Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!uokmax!cbdougla
From: cbdougla@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Collin Broadrick Douglas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: STE vs ST Shifter
Keywords: DAC, STE, Shifter
Message-ID: <1989Dec1.183920.12339@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 1 Dec 89 18:58:35 GMT
References: <20157@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: cbdougla@uokmax.UUCP (Collin Broadrick Douglas)
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Engineering Computer Network, Norman, OK
Lines: 37

In article <20157@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> soohoo@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Ken "nmi" Soohoo) writes:
>There's been quite a few ponderings in the last few days about the
>possiblity of an STE shifter that's pin-pin compadible with the
>ST shifter -- I just wanna add my $0.02 ;-)
>
>The STE shifter outputs 4 bits of color per gun, which means that
>the DACs required to go to your video are gonna be different, no?
>It would mean Atari would have to lay out another chip that's
>an ST replacement shifter w/o the extra color bit... Seems kinda
>pointless for them, lots of R&D $$, little return, plus they'd
>need lots of packages to hit all the shifter versions out there...
>
>Sigh, that's the way it seemed to me, not likely to be an ST STE
>shifter out any time soon...
>
>
>--Kenneth "kens" Soohoo				(soohoo@cory.Berkeley.Edu)
>  Atari Hacker (Atari's Hacker...)
>  "It could be worse, you could get hit by a bus..."
>  My opinions are my OWN, _not_ necessarily Atari's. But "hey", who knows?



  Except for one thing.  In Medium res the Atari get 16 colors per screen.  I
  may be stupid but doesn't this already mean that the shifter has to output
  4 bits (4 bits = 16 colors)?  All they would have to change is the total
  number of colors available (from 512 to 4096).  And that is just the difference
  of having more shades of the same colors.  The primary colors (Red, Green
  A

  just my $.02 worth.

Collin Douglas

cbdougla@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu

  and Blue) each with 16 shades gives a total of 4096 colors (16^3).