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MOS Technology 8563
The 8563 Video Display Controller (VDC) was an integrated circuit produced by MOS Technology. It was used in the Commodore 128 (C128) computer to generate an 80-column (640 × 200 pixel) RGB video display, running alongside a VIC-II which supported Commodore 64-compatible graphics. The DCR models (as well as a few D-models) of the C128 used the later and more technically advanced 8568 DC controller. History and characteristics Originally intended for a planned (but unreleased) UNIX-based business computer based around the Zilog Z8000, Commodore designed the VDC into several prototype machines. Of these, only the Commodore 128 ever saw production. Unlike earlier MOS video chips such as the popular VIC-II, the VDC had dedicated video memory, 16 kilobytes (16,384 bytes; upgradable to 64 kilobytes, 65,536 bytes) in the original or "flat" C128 and 64 kilobytes in the C128DCR. This RAM was not directly accessible by the microprocessor. The 8563 was more difficult to produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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SpeedScript 128 In Action
SpeedScript is a word processor originally printed as a type-in MLX machine language listing in 1984-85 issues of ''Compute!'' and '' Compute!'s Gazette'' magazines. Approximately 5 KB in length, it provided many of the same features as commercial word processing packages of the 8-bit era, such as PaperClip and Bank Street Writer. Versions were published for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and 128, Atari 8-bit computers, VIC-20, and MS-DOS. Versions In April 1983 ''Compute!'' published Scriptor, a word processor written by staff writer Charles Brannon in BASIC and assembly language, as a type-in program for the Atari 8-bit computers. In January 1984 version 1.0 of his new word processor SpeedScript appeared in '' Compute!'s Gazette'' for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. 1.1 appeared in ''Compute!'s Second Book of Commodore 64'', 2.0 on ''Gazette Disk'' in May 1984, and 3.0 in ''Compute!'' in March and April 1985. Corrections that updated 3.0 to 3.1 appeared in May 1985, and the fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Data Becker
Data Becker GmbH & Co. KG was a German publisher of computer books and a company for software and computer accessories based in Düsseldorf. The company ceased operations in March 2014. History It was founded in Düsseldorf on January 7, 1981, by Dr. Achim Becker and Harald Becker, initially as a specialist shop for computer accessories, entered the publishing business in 1983 after home computers such as the C64 became commercially successful, and since then has published software, IT literature and computer trade journals. Data Becker was mostly well known for its web publishing software, ''Web to date''. The 1980s: Home computing In the beginning, Data Becker catered primarily to users of Commodore 64 and C128 home computers, publishing an extensive range of books as well as programming tools and application software. The most advanced of the company's books delved deeply into the internals of the aforementioned computers and their peripherals, often revealing features ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Read-only Memory
Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing software that is rarely changed during the life of the system, also known as firmware. Software applications, such as video games, for programmable devices can be distributed as ROM cartridge, plug-in cartridges containing ROM. Strictly speaking, ''read-only memory'' refers to hard-wired memory, such as diode matrix or a #Solid-state ROM, mask ROM integrated circuit (IC), that cannot be electronically changed after manufacture. Although discrete circuits can be altered in principle, through the addition of Jump wire, bodge wires and the removal or replacement of components, ICs cannot. Correction of errors, or updates to the software, require new devices to be manufactured and to replace the installed device. Floating-gate ROM semiconductor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Blitter
A blitter is a circuit, sometimes as a coprocessor or a logic block on a microprocessor, dedicated to the rapid movement and modification of data within a computer's memory. A blitter can copy large quantities of data from one memory area to another relatively quickly, and in parallel with the CPU, while freeing up the CPU's more complex capabilities for other operations. A typical use for a blitter is the movement of a bitmap, such as windows and icons in a graphical user interface or images and backgrounds in a 2D video game. The name comes from the bit blit operation of the 1973 Xerox Alto, which stands for bit-block transfer. A blit operation is more than a memory copy, because it can involve data that's not byte aligned (hence the ''bit'' in ''bit blit''), handling transparent pixels (pixels which should not overwrite the destination), and various ways of combining the source and destination data. Blitters have largely been superseded by programmable graphics process ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Computer Game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, most commonly shown in a video format on a television set, computer monitor, flat-panel display or touchscreen on handheld devices, or a virtual reality headset. Most modern video games are audiovisual, with audio complement delivered through speakers or headphones, and sometimes also with other types of sensory feedback (e.g., haptic technology that provides tactile sensations). Some video games also allow microphone and webcam inputs for in-game chatting and livestreaming. Video games are typically categorized according to their hardware platform, which traditionally includes arcade video games, console games, and computer games (which includes LAN games, online games, and browser games). More recently, the video game industry h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Sprite (computer Science)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a 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), Famicom (1983), 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 involvement of the main CPU and without the need for a full-scree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Operating System
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of Scheduling (computing), processor time, mass storage, peripherals, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computerfrom cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers. , Android (operating system), Android is the most popular operating system with a 46% market share, followed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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GEOS (8-bit Operating System)
GEOS (''Graphic Environment Operating System'') is a discontinued operating system from Berkeley Softworks (later GeoWorks). Originally designed for the Commodore 64 with its version being released in 1986, enhanced versions of GEOS later became available in 1987 for the Commodore 128 and in 1988 for the Apple II. A lesser-known version was also released for the Commodore Plus/4. GEOS closely resembles early versions of the classic Mac OS and includes a graphical word processor (geoWrite) and Computer graphics, paint program (geoPaint). A December 1987 survey by the Commodore-dedicated magazine '' Compute!'s Gazette'' found that nearly half of respondents used GEOS. For many years, Commodore bundled GEOS with its redesigned and cost-reduced C64, the C64C. At its peak, GEOS was the third-most-popular microcomputer operating system in the world in terms of units shipped, trailing only MS-DOS and Mac OS (besides the original Commodore 64's KERNAL). Other GEOS-compatible softwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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BASIC 8
BASIC 8 (or BASIC 8.0) "The Enhanced Graphics System For The C128" was an American-designed graphics system developed by Walrusoft of Gainesville, Florida and published in 1986 by Patech Software of Somerset, New Jersey. The system was an extension of Commodore's BASIC 7.0 for the Commodore 128 computer. BASIC 8.0 provided commands lacking in BASIC 7.0 to generate (color) graphics in the C128's high-resolution 80-column mode (640×200 pixels) for RGB monitors. The BASIC 8 package was developed by Walrusoft's Louis Wallace and David Darus, with contributions from Ken French (printer drivers) and indirectly from Richard Rylander (who allowed his 3D solids commands for the Commodore 64, originally published in ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'', to be converted to the C128's hi-res mode). Background The problem Unlike its competitors, such as the Apple II and Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore’s BASIC 2.0 programming language built into the Commodore 64 (C-64) lacks commands for generating so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Assembly Language
In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. Assembly language usually has one statement per machine instruction (1:1), but constants, comments, assembler directives, symbolic labels of, e.g., memory locations, registers, and macros are generally also supported. The first assembly code in which a language is used to represent machine code instructions is found in Kathleen and Andrew Donald Booth's 1947 work, ''Coding for A.R.C.''. Assembly code is converted into executable machine code by a utility program referred to as an '' assembler''. The term "assembler" is generally attributed to Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill in their 1951 book '' The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Dig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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MOS Technology 8502
The MOS Technology 8502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology and used in the Commodore 128 (C128). It is an improved version of the MOS 6510 used in the Commodore 64 (C64). It was manufactured using the HMOS process, allowing it to have higher transistor density, and lower cost, while dissipating less heat. The 8502 allows the C128 to run at double the clock rate of the C64 with some limitations. Description Memory access in 8-bit machines Common random-access memory (RAM) of the Commodore C64-era allowed accesses at 2 MHz. If the CPU and display chip both shared the same memory to communicate, which was the common solution in the era when RAM was expensive, then one would normally have to have the CPU and display chip arbitrate access to the bus so that only one of them used it at a time, generally by having one of them pause the other. Assuming the two chips require roughly equal access, that means the chips are paused half of the time, each effectively ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Type-in Program
A type-in program or type-in listing was computer source code printed in a home computer magazine or book. It was meant to be entered via the keyboard by the reader and then saved to cassette tape or floppy disk. The result was a usable game, utility, or application program. Type-in programs were common in the home computer era from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, when the RAM of 8-bit systems was measured in kilobytes and most computer owners did not have access to networks such as bulletin board systems. Magazines such as ''Softalk'', ''Compute!'', '' ANALOG Computing'', and ''Ahoy!'' dedicated much of each issue to type-in programs. The magazines could contain multiple games or other programs for a fraction of the cost of purchasing commercial software on removable media, but the user had to spend up to several hours typing each one in. Most listings were either in a system-specific BASIC dialect or machine code. Machine code programs were long lists of decimal or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |