Modular approach to colour graphics system design: hardware aspects

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Abstract

The normal method of drawing in colour graphics systems with a number of memory planes is either to write separately on each plane or to write simultaneously on all planes. The first of these has the advantage of being flexible with respect to the number of memory planes, but it is very slow compared to the second. Writing simultaneously on all planes requires changes in basic drawing hardware for every addition to the number of memory planes. This paper attempts to introduce flexibility into the second approach: with the same basic drawing hardware and some external hardware, drawing can be performed on all planes simultaneously. The extra hardware does not demand any changes in the circuit timing parameters. A large portion of the extra hardware can be put on a programmable array logic (PAL) chip. The paper also presents an overview of an implementation of this approach, using the 82720 graphics display controller.

References (2)

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Cited by (0)

1

Rajesh K Nemani graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Bombay, in April 1986. He is currently working as a freelance consultant and runs a data processing centre in Calcutta, India. His major technical interests are concurrent processing and microprocessor-based system design.

2

S S S P Rao received his DMIT in electronics from the Madras Institute of Technology, India, and his MTech and PhD degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology (ITT), Powai, Bombay. He served in the Computer Group of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research from October 1963 to February 1964. Since 1964 he has worked at IIT, Bombay, where he is now professor of computer science and engineering Areas of interest are computer system design, microprogramming microprocessor-based systems, fault diagnosis and fault tolerant computing He is a member of the Computer Society of India, a fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (India) and a senior member of the IEEE.

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