Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!olivea!apple!uokmax!drtiller
From: drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Donald Richard Tillery Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 24-Bit Graphics card, NOT Framebuffer
Message-ID: <1990Nov21.175151.31091@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 90 17:51:51 GMT
References: <2512@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk>
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Lines: 49

I am in an area rather devoid of Amiga shows and haven't been able to
actually lay my eyes on any 24 bit boards until our local dealer got a
Toaster.  I was so impressed that getting a 24 bit board has become
somewhat of an obsession in rather short order.  But, alas, as you can
see above, I'm a relatively poor college student and $1500 for the
Toaster or the Firecracker 24 (which to my knowledge is still not
shipping) is beyond me.  However, while perusing the newest Amiga
World, I notice that M.A.S.T. had a 24 bit board listed in their ad
for the more resonable price (extra features of the Toaster notwith-
standing) of $495.  I immediately called them to verify its existence
in light of a couple of other vaporware products they've advertised in
the past and never produced.  They quoted me 5 weeks to production.  When
I pressed them, however, they said that the hardware was done, along with
utilities for transferring most 24 bit formats to the board (Digi View/C=
IFF RGB standard, Impulse, Sculpt etc.).  They said they were waiting on
the 24 bit paint program, which they said would real-time update to the
board and would be a month or so away.  Now I don't really care too much
about a paint program right now (although I DO want it when it comes out)
so I think I may have been able to swing getting hold of one within two
weeks.  If/when I do I'll let the net know whether it's worth the money
(or even exists :-).

FYI:  24 bit frame buffer - ColorBurst - by Memory And Storage Technolgies

o  plugs into the RGB connector of ANY Amiga

o  comes with 1.5 megs expandable to 8 megs for minimal 24 bit animation

o  produces NTSC or PAL compatible _RGB_ video

o  pseudo-gen-locks behind standard Amiga video as third playfield

o  digital fade in/out

o  768 x 580 resolution at full 24 bits per pixel (16.7 million colors)

o  comes with conversion utilities for most standard 24 formats (IFF RGB,
   Impulse, Sculpt, etc.)

o  comes with 24 bit paint program which updates to the board in real time

All this at a reasonable price of $495.

I hope this exists and I can get hold of one soon.....my ray-traces will
never be the same (and neither will our storage devices once we have to
start storing 24 bit files!  We need better image compression).

Rick Tillery
(drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu)