mueller@alphard.cs.utk.edu (Carl Mueller) (11/29/89)
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I have a pressing need to find out all there is to know about the
following graphic controller chips:
TI 34010 and 34020
IBM 8514/A
I'm not interested in specific video modes or things like that, but
rather how they work, what they do for you (and don't), what their
capabilities are as far as being graphic coprocessors, etc.
As for how they work, I would like to know what functional units
they consist of, how these tie together, etc.
Any info that anyone can mail me would be greatly appreciated.
-Carl Mueller (mueller@alphard.cs.utk.edu)sarathy@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Rajiv Sarathy) (11/30/89)
In article <1414@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> mueller@alphard.cs.utk.edu (Carl Mueller) writes: >--- >following graphic controller chips: > > TI 34010 and 34020 > IBM 8514/A > ... Sorry to post, but mail bounced. See the Fall 1989 BYTE IBM Special Issue. The article was called "Clash of the Graphics Titans" or something like that, and has a barebones comparison of the two. -- _____________________________________________________________________________ | Disclaimer: I'm just an undergrad. All views and opinions are therefore _ | | my own. /\ /\ /-----------------------------------oO(_)| | / \ / \ / NetNorth: sarathy@utorgpu |
rmf@bpdsun1.uucp (Rob Finley) (12/02/89)
In article <1414@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> mueller@alphard.cs.utk.edu (Carl Mueller) writes: >I have a pressing need to find out all there is to know about the >following graphic controller chips: > TI 34010 and 34020 > IBM 8514/A I don't do graphics for a living, I do pcb's for radio transmitters and such. Also, I am using VI telnetted from a PC. So please forgive... I have little experience with both. But, here are some tips and observations: If you want good 8514 hardware information and info on a very neato chip. Call up Chips and Technologies (408) 434-0600 and ask for data on the 82C480. This product and its companion chip, the 82B484 make up a full implementation of the 8514 display system. Great specs great resoution, great stuff. Next spring the price for the chipset should be about $100 to $150. The main chip is packaged as 160 pins with -you guessed it- 25 mil centers. Not your home brew type of stuff. It will work like the Compaq display board and can feed through a VGA chip even to the point that they can share display memory. Wild! Any one know of a bios chip ready for this. Can I steal the one from a PS2 in the mean time??? Just a thought. On the TMS34010. A basic 34010 can be gotten at your distributor for a very small amount of cash: about $40 or $50. It is also in a reasonable package for homebrew. The 64 pin flat package fits in a pin-grid array socket quite nicely. The 8514 is essentially a display controller that does line draws, area fills, and such. It works well for what it is designed to do. But, if you are going to do 3D rendering with it, the computational load is stuck on the system processor. On the otherhand, TI wrote a neat data sheet on a PC coprocessor that uses the microprocessor capabilities of the '010 to do a wire frame simulation in real time! I don't remember the performance though. You can do things like hang off DSP chips to do numbers and all sorts of neat things. Rave Rave Rave Rave. Find the toll free number of TI (800) 232-3200 and order the data book and the APPLICATIONS guide. The guide also has things like doing 1024 by 768 where the PC loads up the program on the 34010 board and it goes on its way. Don't forget that you can emulate just about any PC graphics adapter with the TI34010. The Autocad stations we have here use 34010 boards from Rennaisance to take vector lists from the 80286 and show it at 1024 by 768. It works great. The next version up emulates the 8514A :( whish we had waited... Please let me know what you decided. This is something I wanted to play with until we are about to get Suns on our desks. What is their shipping time now... ----- Rob quintro!bpdsun1!rmf@lll-winken.llnl.gov uunet!tiamat!quintro!bpdsun1!rmf
dicao@zeus.unl.edu (12/05/89)
In article <1989Dec2.064330.25821@bpdsun1.uucp>, rmf@bpdsun1.uucp (Rob Finley) writes: > In article <1414@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> mueller@alphard.cs.utk.edu (Carl Mueller) writes: >>I have a pressing need to find out all there is to know about the >>following graphic controller chips: >> TI 34010 and 34020 >> IBM 8514/A > > ----- > Rob > quintro!bpdsun1!rmf@lll-winken.llnl.gov > uunet!tiamat!quintro!bpdsun1!rmf I happen to design my senior project, a graphics system, using TMS 34010 , I have been working with this chip for about half a year. I don't know what exactly you want to know. I briefly write down what I have known. TI provide a series of software and hardware development tools for TMS 34010, including a Software Development Board, a hardware Emulator, C compiler, Assembler, Linker, Graphics/maths extended object libary. TMS 34010 is a general purpose processor with special hardware to handle the graphics operations. A number of instructions are dedicated to graphics operations, for example, LINE 0 is an instruction to draw lines. The processor can directly interface with DRAM and VRAM, without external controllers. With 16-bit external / 32-bit internal bus, it can access up to 128 mega byte memory. If you are insterested in the processor, send E-mail to my account via bitnet, maybe I can help. L.L. bitnet address: dicao@unoma1