Hardware Changes
On the hardware side, radical changes were made. The internal 8-bit ALU of the Z80 was replaced with a new 16-bit ALU. Opcodes like ADD HL, BC, that previously took 11 clock cycles, now can run as fast as only one bus cycle (in some conditions). The maximum CPU clock speed was also increased to 14.32 MHz—four times as fast as the original 3.57 MHz Z80 used in the MSX, and the bus clock was increased to 7.16MHz. The data bus remained 8-bit to maintain compatibility with old hardware.
Read more about this topic: R800 (CPU)
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