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From: Fletcher@cup.portal.com (fletcher sullivan segall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: So, does *anyone* make 1024x768 x256 for the A3000?
Message-ID: <41634@cup.portal.com>
Date: 25 Apr 91 03:32:56 GMT
References: <1991Apr24.043853.20723@coplex.uucp>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 85

>
>   Well, I have owned an Amiga 2000 for several years now, and I
>am getting ready to buy a 3000, but I have one serious question
>before I even begin to get the money ready.
>
>   Does any company have plans to make a video card that will allow
>the Amiga to display 1024x768 resolutions with at *least* 256 colors?
>For $130.00 I can get a Trident card for a 386 PC to do the same.  I
>am *very* surprised that C= didnt make this a standard video display
>mode, or at least something similar.

Commodore West Coast showed the ULowell card at the last FAUG meeting
here in Palo Alto.  It was attached to an A3000 running UNIX/SVR4.
The representative said that there wasn't yet any planned release date
for the card.  I don't doubt that once it is released that someone
will be working on an Intuition driver for it.

>
>   Seriously though, anything less that 1024x768x256 just doesnt hack it
>for good looking video anymore, and I am curious if the Amiga 3000 will
>ever handle it.
>

What do you mean by video.  The video I'm interested in doesn't have
anything to do with higher resolutions, it has to do with more colours.

>   The Viedo Toaster solution is obviously not the way to go.  It is
>sort of embarrasing to see a PC display 1024x768x256 for a total
>investment of around $150.00. (not including monitor)
>

The toaster is a wonderful way to go if you want toaster output.  But
since you seem to want 1024x768x256 I would suggest that you get a PC
Clone.  I have no doubt 1024x768x256 cards will forever be cheaper on
PC Clones that any other equipment available.  Personally I still wouldn't
take one if you gave it to me.  (But then I have this bias against Intel
architectures.)

>   So, anyone know?  Or is the Amiga doomed to be stuck with 640x400x16
>for the rest of its days....  (If you haven't seen 1024x768x256 before,
>look at it.  It *IS* impressive.
>

Ever look at the price tag on the monitor?  Now that is what I call
impressive.

My personal opinion is that the high resolution cards have a long way
to go before they really become useful.  Right now they are dead-slow.
Manufacturer's are only beginning to put intelligent controllers on
the display cards, without which a 25MHz 386 Clone slows to a crawl.
Very few programs support these cards.  Many of the card manufacturers
include patches to make some of the more popular programs run with
their hardware, but this is a kludge at best.  The current state of
graphics in the PC world requires a program to create all of its graphics
itself.  You don't call BIOS to perform a line draw, and the variety of
available cards forces the writers to create a program that works with
the lowest common denominator... each bit is written, one at a time.  So
even if your more expensive display card has a built-in controller,
the program can't use it.

If you are a programmer, I would strongly recommend the Amiga.  As
a development platform for moderate to large sized programs it is much
more enjoyable and easy to use than the PC (or UniX IMHO).  On a PC you
can watch your run-times more than double just because you need to
run in protected mode (ie use more than 640k of memory).  The Moniterm
display is an exceptional high-resolution display.  The mouse is much
more responsive, the multi-tasking is to die for.  (I wrote my own
pre-emptive scheduling multi-tasking scheduler under MSDOS.  It is
important to realize that MSDOS is non-reentrant.  Every task that
wants any DOS service under my environment first has to gain exclusive
access to MSDOS, or risk the infinite loop.)

Enough gibbering, I've already made my decision.  Hope you are as happy
with yours as I am with mine...

                           -F. Sullivan Segall
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