Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Studebakers
Summary: Hires screens
Message-ID: <4440@killer.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jun 88 04:41:23 GMT
References: <4400@gryphon.CTS.COM> <56089@sun.uucp> <4429@killer.UUCP> <1327@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
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In message <1327@sbcs.sunysb.edu>, root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root) says:
>	If we change the model of low level graphics accesses from
>	allowing direct CPU access to screen bits to just
>	primitives, eg lines, polygons, etc the issue of how the
>	frame buffer is implemented goes away nicely.  Getting
>	people to write programs that don't expect to access
>	screen bits directly also has a side benefit that the
>	programs are more easily moved into network window systems,
>	eg X, NeWS, etc. 

The problem with that is SPEED. Going through the graphics routines
just to set and unset a pixel is pretty ridiculous, especially since
many graphics operations can be done on a full word-at-a-time basis
(thus speeding things considerably over having a dot-at-a-time
interface). Which is why I continue to think that a higher video rate
will require a lot of trickery incompatible with the desire to keep
costs reasonable, or, the long-awaited 68020-based Amiga running at
twice thbandwidth of the current Amiga.

Actually, the problem is that the Amiga is a victim of its own best
feature -- the built-in graphics. IBM software is generally built on
the "graphics-driver" concept, so that the same software works with
several different screen resolutions etc. As Rick Spanbauer pointed
out, doubling the graphics bandwidth basically means that video RAM
will have to be segregated from system RAM, a totally different
graphics interface from the current one, and a graphics interface
which would break most current software.

--
Eric Lee Green    ..!{ames,att,decwrl,ihnp4,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg
          Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509              
"Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?"