Re: Vector generator board for a PC.

>If someone were to design a vector generator card for a PC, what exactly
>should it's design specs be?

I still say that the card would just be a fast line-processor. It would
take a display list that just describe the color and where the line goes.
Could have an adjustable draw-rate to allow it to be used with different
monitors (or lasers or whatever).

Since you already have a PC (and since you're probably running an emulator
anyway) all your transforms and fun math stuff can be done on the PC faster
and easier than the card, so don't add cost or design time to do it.

My design remains about the same-- an FPGA controls three 12 bit dacs--
color, X, and Y. A "display list" is loaded into a dual-port memory by the
PC. The lines are described as color, rise, run, and length. When the "go"
bit flips, the display list is fetched and drawn. I use fixed point
accumulators with the rise and run being fractional-- so they control the
line draw speed.

-Clay
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Received on Sat Mar 3 14:55:39 2001