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From: zap@lysator.liu.se (Zap Andersson)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Let's pretend
Keywords: Intel, 586, windows
Message-ID: <450@lysator.liu.se>
Date: 18 Dec 90 11:09:58 GMT
References: <3042@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Sender: news@isy.liu.se (Lord of the News)
Organization: Lysator Computer Club, Linkoping University, Sweden
Lines: 45

davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) writes:


>  Let's pretend that we have the ear of the chip designers at Intel,
>and that they have asked our opinion on what windows support should be
>included in the new Intel 586. Please hold any negative comments about
>Intel, CISC, etc, it's all been said...

>The questions:

>  What features should be put into the CPU to improve performance and
>reduce chip count?

Once upon a time I built a graphics board for my computer. 240x240 pixels, 16 
shades of gray, not very heavy, BUT I had windows-like support in HARDWARE! 
Now I have
 NEVER understood why this is not common practice in todays computers! I mean
what CAN be easier than to include in the gfx chip that 'when beam reaches
this'n'that row/column, start displaying bitmap-data from this'n'that memory!
The Amiga is the closes I've seen, supporting these 'semi-hardware' (the
amiga uses a co-processor) as horizontal slices of display. With a faster
co-processor (i.e. faster than 1 pixel bitclock) you could have hardware
windows support! You will NEVER need to worry about memorys overlapping, or
in what memory to write! You just write to your 'virtual' screen, and the
display chip takes care about it ALL.

Can SOMEONE tell me why this increadibly simple idea have so little use today?

>  Will assumptions about graphics memory organization be made, and if so
>what are they?

See above. But if your into 586 Windows handling, try to think up something
NEW! Don't bother with standards with moss on top....please?

/Z





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