Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!ggumby!tim From: tim@ggumby.cs.caltech.edu (Timothy L. Kay) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: TSENG 4000 Cards Message-ID: Date: 31 Oct 90 21:54:06 GMT References: <9010301701.AA07975@emunix.emich.edu> <11793@uudell.dell.com> Sender: news@nntp-server.caltech.edu Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 23 Nntp-Posting-Host: gumby.cs.caltech.edu james@raid.dell.com (James Van Artsdalen) writes: >> Also, there's a new chip ("Sierra"?) coming out RSN for the TSENG4000 >> boards that allow 32,000 color screens.. ie 640x480x32K.. >Quick comment here: You do get 32,768 colors, but it's five bits per >gun, no translation. In some ways this is cleaner, but it's not a >strict functional superset. For example, with normal 256 color mode >you can have up to 64 shades of gray, or spread out your pallette more >evenly across the spectrum. With the 16 bit per pixel mode, you can't >quite do that - only 32 shades of gray are possible. It's a minimal Actually, if your card has a Brooktree DAC then you might be able to get 256 shades of gray. They used to have a DAC that had a 8/6 pin. This pin would either force the LUTs to be six bits deep for compatibility purposes or allow a full 8 bits. The eight bit mode could be enabled by cutting a trace on the circuit board. Recently Brooktree came out with a six bit version of their DAC. I suppose this allows them to be more price competetive. You could always change the DAC if it happens to be socketed (which it often is). Tim