Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!emory!gatech!taco!hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Info wanted on new IBM vide card hacks. Message-ID: <1991Jun17.145329.28029@ncsu.edu> Date: 17 Jun 91 14:53:29 GMT References: <1991Jun17.103306.29343@news.iastate.edu> Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 27 > [...] an ordinary VGA card that comes equipped with something called the > "Edsun CEG DAC". From the ad, this replacement DAC chip gives VGA cards > a resolution of 2048x1536 and 700,000+ colors "on a standard VGA monitor." > [CEG=Continuous Edge Graphics, btw - kd] > My question is, how can something like this possibly be achieved on a > standard VGA monitor, and with ordinary VGA cards with 1M of video RAM? The CEG/DAC is a replacement palette chip which allows tricks such as blending adjacent pixel colors and updating palette values on the fly. This is done by setting aside some of the normal 256 colors as commands. The 700,000 colors is true enough... at least in a similiar manner to claiming 4096 colors in HAM mode: it can take an extra pixel or more to switch (altho the method is totally different and fairly clever). I think that the 2048x1536 resolution claim is ad hype tho. See, the idea is that all those extra colors can make a stock 1024x768 card look like it has the "resolution" of a larger display. Well, sure, but compared to what? A _true_ 2048x1536 700,000-color card would look even better :-). For more information, see ohhh, Dr Dobb's Journal - April 1991, pgs 133+. Personally, I'm not sure how much programming will be done for them now that the Tseng 15-bit color cards are getting popular. Hard to say yet. The CEG will be able to display some incredible pictures and animations. In any case, sounds like a question for comp.graphics or the ibm groups? kevin