Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!tiamat!quintro!bpdsun1!rmf
From: rmf@bpdsun1.uucp (Rob Finley)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Graphic Controller chips!
Keywords: graphic controller coprocessor chips 34010 8514
Message-ID: <1989Dec2.064330.25821@bpdsun1.uucp>
Date: 2 Dec 89 06:43:30 GMT
References: <1414@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu>
Reply-To: rmf@bpdsun1.UUCP (Rob Finley)
Organization: Harris Broadcast Div., Quincy, IL
Lines: 52

In article <1414@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> mueller@alphard.cs.utk.edu (Carl Mueller) writes:
>I have a pressing need to find out all there is to know about the
>following graphic controller chips:
>    TI 34010 and 34020
>    IBM 8514/A

I don't do graphics for a living, I do pcb's for radio transmitters and such.
Also, I am using VI telnetted from a PC.  So please forgive...

I have little experience with both.  But, here are some tips and observations:

If you want good 8514 hardware information and info on a very neato chip.
Call up Chips and Technologies (408) 434-0600 and ask for data on the 82C480.

This product and its companion chip, the 82B484 make up a full implementation 
of the 8514 display system.  Great specs great resoution, great stuff.  Next
spring the price for the chipset should be about $100 to $150.  The main chip
is packaged as 160 pins with -you guessed it- 25 mil centers.  Not your home
brew type of stuff.  It will work like the Compaq display board and can feed
through a VGA chip even to the point that they can share display memory.  Wild!
Any one know of a bios chip ready for this.  Can I steal the one from a PS2 in
the mean time???
Just a thought.

On the TMS34010.  A basic 34010 can be gotten at your distributor for a very
small amount of cash:  about $40 or $50.  It is also in a reasonable package
for homebrew.   The 64 pin flat package fits in a pin-grid array socket
quite nicely.  

The 8514 is essentially a display controller that does line
draws, area fills, and such.  It works well for what it is designed to do.
But, if you are going to do 3D rendering with it, the computational load
is stuck on the system processor.  On the otherhand, TI wrote a neat 
data sheet on a PC coprocessor that uses the microprocessor capabilities of
the '010 to do a wire frame simulation in real time!  I don't remember the
performance though.  You can do things like hang off DSP chips to do numbers
and all sorts of neat things.  Rave Rave Rave Rave.  Find the toll free
number of TI (800) 232-3200 and order the data book and the APPLICATIONS guide.
The guide also has things like doing 1024 by 768 where the PC loads up the
program on the 34010 board and it goes on its way.
Don't forget that you can emulate just about any PC graphics adapter with
the TI34010.  The Autocad stations we have here use 34010 boards from
Rennaisance to take vector lists from the 80286 and show it at 1024 by
768.  It works great.  The next version up emulates the 8514A :(  whish we had
waited...

Please let me know what you decided.  This is something I wanted to play with
until we are about to get Suns on our desks.  What is their shipping time now...
-----
Rob
	quintro!bpdsun1!rmf@lll-winken.llnl.gov
	uunet!tiamat!quintro!bpdsun1!rmf


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