The

Thomson Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson Mic ...

EF936x series is a type of Graphic Display Processor (GDP) by Thomson-EFCIS. The chip could draw at 1 million

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the smal ...

s per second, which was relatively advanced for the time of its release (1982 or earlier). There are various versions of the chip (EF9364, EF9365, EF9366, EF9367, SFF96364, EF9369), with slightly different capabilities. In 1982 Commodore released a "High Resolution Graphics" board for the PET based on the EF9365 and EF9366 chips, allowing it to display 512 x 512 or 512 x 256 resolution graphics. The EF9366 was also used on the SMP-E353 graphic card for the

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

computer series and on the

NDR-Klein-Computer The NDR Klein Computer, abbreviated NKC, was a do-it-yourself computer project from the early 1980s developed by (RDK) and Joachim Arendt. In 1984, the computer was featured in the educational television series ''NDR-Klein-Computer'' for NDR- ...

introduced in 1984. Version EF9369 was used on computers such as the

Thomson MO5NR The Thomson MO5 is a home computer introduced in France in June 1984 to compete against systems such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. It had a release price of 2390 FF. At the same time, Thomson also released the up-market Thomson TO7/70 ...

Thomson MO6 Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson Mic ...

Thomson TO8 The Thomson TO8 is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson SA in 1986, with a cost of 2,990 FF. It replaces its predecessor, the Thomson TO7/70, while remaining essentially compatible. The new features of the TO8, like larger memo ...

Thomson TO9 The Thomson TO9 is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson SA in 1985. It's based on the Thomson TO7/70 with new features. It included a built-in 320 Kb 3.5" floppy drive unit, and inputs for light pen, joystick, and mouse. The ROM ...

and

Thomson TO9+ The Thomson TO9+ is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson SA in 1986. It kept the professional look of the Thomson TO9 by using a separate keyboard (lower end models usually had an integrated keyboard). It's based on the Thomson ...

, from 1985 to 1989.

Versions

Based on the 1989 data book published by the company, the EF936x series was split into ''Graphics Controllers'' and ''Color Palette'' models. Graphics Controllers *EF9364 CRT Processor introduced in 1981 *EF9365 512×512 (interlaced), 256×256, 128×128, 64×64; 50 Hz *EF9366 512×256 (noninterlaced); 50/60 Hz *EF9367 1024×512 (interlaced), 1024x416 (interlaced); 50/60 Hz (capable of

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...

system output for the French market). *SFF96364 Color Palette *EF9369 - 4-bit DACs (16 out of 4096 colors - 12-bit RGB), generating

gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...

corrected (gamma 2.8) voltages. *TS9370 - 4-bit DACs (16 out of 4096 colors)

Capabilities

*Integrated

DRAM Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...

controller *Line drawing, with delta-x and delta-y limited to 255 each. Support for solid, dotted, dashed and dotted/dashed lines. *Built-in 5×8 pixel

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

font. Support for rendering tilted characters, and scaling by integer factors (no

antialiasing Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used be ...

) *Clear screen * Light Pen support The GPUs did not support direct access to the graphics memory, although a special command was provided to aid in implementing access to individual

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

words.

References

External links

Full schematics

PCB
Graphics chips Thomson computers {{Compu-hardware-stub

Versions

Capabilities

See also

References

External links