The color clock, or color timer, is a part of the video circuitry of
computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...
hardware that works with analog
color television systems. The clock is timed to match the timing of the color standard it works with, typically
NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
or
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
, ensuring that the data being read from the computer memory to create the image on-screen is in sync with the display.
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System
/ref> Depending on the speed of the color clock, the product of the resolution and number of colors is defined. Slow color clocks of many early games console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a t ...
s and home computers resulted in limited color palettes at the highest resolutions.
References
Computer graphics
Television technology
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