Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmger!peterk From: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: 24 bit planes on an Amiga Keywords: 24 bitplanes,ham,hardware Message-ID: <252@cbmger.UUCP> Date: 3 Jul 90 07:15:08 GMT References: <1990Jul2.100651.11643@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> Reply-To: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY) Organization: Commodore Bueromaschinen GmbH, West Germany Lines: 27 In article <1990Jul2.100651.11643@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> ccc121e@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Dave Schwarz) writes: > The basic solution is simple when you think of it, simply said >is to sync 1 or more agnus/denise chipset combinations. > With 1 agnus/denis chipset this would lead to either 24 bit planes >at 320*400 in ham or 8 bit planes at 640*400. Of course using overscan >would up this to 720*540 which is very close to 800*600. Well, the output part of this is in fact manageable. But there are big obstacles on the other side: 1. You would have to remap the addresses of the custom chip registers elsewhere. (Don't know if there would also arise a real limit in address space for these.) Perhaps only some of the registers will have to be remapped, but that would already be difficult enough. 2. The operating system is in several places deadly limited to max. 8 bitplanes (byte values in structures which hold bit flags). So you would have to re-write significant portions of the OS risking MANY incompatibilities. So this seems not the way for the general public. BUT it sure is a way for specialized, stand-alone solutions. As far as I heard there are existing some arcade game consoles with several complete Amiga boards built into. Also a german hacker group is told to have combined about 3 A500 plus an A2000 as master together (don't beat me for the numbers), but I never saw it in reality. -- Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel // E-Mail to Commodore Frankfurt, Germany \X/ rutgers!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk