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From: cowgilc@prism.cs.orst.edu (Clayton Cowgill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Subject: Another Idea for a graphics board...
Summary: How about another approach...
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.074100.3146@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 13 Jun 91 07:41:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.1991Jun13.074100.3146
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Organization: Oregon State University, Computer Science Dept
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Ok everybody, how about this idea:

	A little while ago, someone suggested splitting up a video screen in a
	lot of different ways for weird real time effects. What if...

	We took a lot of small, quick processors and made a little hacker
	video card using cheap CPU's to get more kick?

	Steve Ciarcia's "8051 Mandelbrot Fractal engine" comes to mind- a LOT
	of EPROMed 8051 microcontrollers each generating just a few scan lines
	of the Mandelbrot set. It didn't take too many before $3 MPU's were
	outperforming thousand dollar CPU/FPU setups...

	Here's an idea (I'm writing off the top of my head now, no timing)-
		256x256 resolution
		24 bit color
		4-8 processors (depending on type)
		   each processor has local RAM for program/display buffer
		Small dual-port RAM to a nice RAMDAC.
		Maybe keep an NTSC clockrate for VCR stuff... 

	6809's are pretty quick, and they have some built in H/W for multi-
	processing... 

	Just an idea, kick it around if you like the general gist.   

						-Clay

##################===============------------===============##################
Clayton Cowgill                                 cowgilc@prism.cs.orst.edu  
Head Consultant                                 Lab: (503) 737-2435 
Oregon State University CS Dept.                Home: (503) 757-7060
Corvallis, OR 97330