listing] (Linux)

|source = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK GitHub]

|support = [https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/8WPVFLQQDPTA Author's Amazon US wishlist]

|license = {{license|MIT}}

|issuetracker = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/issues GitHub]

}}

'''Clock Signal''', also known as '''CLK''', is an MIT-licensed open-source emulator of a collection of 8-bit computers and consoles for Linux and ~~macOS~~.

'''Clock Signal''', also known as '''CLK''', is an MIT-licensed, free and open-source emulator of a collection of 8- and 16-bit computers and consoles for Linux, macOS and BSD.

It is unique in its approach to screen emulation and as a result offers worst-case video latency equal to the refresh rate of the screen on which it is being displayed — 1/60th of a second on a 60Hz monitor, 1/120th of a second on a 120Hz monitor, etc — regardless of the refresh rate of the machine being emulated.

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Regardless of this, Clock Signal does not currently offer a perfect emulation of every supported machine. It is an active, developing emulator.

==Display ~~Emulation~~==

==Download==

[[File:CLK ZX80.gif|~~right~~|~~alt=~~The emulated display of a ZX80, showing accurate emulation of synchronization issues.]]

{| cellpadding="4"

|-

|align=center|{{Icon|Mac-big}}

|'''[https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases Latest releases]'''

|-

|align=center|{{Icon|Linux-big}}

|'''[http://snapcraft.io/clock-signal Snapcraft listing]'''

|}

==Display emulation==

[[File:CLK ZX80.gif|thumb|The emulated display of a ZX80, showing accurate emulation of synchronization issues.]]

Clock Signal's emulated machines produce a 1d video signal, just as real machines do. Its emulated display, therefore, has to:

* maintain a raster positioning;

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* decode composite color if that's what the machine is supplying.

It uses this information to paint a virtual phosphor display — in practice just an accumulation of recently-painted material with each new painting undergoing exponential decay. Output to the host screen is simply a capture of that surface as and when the host screen requests a new frame.

It uses this information to paint a virtual phosphor display which, in practice, is just an accumulation of recently-painted material with each new painting undergoing exponential decay. Output to the host screen is simply a capture of that surface as and when the host screen requests a new frame.

An unambiguously desirable result is that machines with variable programmatic sync, such as the Atari 2600, ZX80/81 and Amstrad CPC, should produce the proper display results, even down to rolling, bouncing and other sync issues as and when the programmer diverges, even if only transiently, from PAL or NTSC timing specifications.

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Composite color is optional for all machines on which it was originally optional. Machines such as the Oric, Electron, and MSX originally shipped with the option of RGB output, so the emulator offers the same.

==Sound ~~Emulation~~==

==Sound emulation==

Sound emulation is generally performed by internal generation of original megahertz-rate audio, which is resampled to the output frequency of the host computer. Therefore just as the video can scale up to modern low-latency high-refresh-rate displays, the audio can scale up to digital output rates such as 96Khz and 192Khz.

Filling sound packets is an independent trigger of emulation — the emulated machines will run to make sure they're up to date when the display needs a new frame, and they'll also run to produce the next packet of audio when the previous has been consumed.

Filling sound packets is an independent trigger of emulation — the emulated machines will run to make sure they're up-to-date when the display needs a new frame, and they'll also run to produce the next packet of audio when the previous has been consumed.

That generally allows the emulator to maintain audio latency guarantees completely decoupled from the frame rate. It aims for between 5 and 10ms of audio latency.

==Host ~~Environments~~==

==Host environments==

For macOS, Clock Signal is a fully-native document model application, which means that the user can simultaneously launch as many different machines as they want, sizing and positioning each independently across multiple displays, arranging their machines into a tabbed interface or performing any other standard Mac windowing actions.

===macOS===

For macOS, Clock Signal is a fully-native document model application, which means that the user can simultaneously launch as many different machines as they want, sizing and positioning each independently across multiple displays, arranging their machines into a tabbed interface or performing any other standard Mac windowing actions. It uses Metal for graphics output and is provided as an Intel/Apple Silicon universal binary.

Clock Signal ~~also has an SDL~~-~~based kiosk mode~~, ~~which is compatible with Linux~~ and ~~any~~ other ~~target offering SDL 2.x, at least~~ OpenGL 3.2 and C++11, and ~~which attempts to follow ordinary UNIX conventions as to file naming and locations. It~~ is ~~intended~~ to be launched however the user would normally launch something from the command-line; the target use case is to set up a file association in the user's preferred desktop environment and launch emulated applications by double-clicking on them exactly like the user would launch native ~~applications~~.

===Qt===

Clock Signal provides a full-UI Qt 6 build for X11 users, offering arbitrarily many machines at once and custom machine selection alongside the emulator's preferred automatic machine selection; building for other Qt targets that support OpenGL ES 3 and C++20 is possible but Qt's deficiencies in keyboard handling make platform-specific adaptations a necessity for regular usage, and latency is likely to be higher than with native builds.

~~In neither case does~~ Clock Signal ~~offer much in terms of appreciable interface~~. It ~~currently assumes it can always determine~~ the ~~proper machine and machine configuration automatically based on~~ the ~~software~~ the user ~~wants to run~~ and ~~provides those only after~~ the user ~~has nominated their software~~.

===SDL===

Clock Signal also has an SDL-based kiosk mode, which is compatible with Linux and any other target offering SDL 2.x, at least OpenGL 3.2 and C++17, and which attempts to follow ordinary UNIX conventions as to file naming and locations. It is intended to be launched however the user would normally launch something from the command-line; the target use case is to set up a file association in the user's preferred desktop environment and launch emulated applications by double-clicking on them exactly like the user would launch native applications.

[[Category:Emulators]]

[[Category:Multi-emulators]]

[[Category:Console emulators]]

[[Category:Home console emulators]]

[[Category:Computer emulators]]

[[Category:Amiga emulators]]

[[Category:Amstrad CPC emulators]]

[[Category:Apple II emulators]]

[[Category:Atari 2600 emulators]]

[[Category:Atari ST emulators]]

[[Category:ColecoVision emulators]]

[[Category:~~Emulators~~]]

[[Category:Enterprise 64/128 emulators]]

[[Category:Macintosh emulators]]

[[Category:Master System emulators]]

[[Category:MSX emulators]]

[[Category:SG-1000 emulators]]

[[Category:ZX Spectrum emulators]]

[[Category:ZX81 emulators]]

[[Category:Linux emulation software]]

[[Category:macOS emulation software]]

[[Category:~~Multi-emulators~~]]

[[Category:BSD emulation software]]

[[Category:~~MSX emulators]]~~

[[Category:Active emulation software]]

~~[[Category:SG-1000 emulators]]~~

~~[[Category:Master System emulators~~]]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 |title         = Clock Signal
 |logo          = CLK_(emulator)_Icon.png
+|logowidth = 120
 |developer     = [[User:Tommy|Thomas Harte]]
-|version       = {{clkver}}
+|version       = {{Version|Clk}}
 |active        = Yes
-|platform      = Linux, macOS
+|platform      = [[Emulators on BSD|BSD]]<br/>[[Emulators on Linux|Linux]]<br/>[[Emulators on macOS|macOS]]
 |accuracy      = Subcycle
-|target        = [[BBC Micro emulators|Acorn Electron]], [[Amstrad CPC emulators|Amstrad CPC]], [[Apple II emulators|Apple II]], [[Atari 2600 emulators|Atari 2600]], [[ColecoVision emulators|ColecoVision]], Commodore VIC-20, [[MSX emulators|MSX 1]], Oric 1/Atmos/Pravetz, [[SG-1000 emulators|Sega SG-1000]], [[Master System emulators|Master System]], [[Sinclair ZX81 emulators|Sinclair ZX80/ZX81]]
+|target        = [[BBC Micro emulators|Acorn Electron]], [[Amstrad CPC emulators|Amstrad CPC]], [[Amiga line|Amiga]], [[Apple II emulators|Apple II]], [[Atari 2600 emulators|Atari 2600]], [[Atari ST emulators|Atari ST]], [[BBC Micro emulators|BBC Micro]], [[ColecoVision emulators|ColecoVision]], Commodore 16/Plus 4, [[VIC-20]], [[Enterprise 64/128 emulators|Enterprise 64/128]], [[Macintosh line|Macintosh]], [[MSX emulators|MSX 1/2]], Oric 1/Atmos/Pravetz, [[SG-1000 emulators|Sega SG-1000]], [[Master System emulators|Master System]], [[Sinclair ZX81 emulators|Sinclair ZX80/ZX81]], [[ZX Spectrum emulators|ZX Spectrum]], Thomson MO5, Thomson MO6, Tandy Colour Computer 1/2
-|prog-lang     = C++; Mac bindings in Objective-C and Swift
+|prog-lang     = {{Proglang|C++}}; Mac bindings in {{Proglang|Objective-C}} and {{Proglang|Swift}}
-|download      = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases Official releases] (macOS)
+|download      = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases Official releases] (macOS); [http://snapcraft.io/clock-signal Snapcraft listing] (Linux)
 |source        = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK GitHub]
+|support       = [https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/8WPVFLQQDPTA Author's Amazon US wishlist]
+|license       = {{license|MIT}}
+|issuetracker = [https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/issues GitHub]
 }}
-'''Clock Signal''', also known as '''CLK''', is an MIT-licensed open-source emulator of a collection of 8-bit computers and consoles for Linux and macOS.
+'''Clock Signal''', also known as '''CLK''', is an MIT-licensed, free and open-source emulator of a collection of 8- and 16-bit computers and consoles for Linux, macOS and BSD.
 It is unique in its approach to screen emulation and as a result offers worst-case video latency equal to the refresh rate of the screen on which it is being displayed — 1/60th of a second on a 60Hz monitor, 1/120th of a second on a 120Hz monitor, etc — regardless of the refresh rate of the machine being emulated.
@@ Line 23: / Line 27: @@
 Regardless of this, Clock Signal does not currently offer a perfect emulation of every supported machine. It is an active, developing emulator.
-==Display Emulation==
+==Download==
-[[File:CLK ZX80.gif|right|alt=The emulated display of a ZX80, showing accurate emulation of synchronization issues.]]
+{| cellpadding="4"
+|-
+|align=center|{{Icon|Mac-big}}
+|'''[https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases Latest releases]'''
+|-
+|align=center|{{Icon|Linux-big}}
+|'''[http://snapcraft.io/clock-signal Snapcraft listing]'''
+|}
+==Display emulation==
+[[File:CLK ZX80.gif|thumb|The emulated display of a ZX80, showing accurate emulation of synchronization issues.]]
 Clock Signal's emulated machines produce a 1d video signal, just as real machines do. Its emulated display, therefore, has to:
 * maintain a raster positioning;
@@ Line 30: / Line 45: @@
 * decode composite color if that's what the machine is supplying.
-It uses this information to paint a virtual phosphor display — in practice just an accumulation of recently-painted material with each new painting undergoing exponential decay. Output to the host screen is simply a capture of that surface as and when the host screen requests a new frame.
+It uses this information to paint a virtual phosphor display which, in practice, is just an accumulation of recently-painted material with each new painting undergoing exponential decay. Output to the host screen is simply a capture of that surface as and when the host screen requests a new frame.
 An unambiguously desirable result is that machines with variable programmatic sync, such as the Atari 2600, ZX80/81 and Amstrad CPC, should produce the proper display results, even down to rolling, bouncing and other sync issues as and when the programmer diverges, even if only transiently, from PAL or NTSC timing specifications.
@@ Line 40: / Line 55: @@
 Composite color is optional for all machines on which it was originally optional. Machines such as the Oric, Electron, and MSX originally shipped with the option of RGB output, so the emulator offers the same.
-==Sound Emulation==
+==Sound emulation==
 Sound emulation is generally performed by internal generation of original megahertz-rate audio, which is resampled to the output frequency of the host computer. Therefore just as the video can scale up to modern low-latency high-refresh-rate displays, the audio can scale up to digital output rates such as 96Khz and 192Khz.
-Filling sound packets is an independent trigger of emulation — the emulated machines will run to make sure they're up to date when the display needs a new frame, and they'll also run to produce the next packet of audio when the previous has been consumed.
+Filling sound packets is an independent trigger of emulation — the emulated machines will run to make sure they're up-to-date when the display needs a new frame, and they'll also run to produce the next packet of audio when the previous has been consumed.
 That generally allows the emulator to maintain audio latency guarantees completely decoupled from the frame rate. It aims for between 5 and 10ms of audio latency.
-==Host Environments==
+==Host environments==
-For macOS, Clock Signal is a fully-native document model application, which means that the user can simultaneously launch as many different machines as they want, sizing and positioning each independently across multiple displays, arranging their machines into a tabbed interface or performing any other standard Mac windowing actions.
+===macOS===
+For macOS, Clock Signal is a fully-native document model application, which means that the user can simultaneously launch as many different machines as they want, sizing and positioning each independently across multiple displays, arranging their machines into a tabbed interface or performing any other standard Mac windowing actions. It uses Metal for graphics output and is provided as an Intel/Apple Silicon universal binary.
-Clock Signal also has an SDL-based kiosk mode, which is compatible with Linux and any other target offering SDL 2.x, at least OpenGL 3.2 and C++11, and which attempts to follow ordinary UNIX conventions as to file naming and locations. It is intended to be launched however the user would normally launch something from the command-line; the target use case is to set up a file association in the user's preferred desktop environment and launch emulated applications by double-clicking on them exactly like the user would launch native applications.
+===Qt===
+Clock Signal provides a full-UI Qt 6 build for X11 users, offering arbitrarily many machines at once and custom machine selection alongside the emulator's preferred automatic machine selection; building for other Qt targets that support OpenGL ES 3 and C++20 is possible but Qt's deficiencies in keyboard handling make platform-specific adaptations a necessity for regular usage, and latency is likely to be higher than with native builds.
-In neither case does Clock Signal offer much in terms of appreciable interface. It currently assumes it can always determine the proper machine and machine configuration automatically based on the software the user wants to run and provides those only after the user has nominated their software.
+===SDL===
+Clock Signal also has an SDL-based kiosk mode, which is compatible with Linux and any other target offering SDL 2.x, at least OpenGL 3.2 and C++17, and which attempts to follow ordinary UNIX conventions as to file naming and locations. It is intended to be launched however the user would normally launch something from the command-line; the target use case is to set up a file association in the user's preferred desktop environment and launch emulated applications by double-clicking on them exactly like the user would launch native applications.
+[[Category:Emulators]]
+[[Category:Multi-emulators]]
+[[Category:Console emulators]]
+[[Category:Home console emulators]]
+[[Category:Computer emulators]]
+[[Category:Amiga emulators]]
+[[Category:Amstrad CPC emulators]]
+[[Category:Apple II emulators]]
 [[Category:Atari 2600 emulators]]
+[[Category:Atari ST emulators]]
 [[Category:ColecoVision emulators]]
-[[Category:Emulators]]
+[[Category:Enterprise 64/128 emulators]]
+[[Category:Macintosh emulators]]
+[[Category:Master System emulators]]
+[[Category:MSX emulators]]
+[[Category:SG-1000 emulators]]
+[[Category:ZX Spectrum emulators]]
+[[Category:ZX81 emulators]]
 [[Category:Linux emulation software]]
 [[Category:macOS emulation software]]
-[[Category:Multi-emulators]]
+[[Category:BSD emulation software]]
-[[Category:MSX emulators]]
+[[Category:Active emulation software]]
-[[Category:SG-1000 emulators]]
-[[Category:Master System emulators]]