Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mandrill!gatech!uflorida!umd5!ames!oliveb!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Suggestion for New Graphics Chips Message-ID: <58012@sun.uucp> Date: 26 Jun 88 20:25:25 GMT References: <3150@crash.cts.com> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 22 In article <3150@crash.cts.com> (Greg Beckham) writes: > I have a suggestion for the new graphics chip (really obese agnus?)... To >have a graphics mode with 256 colors on screen from a pallette of 4096. >Interlace or Non-Interlace. Nuff' Said. > Greg Beckham An excellent suggestion, except that 256 - 12 bit color registers is roughly 25,000 transistors, which in a 3 micron techonology is 225 square mils and that may not fit into Denise any more. There is a way however, and that involves taking all of the D/A stuff out of Denise and putting it into a separate RAMDAC. (Brooktree makes a really nice one, Apple uses it I believe). Then, one could make the video color resolution what ever they wanted. Just depends on how much they want to spend on the DAC. At the higher resolutions these things get pretty hot so we might need fins on the back of the case. The original suggestion though bears repeating, lets get more colors even if it is only in the 'high end' machines. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.