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From: grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Future Amiga Video
Message-ID: <1759@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Apr-87 01:34:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.1759
Posted: Mon Apr 27 01:34:37 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 27-Apr-87 05:37:50 EDT
References: <10726@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <1964@hoptoad.uucp> <541@neoucom.UUCP> <1735@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> <6370@amdahl.UUCP>
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 58
Keywords: A2000 A500

In article <6370@amdahl.UUCP> kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) writes:

>I've see it mentioned in several places that the "Westchester design" of the
>A2000 will have additional signals available at the video slot, while the
>"German design" will not.

	The German design has all the basic features, while the West Chester
	design is intended to lower production costs.  We did take the liberty
	of adding a few simple enhancemnts.


>Is this correct, George?  How can one tell if one is getting one design or the
>other?

	Current plans are that production machines in the US will all be of
	the West Chester variety.


>In particular, the "Westchester design" is supposed to make available the 12
>raw RGB bits, which would then permit add on boards to do things like "Chroma
>Keying", in addition to "Genlocking".

	Actually, the requests I've heard for chroma-keying work the other way,
	with video being switched based of the color of the external video
	input.  This would let you point your camera at a model against a blue
	backdrop and have just the model appear superimposed over an amiga
	generated graphics background.  This is really an analog video function.

	The other effect would be simple to accomplish by making bit 15 of the
	color registers control the pixel-switch bit, instead of keying on
	"color 0".  This is something we're thinking about...


> Are there yet other signals that the "Westchester design" provides in
>addition to the raw RGB signals?

	Most of the internally available video and audio signals, assorted
	clocks and the parallel port signals are present on an additional
	connector.

	One other little goodie we snuck into both the A500 and WC A2000 is a
	control bit to disable the compromise anti-aliasing filter in the audio-
	output.  Assuming you use a high-sampling rate and/or an external anti-
	alias filter, you can get some really impressive audio out of the box.


>On a related topic ... when and where can one get the technical specs, etc. on
>the A2000?

	At this point the only way is to get yourself signed up as a developer.
	There's really not much new stuff because of the degree of compatibility
	with the A1000 and the "zorro" bus described in the existing expansion
	documentation.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)