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From: spencer@eris.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Extra-Half-Brite
Message-ID: <3912@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Wed, 10-Jun-87 02:27:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: jade.3912
Posted: Wed Jun 10 02:27:11 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 04:25:24 EDT
Sender: usenet@jade.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: spencer@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Randy Spencer)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 66

In article <341@esunix.UUCP> blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes:
>Now that the A500 is in the stores the local Amigaoids are going nuts
>over Extra Half Brite. This was discussed somewhat a month or so ago,
>but would someone at C-A care to answer some questions?
>
>1) Do all A500s and A2000s have Extra Half Brite (EHB)?

Yes!
>
>2) Is EHB an officially supported video mode?

Yes!
>
>3) Will future color expansion interfere with EHB?

No, EHB must be specified to get it, you don't just turn on 6 bit planes
>
>5) Where can documentation on EHB (hardware and programming) be found?

Addison Weseley (?)
>
>6) Is it true that the new Aegis software supports EHB?

Yes, they went whole hog
>
>9) How can you distinguish an EHB chip from a non-EHB chip (by part
>   number, revision number, or date code)?

I believe that all chips past rev 6? or 7 support it
>-- 
>Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland


I personally was supprised to hear all the above.  The machine is not
spec'ed to support 64 colors, and when I spoke to the Developer Support
people in August last year they said that EHB was a fluke and not supported.
I guess that they didn't want to start handing out all these extra chips
so people could get the EHB in their Amiga.  I have 2 home Amigas and one
at work and NONE of them have EHB.  Such is life!  I read something on 
usenet or some such about it impeading future expansion, but when Dale Luck
brought up EHB at the last Badge meeting I asked him point blank what the
Amiga people thought of it, and he said that Amiga (commodore too?) has 
ALWAYS supported EHB.  Hmmm... news to me, guess I need to buy me 3 new
chips!

While I am speaking about chips I spoke with Jeff Porter (Mr. A500) at CES
and he told me that the A500 was designed to accept (at a later date) one
full meg of chip memory (not two, now, that was just a rumor, seems he ran
out of pins.)  The memory that is currently residing at $C00000 would be
moved (with different pals) to the chip memory space, and a new Agnus would
be droped in (pin compatible).  That would give you the one meg of Chip.

I remember Andy (I think) saying that it wouldn't make sense to come to 
market with new machines that had lots of chip memory.  All the A1000 owners
would cry bloody-murder, so first you flood the market with A500s and A2000s
and then you release the new chips and drop them into the new machines.
That way there wouldn't be the same public outcry.  I agree completely.

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