Would it be possible to use this chip for making a computer with 12 bit color?
Well, My project is to have data of how to use this chip for making a·computer that has 12 bit color hardware and 12 bit·sound hardware connected to this chip, I'm thinking along the lines of an·Amiga-ish thing. I need info first before I can start·work, and I probabilly won't start until I get some progress on the game, thoughts are it'll·take me a year to finish my game.·Although that, I'd like to know some things I could use to achive this goal:
1. What chips·do you know of that I could use for 12 bit color? If it's not a chip, what would I need to do for it to be "12-bit video Hardware"?
2. What chips do you know of that I could use for 12 bit sound?
3. What internet port·type·would I use?
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1. What chips·do you know of that I could use for 12 bit color? If it's not a chip, what would I need to do for it to be "12-bit video Hardware"?
2. What chips do you know of that I could use for 12 bit sound?
3. What internet port·type·would I use?
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Realize that I am really a mad scientist··· and
Don't forget it!
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Comments
First of all, what do you mean by 12-bit? For the video, do you mean 4 bits per RGB color (or 16 colors per pixel)? For the audio, do you mean 6 bits per channel for stereo or 12 bits for a monaural channel? In both cases you will have problems with buffer memory.
Have a look at what Andre has done with the Hydra SRAM expansion card. This adds 512K of high speed memory that the Propeller can manipulate with only a few I/O pins. With a simple redesign (maybe using the Hydra Xtreme Memory card as a development platform) you could directly drive a 12 bit DAC from one SRAM and a triple 4-bit flash DAC from another SRAM, each under control of the Propeller for basic timing. That would eliminate the need to use all the Propeller's I/O pins to control the memory and the timing.
What do you mean by internet port? There are a variety of devices that include an embedded processor along with an ethernet port and handle all the protocols. They talk via a logic level serial port to the host. You can also use an ethernet controller chip (of which there are several), but you'd have to do the protocol handling in the Propeller code ... a complex and large undertaking.
For 12 bit sound I mean 12 bit monaural channel.
As for internet, I mean the ability to use DSL with the chip
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Ethernet is not easy and requires understanding of the underlying protocols (tcp/ip, udp, arp, etc), along with understanding of upper level communication protocols such as http. Not to mention you will have a difficult time handling stuff on the internet with the limited memory on most single chip processors such as the Propeller.
Harrison
For color, I just want to know specific chips I could use to give it 12-bit color to video output, same with sound just to the audio output.
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For the video, you will need some kind of external screen buffer. Again, use the Hydra Xtreme Memory Card for an example of how it can be done. Theoretically you could use two cogs in sync to produce a VGA signal with 4 bits for each color since the video generators are just fancy shift registers that can shift out 2 bits per color per cog. The problem will be keeping them "fed" with data. Unless you want high resolution, you might be able to do it using the Xtreme Memory Card. You'll need three bytes per two pixels, possibly four.
I can't recommend a 4-bit video DAC to use. You'll need 3 of them. You're already tying up a lot of I/O pins. I still think you'd be better off with some kind of external video controller.
You will need to tackle the ethernet stuff in little steps. First get a working tcp connection to a web server, then proceed onto doing other stuff such as querying the server and processing the response text.
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Generating VGA in hardware requires a lot of hardware. The DACs only do the conversion from digital to analog. All the timing and formatting has to be done somewhere and you need buffer memory and all the logic to control it. You could theoretically connect a PC VGA display card to a Propeller, but it would require a lot of I/O pins. If you could find an old VGA card for an embedded PC, like with a PC/104 bus, you might be able to cobble together an interface for it. You'd have to write your own drivers.
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Has anyone made a Java program for the Hydra? As in, a program that lets you program in java on the propellor?
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Realize that I am really a mad scientist··· and
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