[Color Computer] Re: [Coco] Hidden 256-color mode

[jdaggett at gate.net]

On 28 Jul 2005 at 23:55, James Diffendaffer wrote:

To:             	ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com
From:           	"James Diffendaffer" 
<jdiffendaffer at yahoo.com>
Date sent:      	Thu, 28 Jul 2005 23:55:16 -0000
Subject:        	[Color Computer] Re: [Coco] Hidden 256-
color mode
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> I think the best way to determine if the 256 color mode is in the GIME
> is to examine the prototype and learn how to turn it on... then test
> the GIME with working code. 
>

I can't agree more here. I would love to have a week with that 
board. I used to design hardware prototype boards for software 
engineers to develope software on. It would be a treat to examine 
this one. 

> It would be interesting to compare dies of the GIME versions.
> 
> I'm not sure removing the mode from the die would result in
> significant cost savings since it looks like a simple design.  It
> appears that the data sent to lookup colors just bypasses that phase
> and goes strait to the output through an additional register.  That
> means there could only be a couple additional gates to sense state to
> turn it on and disable the other data path.  It even requires a reset
> to disable.  It can't require a lot of chip realestate.  What it
> translates to on the die who knows.  A register, an and gate or two
> and a flip-flop could be expensive.
> 
> 
****

If they were usig a lookup table to do psuedo color then yes that 
would take up a bit of real estate. On the prototype board is a 512 
byte sram chip. It happens to be located near what appears to be 
the composite video out and sound connectors. 

*****
> 
> 
> >> The possibilies I see are:
> >> yyyyyrgb - 8 colors with 32 levels of intensity
> >
> >****  
> >
> >first off this format will yield three colors and 32 levels of
> > intensity. 
> 
> RGB
> 000 - 1
> 001 - 2
> 010 - 3
> 011 - 4
> 100 - 5
> 101 - 6
> 110 - 7
> 111 - 8
> 
> Or am I missing something?
> 


My fault there. Old age brain fart. 

james


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