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Re: The Map Is Not The Territory

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rickman wrote:
> I was
> reading about his effort to use the GA144 as a video controller and
> when I read the part about the video being generated on the fly rather
> than read from memory, I realized that he is indeed following a path
> less traveled.  I have no idea how he can do anything other than
> produce a text display (like they described in "TV Typewriter
> Cookbook" some 30 years ago) and I expect he doesn't either.  I get
> the impression he is playing, not working.

Our student in the local Forth group has created his own GA144 board, 
and did some video output a few months ago.  Well, he's a student, and 
of course he's playing, and we encourage him to do so - programming 
Forth with the restrictions of the GA144 is fun.  He got so far to have 
a synchronized pixel clock (which works even on hot days, something you 
can't say about Chuck's video driver), and he can display hex numbers - 
the font "rendering" table takes a complete core, and it only works by 
restricting the fonts to 6x3 pixels (which fit into the 18 bits).

The path here is well traveled, it is how games like Pong worked - they 
all generated the image on the fly, because memory was expensive back 
then.  Games like Asteroids used even vector graphics and special 
monitors.

Now, we don't have 1970 anymore, we have 2012.  Memory is cheap, dirt 
cheap.  We don't generate images on the fly, because we have frame 
buffers.  Well, we actually do generate new images frame by frame, but 
we use double or even tripple buffering to make it smooth (one image is 
currently displayed, one image is ready-to-display, and one image is 
rendered to).  We do that because memory is cheap.

The only place where memory isn't cheap is power consumption.  The main 
reason why smartphones can't and won't have standby times in weeks as 
dumb phones, is DRAM.  DRAM requires constant refreshing, and by doing 
so drains a lot more current than is leaking through the capacitors.  
Maybe some memresistor device will change that, but not yet.

In so far, as the map is not the territory, I think Chuck used an 
ancient path and wandered off what makes sense today.

-- 
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://bernd-paysan.de/

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The Map Is Not The Territory Jason Damisch <jasondamisch@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-27 17:44 -0700
  Re: The Map Is Not The Territory dambere@web.de - 2012-06-28 02:32 -0700
    Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-06-28 02:47 -0700
      Re: The Map Is Not The Territory John Passaniti <john.passaniti@gmail.com> - 2012-06-28 13:19 -0700
        Re: The Map Is Not The Territory dambere@web.de - 2012-06-29 14:29 -0700
  Re: The Map Is Not The Territory quiet_lad <gavcomedy@gmail.com> - 2012-06-29 14:44 -0700
    Re: The Map Is Not The Territory "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2012-06-29 12:17 -1000
    Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-06-29 16:15 -0700
  Re: The Map Is Not The Territory quiet_lad <gavcomedy@gmail.com> - 2012-06-29 14:43 -0700
    Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Jason Damisch <jasondamisch@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-30 10:46 -0700
      Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-06-30 19:54 -0700
        Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Howerd <howerdo@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-01 09:14 -0700
          Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-01 14:12 -0700
        Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2012-07-01 20:40 +0200
          Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Howerd <howerdo@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-01 12:15 -0700
            Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2012-07-01 23:52 +0200
          Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-01 14:41 -0700
            Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2012-07-02 00:23 +0200
              Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2012-07-05 00:06 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-05 10:49 -0700
              Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-05 10:38 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2012-07-06 02:22 +0200
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-05 18:57 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-06 02:13 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2012-07-07 01:11 +0200
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2012-07-06 10:58 +0000
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-06 06:00 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2012-07-06 20:41 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-07 06:56 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2012-07-07 21:45 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-08 15:53 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2012-07-08 21:08 -0700
                Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-09 16:32 -0700
              Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Brad Eckert <hwfwguy@gmail.com> - 2012-07-05 13:22 -0700
            Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-02 01:26 -0700
              Re: The Map Is Not The Territory stephenXXX@mpeforth.com (Stephen Pelc) - 2012-07-02 10:15 +0000
            Re: The Map Is Not The Territory "Paul E. Bennett" <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2012-07-02 19:28 +0100
  Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2012-07-01 11:35 +0000
    Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Howerd <howerdo@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-01 09:31 -0700
      Re: The Map Is Not The Territory Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2012-07-01 14:03 -0700
        Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-01 14:57 -0700
    Re: The Map Is Not The Territory rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2012-07-01 14:50 -0700

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