Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!oliveb!amiga!boing!dale
From: dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Simple Frame Buffer boards
Message-ID: <916@boing.UUCP>
Date: 30 Nov 90 04:39:19 GMT
Reply-To: dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck)
Organization: Boing, Milpitas, Ca.
Lines: 25

Why is it so difficult to design a simple memory
mapped frame buffer board. I've gotten the specs
on a couple, like the firecracker and most seem
to have forgotten that the main cpu of the Amiga
is 68000 based. Read: FLAT ADDRESS SPACE.

Any kind of interface that forces the programmer to
hit multiple i/o registers to peek and and poke pixels
through a porthole just makes progamming more difficult.

In my case I would like to support these frame buffer
boards with the X Window System. Getting it to support
this architecture is not trivial. I believe such interfaces
are a step backward.

Is anyone doing a simple frame buffer board with VRAM
to drive a reasonable resolution monitor with at least
256 colors and a direct memory mapped raster? On the
A3000 it could even be accessed 32 bits at a time to
double the speed of operations.

Dale Luck
-- 
Dale Luck     GfxBase/Boing, Inc.
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