Path: utzoo!utdoe!generic!pnet91!taob
From: taob@pnet91.cts.com (Brian Tao)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Pirating Hardware
Message-ID: <458@generic.UUCP>
Date: 5 Feb 91 17:54:06 GMT
Sender: root@generic.UUCP
Organization: People-Net [pnet91], Etobicoke, ON
Lines: 38

From gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn):

> In article <447@generic.UUCP> ericmcg@pnet91.cts.com (Eric Mcgillicuddy)
> writes:
>
>> If you want to do something useful, how about a 640x480 resolution video
>> card? Include patches for Quickdraw to use it and insure compatibility
>> modes. Try being creative. Make something new and useful.
>
> That's a constructive suggestion, but I would modify it to:  How about
> either a "frame grabber" to work in conjunction with Apple's VOC (which
> is already a 640x480 video card)

    I think you meant to say '640x400' resolution with the VOC.  I assume the
VOC can direct the video signal into the Apple RGB monitor?  Wouldn't that
imply that the standard GS monitor is capable of displaying 400 lines of
resolution?  Or is that 400 fuzzy, flickering lines of resolution?

> or a "frame buffer" that supports 640x480x8 (the 8-bit deep pixel is
> the key point), again set up to work in conjunction with the VOC
> (perhaps also without it).  The system software mods to support the
> VOC in 640x480 mode would be wonderful, too.

    Do you know what happened to Synnovision?  They had a product two years
ago called TurboRez which boosted the GS' resolution to 320x200x4096 (no
palette switching needed) or 640x400x16.  What happened to them?  Last I
heard, people were complaining that it wasn't QuickDraw II compatible, so
maybe they scrapped the whole project.

    A video card with 320x200x8-bit colour shouldn't be too difficult.  As
long as you don't exceed 200 lines, you can add as many colours as you need. 
With 16 palettes of 256 colours each, all 4096 colours can be placed on screen
without CPU-intensive palette-swapping.  Since you only have 320 pixels per
line, you can essentially place any colour anywhere on the screen.

Brian T. Tao  {taob@pnet91.cts.com} ||  Computer guru?  Someone who got
University of Metro Toronto         ||  their computer a couple of weeks
Scarberia, ON, MIC 3A8         *B-) ||  before you did.  (Alvin Toffler)