Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!markv
From: markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Graphics Chips
Message-ID: <1991May2.144423.30319@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 2 May 91 14:44:23 CDT
References: <1991May2.030706.30302@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <91122.115817DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu>
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 43

In article <91122.115817DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu>, DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
> In article <1991May2.030706.30302@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>,
> 2fmlhiccup@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu says:
> 
>>   Why is it so difficult to make display chips for the Amiga that will
>>allow it to do resolutions/colors that i see on VGA?  What are the hardware
>>and software limitations?

The hardware isnt' hard these days with all the off the shelf
componants.  Witness the plethora of graphics hardware for the Amiga.
The 2610, Firecracker, Colorburst, DCTV, HAM-E, etc.
 
> The operating system doesn't have significant support for add-in display
> cards, and as a result there are only a few niche video boards. The custom
> chips haven't been upgraded either, but that's an old flame war. :-)
> I'm sure companies like GVP would love to do awesome video boards for
> the Amiga, but without software support it's hard. (Certainly not
> impossible or improbable though).

Yeah.  Commodore even had to make a specially hacked version of the OS 1.3
to support *their* monitor (Moniterm Viking/20??), Kickstart 35, and
that monitor still uses the custom chips.  Graphics library, intuition
library, even Exec somewhat is still pretty tied to the custom chips
structure, particularly the "bitplane" model of a raster in memory.
Most new graphics boards (including the 2610) use "chunky pixel"
model.  So the system software doesn't know much about them, so they
are limited to a frame buffer capacity right now.

Commodore is supposedly working on a device independant graphics
sub-system, in fact it even was on the early features lists for "1.4",
but is one of the things (like Outline fonts) that didn't make it into
2.0.

> -- Dan Babcock
-- 
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