Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!masscomp!calvin!mark From: mark@calvin..westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics Subject: Re: Colorburst Info! Keywords: colorburst mast amiga 24-bit Message-ID: <61725@masscomp.westford.ccur.com> Date: 18 Feb 91 17:38:45 GMT References: <1220@xroads.UUCP> Sender: news@masscomp.westford.ccur.com Reply-To: mark@calvin.westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) Organization: Concurrent Computer Corp. Westford MA. Lines: 108 Anthon_Pang@mindlink.UUCP (Anthon Pang) writes: >>Sounds like MAST marketing hogwash to me. 24bit RGB NTSC at 20 frames per/sec >>is roughly 20MB/sec. I don't think so. >Isn't it a fallacy to assume that every frame must reside in memory, in whole? >If they can get 20 frames/sec, surely they can use double buffering, and blit >deltas in real time... >The claims aren't so "ridiculous" when one considers that this is almost >precisely the technique used by MovieSetter for "animation". It is completely ridiculous if you are working with 768 x 480 24bit images with any reasonable amount of image movement. If only 20% of the image changes from frame to frame, a sustained data rate of 4.5MB/s is required. You will not achieve this with your hard drive >In article <1220@xroads.UUCP> aman@xroads.UUCP (Chris Minshall) writes: >Here is the real info. on colorburst from MAST. Any ?'s, send me e-mail. > ***** COLORBURST ***** > TRUE 24 BIT COLOR! ACK!!! more marketing hype!!!! I received a reply from Gary Rayner, the designer of ColorBurst and he gave me a very informative run down of what the board truly does. I have to thank him heartily for the no-bull description and commend him on a fine product. Here is what he wrote (note that the animation he mentions is only ~900KB/s): ------------------------------------- Addressing your scepticism about ColorBurst:- My name is Gary Rayner, The Designer of ColorBurst. I independantly designed ColorBurst. an M.A.S.T. will be manufacturing and distributing my product. I won an Australian Design Award for ColorBurst. I am sorry that you have been a little disinformed about ColorBurst. ColorBurst is ALIVE and WELL and many well informed people have seen ColorBurst Operating:- Talk to Jean Braun ( one editor for AmigaWorld) who is very familiar with ColorBurst:- He is a video GURU and has seen all of the other products as well. (eg Video Toaster and Fire- Cracker ... and DCTV) He was Blown Away by the ColorBurst and the Sharp crystal clear RGB output. Let me address to a few of your Questions and tell you about ColorBurst. ColorBurst has 1.5 megabytes of video RAM onboard. ColorBurst also supports double buffered 24 bit animation (in lo-res 384 * 480 mode). I agree that you CANNOT load 20 - 30 megabytes per second from any Hard drive. maybe > 1megabyte a second with a fast Hard drive and Controller. You CAN do deluxe paint style animation (update the partial changes to the overall picture) with considerable speed because you can use the Amiga's Blitter to manipulate objects. Also you can glitch free animate this with the double buffering at 20 frames second. We can animate a 150 * 100 pixel 24 bit screen in realtime (20 frames a second) from the MAST fireball harddrive with a Fujitsu 180 meg drive. other drives and controllers would have similar performance. The ColorBurst Has a Coprocessor (similar in operation the the Amiga's Copper.) that allows you to change video modes on any scan line, update video RAM address counters ( to give you perfect-ly smooth real time continuous scrolling for video titling etc.), Change resolutions and change memory banks for Animating and switch stencils on and off. ColorBurst has 2 hardware stencils. (1) gives pixel by pixel control over which 24 bit playfield will show in 48 bit mode (24 bit screen with 24 bit over lay). The (2) second stencil allows pixel by pixel switching and priority con- troll between Amiga and ColorBurst graphics (YES! you can freely mix ANY Amiga and ColorBurst graphics on a pixel by pixel basis , sort of like a genlock but you can actually specify with the stencil that ColorBurst graphics appear over the top of Amiga Graphics. You can backdrop or overlay ColorBurst graphics to any Intuition Screen. Eg: Deluxe Paint or Workbench) The DMA transfer rate of data from the Amiga to ColorBurst is 5.5 megabytes per second. The ColorBurst has a 23 way video "D" connector that is functionally identical, and is a pass-thru of Amiga video. ColorBurst is compatible with all external Genlocks and the SCAN RATE is NTSC, PAL, or SECAM in RGB output. Operation is -lways been a part of your Amiga. Some technical specs on display output. SAMPLE RATE 14.37 Msamples/sec. (better than CCIR601 standard of 13.5 mhz). EFFECTIVE VIDEO BANDWIDTH 7.15 mhz VIDEO DYNAMIC RANGE 48db per Red, Green, and Blue channel PIXEL SWITCH 20ns These specifications are greater than the CCIR601 standard (D1 format) set down for broadcast video and has higher resolution than the standard Quantel Paintbox Painting onscreen is in real time WYSIWYG and ColorBurst comes complete with a 24 bit realtime paint program and slideshow loader. If you want to talk tech or know a lot more about ColorBurst call the MAST BBS on (702) 359 0132 and leave a message for me in conference #9 (ColorBurst Conference). Full developers kits and full routines are freely available. Thanks for your interest. Be assured that this product is here now (see us at the New York show) P.S. You can program the ColorBurst also with Intuition and Blitter calls (have 24 bit Gadgets and requestors) Read Bulettin #1 or Conference #9 for more Color-Burst info. Regards Gary Rayner - Designer. ----------------------------------------------- My sincere apologies if anyone thought I was slamming this product, I was not. I was merely trying to separate the hype from the facts. The facts seem to indicate that this is an outstanding board, especially for the price. Hope this clears things up. %~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~% % ` ' Mark Thompson % % --==* RADIANT *==-- mark@westford.ccur.com % % ' Image ` ...!{decvax,uunet}!masscomp!mark % % Productions (508)392-2480 (603)424-1829 % % % ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~