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MOS VIC-II
The VIC-II (Video Interface Chip II), specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/6566/8562/8564 (NTSC versions), 6569/8565/8566 (PAL), is the microchip tasked with generating Y/C video signals (combined to composite video in the RF modulator) and DRAM refresh signals in the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computers. Succeeding the original MOS Technology VIC used in the VIC-20, the VIC-II was one of the key custom chips in the Commodore 64 (the other being the MOS Technology 6581 sound chip). Development history The VIC-II chip was designed primarily by Albert Charpentier and Charles Winterble at MOS Technology, Inc. as a successor to the MOS Technology 6560 "VIC". The team at MOS Technology had previously failed to produce two graphics chips named ''MOS Technology 6562'' for the Commodore TOI computer, and ''MOS Technology 6564'' for the Color PET, due to memory speed constraints. In order to construct the VIC-II, Charpentier and Winterble made a market survey of cur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Instruments TMS9918
VDP TMS9918A VDP TMS9918A The TMS9918 is a video display controller (VDC) manufactured by Texas Instruments, in manuals referenced as "Video Display Processor" (VDP) and introduced in 1979. The TMS9918 and its variants were used in the Casio PV-2000, Coleco Adam, ColecoVision, CreatiVision, Hanimex Pencil II, MSX, Memotech MTX, NABU Personal Computer, PECOS, SG-1000, SC-3000, SV-318, SV-328, Sord M5, TI-99/4, Tatung Einstein, and Tomy Tutor. The TMS9918 generates both grid-based character graphics (used to display text or background images) and sprites used for moving foreground objects. The key features of this chip are, as highlighted in a 1980 presentation by Karl Guttag (one of the designers): *256 by 192 full color pixels per screen *15 different colors and/or shades * Non-interlaced color composite video output *Direct wiring to RAS/CAS type dynamic RAMs *Automatic refresh of dynamic RAMs *General 8-bit memory mapped type CPU interface *CPU accesses RAM via VDP (no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for Computer data storage, digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix ''kilo-, kilo'' as a multiplication factor of 1000 (103); therefore, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information science and technology, International Electrotechnical Commission (2008). The internationally recommended unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB. In some areas of information technology, particularly in reference to random-access memory capacity, ''kilobyte'' instead often refers to 1024 (210) bytes. This arises from the prevalence of sizes that are powers of two in modern digital memory architectures, coupled with the coincidence that 210 differs from 103 by less than 2.5%. The kibibyte is defined as 1024 bytes, avoiding the ambiguity issues of the ''kilobyte''.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information scien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typically hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry. History The first CES was held in June 1967 in New York City. It was a spin-off of the Chicago Music Show which, until then, had served as the main event for exhibiting consumer electronics. The event had 17,500 attendees and over 100 exhibitors; the kickoff speaker was Motorola chairman Bob Galvin. From 1978 to 1994, CES was held twice each year: once in January in Las Vegas as the ''Winter Consumer Electronics Show'' (WCES) and once in June in Chicago as the ''Summer Consumer Electronics Show'' (SCES). The winter show was held in Las Vegas in 1995 as planned. However, since the summer Chicago shows were beginning to lose popularity, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MOS Technology SID
The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device) is the built-in programmable sound generator chip of the Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and MAX Machine home computers. Together with the MOS Technology VIC-II, VIC-II graphics chip, the SID was instrumental in making the C64 the best-selling home computer in history, and is partly credited for initiating the demoscene. History The SID was devised by engineer Bob Yannes, who later co-founded the Ensoniq digital synthesizer and sampler company. Yannes headed a team that included himself, two technicians and a Computer-aided design, CAD operator, who designed and completed the chip in five months in the latter half of 1981. Yannes was inspired by previous work in the synthesizer industry and was not impressed by the current state of computer sound chips. Instead, he wanted a high-quality instrument chip, which is the reason why the SID has features like the envelope generator, previously not found in home ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Yannes
Robert "Bob" Yannes (born 1957) is an American electronic engineer who designed the SID audio generator chip for the Commodore 64 and co-founded digital synthesizer company Ensoniq. He designed the Ensoniq 5503 Digital Oscillator Chip (DOC) which was used in both commercial synthesizers and the Apple IIGS home computer. Biography Robert Yannes graduated from Villanova University in 1978. He started out as an electronic music hobbyist before being hired as a chip designer at MOS Technology which had become a part of Commodore. Albert Charpentier recruited Yannes partly for his music synthesis knowledge. He has been infatuated by electronic music since the early 1970s. He claims the song '' Lucky Man'' by Emerson, Lake & Palmer influenced him more than any other single song, and also lists Kraftwerk and Mike Oldfield among his influences. He designed the ''MicroPET'' with help from Albert Charpentier which became an unintended prototype for the VIC-20 home computer. He designe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Research And Development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage of development of a potential new service or the production process. Although R&D activities may differ across businesses, the primary goal of an R&D department is to new product development, develop new products and services. R&D differs from the vast majority of corporate activities in that it is not intended to yield immediate profit, and generally carries greater risk and an uncertain return on investment. R&D is crucial for acquiring larger shares of the market through new products. ''R&D&I'' represents R&D with innovation. Background New product design and development is often a crucial factor in the survival of a company. In a global industrial landscape that is changing fast, firms must continually revise their design and range of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellum is prepared for writing and printing on single pages, scrolls, and codex, codices (books). Modern scholars and experts often prefer to use the broader term "membrane", which avoids the need to draw a distinction between vellum and parchment. It may be very hard to determine the animal species involved (let alone its age) without detailed scientific analysis. Vellum is generally smooth and durable, but there are great variations in its texture which are affected by the way it is made and the quality of the skin. The making involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame (a "herse"), and scraping of the skin with a crescent-shaped knife (a "lunarium" or "lunellum"). To create tension, the process goes back and forth between scrapi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UGS Corp
UGS was a computer software company headquartered in Plano, Texas, specializing in 3D & 2D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software. Its operations were amalgamated into the Siemens Digital Industries Software business unit of Siemens Industry Automation division, when Siemens completed the US$3.5 billion acquisition of UGS on May 7, 2007. UGS' flagship products were NX, a CAD/CAM/ CAE commercial software suite, and Teamcenter, an integrated set of PLM and collaboration ( cPD) tools. The company's portfolio also contained NX I-deas, NX Nastran, Solid Edge, Imageware, Tecnomatix, Jack, SDK, Femap, D-Cubed, JT, PLM Vis, PLM XML, and Parasolid. History Inception as United Computing: 1963 to 1975 The first commercial product developed by UGS was called UNIAPT. Released in 1969 by a software company then called United Computing, UNIAPT was one of the world's first end-user CAM products. United Computing was founded in 1963 above a hair salon in Torrance, California, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Design Automation
Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together in a Design flow (EDA), design flow that chip designers use to design and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Since a modern semiconductor chip can have billions of components, EDA tools are essential for their design; this article in particular describes EDA specifically with respect to integrated circuits (ICs). History Early days The earliest electronic design automation is attributed to IBM with the documentation of its IBM 700/7000 series, 700 series computers in the 1950s. Prior to the development of EDA, integrated circuits were designed by hand and manually laid out. Some advanced shops used geometric software to generate tapes for a Gerber format, Gerber photoplotter, responsible for generating a monochromatic ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office in New York City and an operations center in Piscataway, New Jersey. The IEEE was formed in 1963 as an amalgamation of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. History The IEEE traces its founding to 1884 and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. In 1912, the rival Institute of Radio Engineers was formed. Although the AIEE was initially larger, the IRE attracted more students and was larger by the mid-1950s. The AIEE and IRE merged in 1963. The IEEE is headquartered in New York City, but most business is done at the IEEE Operations Center in Piscataway, New Jersey, opened in 1975. The Australian Section of the IEEE existed between 1972 and 1985, after which it split into state- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari 8-bit Computers
The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 6502 CPU and three custom coprocessors which provide support for sprites, smooth multidirectional scrolling, four channels of audio, and other features. The graphics and sound are more advanced than most of its contemporaries, and video games are a key part of the software library. The 1980 first-person space combat simulator ''Star Raiders'' is considered the platform's killer app. The Atari 800 was positioned as a high-end model and the 400 as more affordable. The 400 has a pressure-sensitive, spillproof membrane keyboard and initially shipped with a non-upgradable of RAM. The 800 has a conventional keyboard, a second cartridge slot, and allows easy RAM upgrades to 48K. Both use identical 6502 CPUs at ( for PAL versions) and coprocess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
