NobodyIsHere
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2006
- Messages
- 2,403
Hi! I just received a batch of the N8VEM ECB uPD7220 GDC boards. They are the second iteration prototypes based on the feedback and correcting the errors found in this last summer's first uPD7220 prototype board.
The new board is SRAM based with four bit planes for 16 colors and also uses a RAMDAC for display. This is a prototype board so there are only about ten boards total of which three have already gone out.
If anyone is interested in some uPD7220 GDC experimenting here is your chance. There are not many uPD7220 GDC video boards out there any more and this is the only one using SRAM AFAIK.
The uPD7220 GDC was popular early in the microcomputer era (late 1970's early 1980's) as an intelligent graphics controller. Unfortunately it was subsumed by the rise of the IBM PC and CGA graphics card although the concept reappeared about 10-15 years later as accelerated graphics boards and GPUs.
There were at least a few uPD7220 GDC based S-100 graphics boards although *none* of the manuals/schematics have been preserved as far as I can tell. They really are a rare creature and it made researching this board quite a challenge.
Eventually this will result in a "production" N8VEM ECB board as soon as we work out out the kinks in this design. The modifications necessary to fix the first iteration board were pretty dramatic so I am hoping this one will go smoother.
Thanks and have a nice day!
Andrew Lynch
The new board is SRAM based with four bit planes for 16 colors and also uses a RAMDAC for display. This is a prototype board so there are only about ten boards total of which three have already gone out.
If anyone is interested in some uPD7220 GDC experimenting here is your chance. There are not many uPD7220 GDC video boards out there any more and this is the only one using SRAM AFAIK.
The uPD7220 GDC was popular early in the microcomputer era (late 1970's early 1980's) as an intelligent graphics controller. Unfortunately it was subsumed by the rise of the IBM PC and CGA graphics card although the concept reappeared about 10-15 years later as accelerated graphics boards and GPUs.
There were at least a few uPD7220 GDC based S-100 graphics boards although *none* of the manuals/schematics have been preserved as far as I can tell. They really are a rare creature and it made researching this board quite a challenge.
Eventually this will result in a "production" N8VEM ECB board as soon as we work out out the kinks in this design. The modifications necessary to fix the first iteration board were pretty dramatic so I am hoping this one will go smoother.
Thanks and have a nice day!
Andrew Lynch