[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Apple //e's RGB Card To Apple IIgs' RGB Monitor



Bryan Parkoff wrote:
"mdj" <mdj.mdj@gmail.com> wrote in message 1166499011.152258.3620@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com">news:1166499011.152258.3620@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com...

Michael J. Mahon wrote:


I'd suggest using three 4-resistor networks to do the three 4-bit D-to-A
conversions--four resistors beats a D/A chip for just 4 bits.

Agreed. It might also be possible nowadays to use a uC to replace the
GAL idea. GAL/PAL seems to be going the way of the dodo, and using one
small cheap chip instead of two seems a good move.


And buffer amplifiers may be needed for the RGB signals as well, if the
RGB monitor's inputs are 75 Ohm.

Without this, you'd see some pretty strange colour artifacting.

Also Bryan - your table seems to be quite wrong. Care to post a
corrected one?

Have you done a comparison of the IIgs's colour palette to the actual
composite colours? It's possible that 12 bit RGB only provides an
approximate of some of the colours, although admitedly it's probably
close enough.


Matt,

Sorry, I made mistake. It should be the correct table to be shown strange colors below.

         IRGB  RED   GREEN BLUE  Hex
Color 0  0000  0000  0000  0000  000
Color 1  0001  0000  0000  1010  00A
Color 2  0010  0000  1010  0000  0A0
Color 3  0011  0000  1010  1010  0AA
Color 4  0100  1010  0000  0000  A00
Color 5  0101  1010  0000  1010  A0A
Color 6  0110  1010  0101  0000  A50
Color 7  0111  1010  1010  1010  AAA
Color 8  1000  0101  0101  0101  555
Color 9  1001  0101  0101  1111  55F
Color A  1010  0101  1111  0101  5F5
Color B  1011  0101  1111  1111  5FF
Color C  1100  1111  0101  0101  F55
Color D  1101  1111  0101  1111  F5F
Color E  1110  1111  1111  0101  FF5
Color F  1111  1111  1111  1111  FFF

This table above is 16 CGA colors. Thanks to Michael's correction when I made mistake to label RGBI as bit reverse. I believe that RGB, GREEN, and BLUE data are to be correct because 24 bit data and 12 bit data are 99% identical when you set "1111" on low nibble or duplicate from high nibble to low nibble. Filling "1111" on low nibble gives little brightness. You can use like (12 bit data) A50 as 24 bit data) AA5500 or (24 bit data) AF5F00.

Just for the record, the exact conversion from 12-bit to 24-bit RGB data
(or any other kind of 8-8-8 data) is: 12-bit XYZ --> 24-bit X0Y0Z0.

Anything besides low-order zero fill is creating data that isn't in the
12-bit representation.  Duplicating the hex digits (e.g.: XXYYZZ) is a
way of expanding the 24-bit values so that they still run from zero to
full-scale, so it produces the correct relative colors.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."