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Konix
The Konix Multisystem was a cancelled video game system under development by Konix, a British manufacturer of computer peripherals. Initial concept The Multisystem began life in 1988 as an advanced Konix peripheral design intended to build on the success of the company's range of joysticks. The design, codenamed Slipstream, resembled a dashboard-style games controller, and could be configured with a steering wheel, a flight yoke, and motorbike handles. It promised advanced features such as force feedback, hitherto unheard of in home gaming. However, it soon became apparent that the Slipstream project had the potential to be much more than a peripheral. Konix turned to their sister company Creative Devices Ltd, a computer hardware developer, to design a gaming computer to be put inside the controller to make it a stand-alone console in its own right. Flare Technology It was shortly after this development began that Konix founder and chairman Wyn Holloway came across a mag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flare Technology
Flare Technology was a computer hardware company based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by Martin Brennan, Ben Cheese, and John Mathieson, former engineers at Sinclair Research. History Flare Technology first worked for Amstrad before developing a technology-demonstrator system called Flare One. The Flare One was intended as a home computer or games console with extensive audio and video capabilities. Related to the ''Loki'' project they had worked on previously at Sinclair Research, which in turn was derived from the ZX Spectrum home computer, Flare One was based around a Zilog Z80B CPU (working as an 8-bit-per-pixel blitter and a video controller) and a custom 16-bit DSP chip (responsible for 8 channel sound and 3D computation), 1 MB or RAM, with a display resolution of 256 x 256 with 256 colors or 512 x 256 with 16 colors, and an expected price of £200 in 1988. Flare One was used in some arcade game cabinets including a line of video quiz machines pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loki (computer)
Loki was the code name for a cancelled home computer developed at Sinclair Research during the mid-1980s. The name came from the Norse god Loki, god of mischief and thieves. Loki was based on the ZX Spectrum, but intended to rival the Amiga for video games. ''Loki'' followed two earlier, aborted research projects from Sinclair: the 68008-based SuperSpectrum home computer (cancelled in 1982) and the LC3 game console (cancelled in 1983). Design According to an article published in ''Sinclair User'' magazine, Loki was to have a 7 MHz Z80H CPU, a minimum of 128 KiB of RAM and two custom chips providing much enhanced video and audio capabilities compared to the ZX Spectrum, but with a compatibility mode. The video chip, referred to as the ''Rasterop'' chip, would have blitter-type functionality and three different modes: 512×256 pixels with 16 colours, 256×212 with 256 colours, or 256×212 with 64 colours and two bits per pixel used for "blitter objects". Comprehensive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Minter
Jeff Minter (born 22 April 1962) is an English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the ZX80. Minter's games are shoot 'em ups which contain titular or in-game references demonstrating his fondness of ruminants (llamas, sheep, camels, etc.). Many of his programs also feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest "light synthesizer" programs including '' Trip-a-Tron''. Minter's works include the music visualisation program ''Neon'' (2004) which is built into the Xbox 360 console, and the video games ''Gridrunner'', ''Attack of the Mutant Camels'', ''Tempest 2000'', and ''Polybius''. Game development career Pre-commercial career (early years) Minter began programming computers at a young age. He wrote the game ''Deflex'' for the Commodore PET in 1979. However it would not be until a long il ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. It is in the fifth generation of video game consoles, and it competed with Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation consoles, including the 16-bit Sega Genesis, Genesis, the 16-bit Super NES, and the 32-bit 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. Jaguar has a Motorola 68000 CPU and two custom 32-bit computing, 32-bit coprocessors named Tom and Jerry. Atari marketed it as the world's first 64-bit computing, 64-bit game system, emphasizing the blitter's 64-bit bus; however, none of its three processors have a 64-bit instruction set, unlike later 64-bit consoles such as PlayStation 2 and Nintendo 64. The Jaguar launched with ''Cybermorph'' as the pack-in game, which received mixed reviews. The system's library ultimately comprises only List of Atari Jaguar games, 50 licensed games. Development started in the early 1990s by Flare Technology, which foc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer
A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as Computer program, ''programs'', which enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. The term computer system may refer to a nominally complete computer that includes the Computer hardware, hardware, operating system, software, and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation; or to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. A broad range of Programmable logic controller, industrial and Consumer electronics, consumer products use computers as control systems, including simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, and factory devices like industrial robots. Computers are at the core of general-purpose devices ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Video RAM
Video random-access memory (VRAM) is dedicated computer memory used to store the pixels and other graphics data as a framebuffer to be rendered on a computer monitor. It often uses a different technology than other computer memory, in order to be read quickly for display on a screen. Relation to GPUs Many modern GPUs rely on VRAM. In contrast, a GPU that does ''not'' use VRAM, and relies instead on system RAM, is said to have a unified memory architecture, or shared graphics memory. System RAM and VRAM have been segregated due to the bandwidth requirements of GPUs, and to achieve lower latency, since VRAM is physically closer to the GPU die. Modern VRAM is typically found in a BGA package soldered onto a graphics card. The VRAM is cooled along with the GPU by the GPU heatsink. Technologies * Dual-ported video RAM, used in the 1990s and at the time often called "VRAM" * SGRAM * GDDR SDRAM * High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) See also * Graphics processing unit * Tiled render ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn Archimedes
The Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems in this family use Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and initially ran the Arthur operating system, with later models introducing RISC OS and, in a separate workstation range, RISC iX. The first Archimedes models were introduced in 1987, and systems in the Archimedes family were sold until the mid-1990s alongside Acorn's newer Risc PC and A7000 models. The first Archimedes models, featuring a 32-bit ARM2 RISC CPU running at 8 MHz, provided a significant upgrade from Acorn's previous machines and 8-bit home computers in general. Acorn's publicity claimed a performance rating of 4 MIPS.These being equivalent to VAX-11/750 instructions. Later models featured the ARM3 CPU, delivering a substantial performance improvement, and the first ARM system-on-a-chip, the ARM250. The Archimedes preserves a degree of compatibility with Acorn's earlier m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
32-bit
In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculations more efficiently and process more data per clock cycle. Typical 32-bit personal computers also have a 32-bit address bus, permitting up to 4 GiB of RAM to be accessed, far more than previous generations of system architecture allowed. 32-bit designs have been used since the earliest days of electronic computing, in experimental systems and then in large mainframe and minicomputer systems. The first hybrid 16/32-bit microprocessor, the Motorola 68000, was introduced in the late 1970s and used in systems such as the original Apple Macintosh. Fully 32-bit microprocessors such as the HP FOCUS, Motorola 68020 and Intel 80386 were launched in the early to mid 1980s and became dominant by the early 1990s. This gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3D Model
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and polygons in a simulated 3D space. Three-dimensional (3D) models represent a physical body using a collection of points in 3D space, connected by various geometric entities such as triangles, lines, curved surfaces, etc. Being a collection of data ( points and other information), 3D models can be created manually, algorithmically ( procedural modeling), or by scanning. Their surfaces may be further defined with texture mapping. Outline The product is called a 3D model, while someone who works with 3D models may be referred to as a 3D artist or a 3D modeler. A 3D model can also be displayed as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering or used in a computer simulation of physical phenomena. 3D models may be create ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sprite (computer Graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene, most often in a 2D video game. Originally, the term ''sprite'' referred to fixed-sized objects composited together, by hardware, with a background. Use of the term has since become more general. Systems with hardware sprites include arcade video games of the 1970s and 1980s; game consoles including as the Atari VCS (1977), ColecoVision (1982), Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom (1983), Sega Genesis, Genesis/Mega Drive (1988); and home computers such as the TI-99/4 (1979), Atari 8-bit computers (1979), Commodore 64 (1982), MSX (1983), Amiga (1985), and X68000 (1987). Hardware varies in the number of sprites supported, the size and colors of each sprite, and special effects such as scaling or reporting pixel-precise overlap. Hardware composition of sprites occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a cathode-ray tube, without i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
16-bit
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 65,535 (216 − 1) for representation as an ( unsigned) binary number, and −32,768 (−1 × 215) through 32,767 (215 − 1) for representation as two's complement. Since 216 is 65,536, a processor with 16-bit memory addresses can directly access 64 KB (65,536 bytes) of byte-addressable memory. If a system uses segmentation with 16-bit segment offsets, more can be accessed. As of 2025, 16-bit microcontrollers cost well under a dollar (similar to close in price legacy 8-bit); the cheapest 16-bit microcontrollers cost less than other types including any 8-bit (and are more powerful, and easier to program generally), making 8-bit legacy microcontrollers not worth it for new applicatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
