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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment. |
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29th Jul 2019, 9:56 am | #1 |
No Longer a Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia.
Posts: 2,679
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Early S-100 Graphics cards.
Matrox produced two early graphics cards, the ALT-256 and ALT-512. I have done up an article on these showing the graphics/images they were capable of displaying:
http://worldphaco.com/uploads/MATROX_ALT256.pdf A couple of images attached. It was relatively easy to repair the cards, but more difficult to write the software to load the images. I have been running these in a SOL-20 computer. |
1st Aug 2019, 3:47 pm | #2 |
Tetrode
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Reading, Berkshire, UK.
Posts: 51
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Re: Early S-100 Graphics cards.
I enjoyed reading your clear and detailed write-up. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to share your adventure. I had no idea that Matrox had been around for so long.
I was intrigued to see that "clear all pixels" and "set all pixels" are apparently implemented in hardware. Can you explain how they work? I speculate that they jam 0 or 1 on the write port to all rams and somehow reuse the video readout address counters to cycle through writing all addresses during the course of one frame time. Regards Neal. |
1st Aug 2019, 10:25 pm | #3 | |
No Longer a Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia.
Posts: 2,679
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Re: Early S-100 Graphics cards.
Quote:
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2nd Aug 2019, 2:23 pm | #4 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,885
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Re: Early S-100 Graphics cards.
Interesting write up thanks!
The bulk clear is indeed interesting. I was amazed when I ported the BBC micro ROM how much trouble (and precious ROM space) was taken up with a fast clear screen routine. D |