rrs@neabbs.UUCP (RONALD VAN EIJCK) (09/11/90)
I often ask myself why are the custom chips still running at 7.14 MHz. If
this changes to 14.32 and change the palette to 6 bits per color we could have
the following resolutions:
640*200*8 ( 256 colors out of 256K)
640*200 ( HAM 6 bits per color, = 256K colors on screen)
PAL and LACE are still usable and normal screens will have faster graphics
because the blitter also runs faster and there are more open DMA slots.
What are the problems:
1. 256 color changes using the copper will take more scanlines.
2. register compatibilitie.
3. RAM speed.
4. Memory usage.
5. Costs
Solutions:
1. Make 4096 colorregisters and only change the base adress, so the first screen
uses color 0 to 255 the second 256 to 511 etc (this will only give problems
if you have over 16 screens.
This will also eliminate the nessecary empty scan lines between 2 screens.
2. Create a new register set and remap the old ones to set the apropriate bits
in this new register area example
lets say the new color register start at register 0x400 and look like this
0x400 bits 0 - 5 Green value
bits 6 - 7 unused (keep 0)
bits 8 - 13 Red value
bits 14 - 15 unused (keep 0)
0x402 bits 0 - 5 Blue value
bits 6 - 15 unused (keep 0)
if you put 0x0FED in register 0x180 then register 0x400 = 0x0F0E
and register 0x402 = 0x000D.
3. Chip ram now runs at 3.58 Mhz that would change to 7.16 MHz (I guess that
must be 3.57 and 7.14) so 100 ns rams must be fast enoug.
4. A 8 planes screen needs more memory. We have been using amiga's with 512 k chip
for 4 or 5 years so we could do with 1 MB for 8 planes for some time too.
But since there already is a 2 MB chip agnus in the A 3000 this will not be
a real problem.
5. An amiga having these features will cost more but so does a A-3000 or a MAC.
Why:
Some people will ask themself why is that asshole flaming the Amiga ?
Well the amiga is 5 years old and it was a revolutionary machine when it was
born but in 5 years a lot has happened. PC's got 640*480*256, Macs got even
more and we are still using the same screen resolutions we were using 5 years
ago.
Ok there is productivity etc. these are fine resolutions for cad
and a lot of other things but not for VIDEO and that is what the amiga is used
for most of the time. So we don't need 1024*1024 or something like that
(it would be nice) but we need faster blitting and more COLORS.
If you don't agree PLEASE FLAME ME.
If you do let me know and let Commodore know !!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ronald van Eijck R&R Software rrs@neabbs.uucp |
| |
| I want a 14 MHz Amiga |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------