From: kholland@hydra.unm.edu (Kiernan Holland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
Subject: Re: X-Pert Systems Domino Board
Date: 21 Aug 92 04:02:06 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Aug18.130350.29501@sarah.albany.edu> tw5232@albnyvms.bitnet writes:
>In article <1992Aug16.190713.8054@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>, rickan@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Mark Rickan) writes:
>>While I've seen bits of information on this new card, I would appreciate
>>it if someone with information directly related to this board could post
>>a summary of what it has to offer, the level of integration with the OS,
>>and details of any agreements which have been made for North American
>>distribution.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Mark
>
>Here are the specs directly from Klaus Burket, the person who OWNS this
>project.  He did not state what Amiga models it is available for.  The product
>is based on the TSENG 4000 chipset (made immensely famous by IBM-compatible
>S-VGA cards) and supports the following resolutions and colors at the following
>refresh rates:
>
>Resolution	16/256K colors		256/256K colors		32768 colors
>640x480		  72 (60) Hz		   72 (60) Hz		   72 (60) Hz
>800x600		  72 (60) Hz 		   72 (60) Hz		   60 (60) Hz
>1024x768	  72 (87i) Hz		   72 (81i) Hz		   
>1152x900	  59 Hz
>1280x1024	  87i Hz
>
>The values are for a monitor that can take horizontal frequencies up to 57kHz
>(like the Nec 4D) the values in () for 38kHz (like the Nec 3D), 'i' is for 
>interlace.  In addition the author is thinking about supporting Nec 3FG-alikes
>(48kHz), that'll give 800x600 in 72 Hz and 1024x768 in 60 Hz.
>
>HiColor in already incorporated into the setup. 
>
>The important graphics.library calls are patched to work on the board and
>they've built the board to appear mostly like the native chipset in terms of
>bitplanes, only bigger...  (at least it's not copying graphics info from chip
>ram.)
>
>Finally cost is 698 DM in Germany which translates to about $450 US...
>
>Hope this helps, please send any questions to burket1@kirk.fmi.uni-passau.de
>
>Teddy
>
>     ////////  
>       //                                             twang@thor.albany.edu
>      //                                              TWANG@ALBNYVMS.BITNET
>     //  eddy Wang                                    TW5232@ALBNYVMS.BITNET
>    //   Computer Art and Animation at SUNY Albany
>         New Illusions      Albany, NY                  "Increase the Peace..."

Do you know if they are planning to release it on the American market??

It sounds like the PC cards that I have been looking at, but it costs 
about the same as the PC boards. That's better than what companies 
like Centaur are trying to do. I looked at the specs on thier
board and it doesn't look nearly as good as what I thought. 
It sounds like all the high-resolution modes on the Opalvision are 
8-bit and everything else is 15/24 bit. What this board, that 
you are talking about, can do is display 15-bit images in 800x600 as 
well as 640x480, which is a ton better than 24-bit images 
becuase you hardly use more than a few thousand colors and updates
are faster since you only have to deal with 2/3's the data. It would 
be harder to quantize images from 24-bit to 15-bit, but 
the images would be breathtaking. 

The higher resolutions would be neat to. Notice that currently 
the only card that handles resolutions like that is the 
DMI Resolver and CBM's TIGA. DMI resolver (model C, I think) 
costs about 800 bucks, handles only 8-bits in all modes, 
and 1024x768 is the highest resolution (no double-buffering 
unless you buy the two higher-models). 
 
I thought someone would get wise. 

I'm not going to buy an Amiga graphics card, until it can 
compare with the PC boards in price range and capability. 
I mean, if they can do it, why doesn't the developers make such 
a thing. I think they just don't want to saturate the Amiga market 
with good hardware. It makes me sick sometimes. What makes real 
sick is that most all the PC's boards are non-interlaced 
while about 80% of the Amiga boards are either NTSC or RGB. 
I want something that doesn't flicker, and you would too, wouldn't you?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics