Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!nuchat!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Next Amiga system
Message-ID: <2745@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 3 Oct 88 11:49:04 GMT
References: <8810030229.AA19219@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 28

In article <8810030229.AA19219@cory.Berkeley.EDU>, dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) writes:
> Peter da Silva  peter@sugar.uu.net Writes:
> :too many problems for the software. Either 8-bit DACs or 6+2 HAM. Can people
> :really distinguish more than 6-bit DACs can provide? I don't believe they
> :can handle more than 6-bit greyscale (based on an old Ciarcia article).

> 	6 would be an improvment, but not a great enough leap to be meaningful.
> 8 is the bare competitive minimum for today's market (8 bits per gun that is).

It may be a competitive minimum, but is it a real requirement after all? Can
people really distinguish 256 levels of red, green, and blue? Just because
the 8-bit DACs are cheap doesn't mean they're really necessary.

Maybe 8-bit DACs with a 6+2 HAM mode as well. Let the market decide.

> 	Also, the way things are moving, having screen memory part of the
> computer's main memory will no longer work.

OK, Yeh... part of my speedup "requirements". #2a: a seperate video bus.

> 	The need for one or more blitters is quite obvious.

Maybe not a given. Did you follow the blitter wars in comp.arch? Though a
blitter that talks over the video bus and lets you run another task might
be a different matter.
-- 
		Peter da Silva  `-_-'  peter@sugar.uu.net
		 Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?