Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!eris!doug
From: doug@eris (Doug Merritt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Fixing flicker, & future frame rate issues
Message-ID: <8691@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 13 Apr 88 19:59:08 GMT
References: <11157@ut-sally.UUCP> <8528@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11182@ut-sally.UUCP> <8557@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11196@ut-sally.UUCP> <8577@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11204@ut-sally.UUCP> <8651@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11226@ut-sally.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: doug@eris.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <11226@ut-sally.UUCP> bryan@mothra.cs.utexas.edu writes:
>specified as a triangular area, a set of three coordinate pairs.  If you want a
>line, make two of the points the same.  If you want a point, make all three
>the same.  The grain size may be determined by the arithmetic precision of the
>coordinates, or by the physical medium.  But there are no pixels.

Ok. This line of discussion (plus the vector posting) clarifies what
you meant; I was kind of stuck in one line of thinking before.

> [...] and recall that all of memory is ALSO a display
>device, just with a limited part visible at anytime, and the coordinates of
>that 'ViewPort' (now where did he get that word?) given by a pair of base 
>registers.  That means no DMA at all, ONLY writing to memory.  Like it even
>better now?

This is the final point that I still don't see. If all of memory is the
display device, does that mean that you're not using normal RAM? I simply
cannot visualize how this is supposed to work. Even if the display
device *is* your main memory, what does that *mean* ? Does it contain
RAM that it moves to Pixels or Smudges? ("Smudges" == nonpixels, of course.
Or would "Trixels" -- Triangular Picture Elements be better? :-)

You said you "didn't want to get this specific", but without more
specifics I have difficulty seeing what you have in mind. So far it
*sounds* like a mutually exclusive set of specifications. Can you clarify?
Ideally what I'm after here is an architectural description; the display
could be Alien Crayons, but how is it functionally linked to memory??

	Doug Merritt		doug@mica.berkeley.edu (ucbvax!mica!doug)
			or	ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug