tbr@tfic.bc.ca (Tom Rushworth) (11/30/90)
I'm strictly a software person, but with that bias in mind, I'd like to throw in a plea to anyone considering a graphics card for the pc532. I've used several windowing systems on different hardware platforms, and by far the best "feel" in terms of response was from a Whitechapel MG1. The CPU was an 8MHz 32016, so there wasn't a lot of compute power, but the mouse was handled by it's own chip (I can look up the number if anyone wants it) and was mixed in at the video level, rather than xor'ed (or whatever) by the display software. The hardware stored up to 4 (or maybe 16?) bitmaps to use for the mouse, and a number of pixel region boundarys on which to change the bitmap and/or notify the main CPU. You just could NOT outpace the mouse, no matter how fast you moved it. My plea is this: consider putting mouse support on the graphics card. Mixing at the video level may not be worthwhile, especially considering the speed of todays graphics chips, but simple mouse tracking makes a lot more sense on the graphics card than a separate "mouse device" that the main CPU *has* to be involved with. ----- Tom Rushworth - (604) 733-0731 | UUCP: uunet!ubc-cs!van-bc!tacitus!tbr Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants|maybe: tacitus!tbr@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca #302 - 958 W 8th Ave, Vancouver BC, |unlikely: tbr@tfic.bc.ca Canada V5Z 1E5 | FAX: (604) 733-0634