Design of the A72 Digital Character Generator and its Implications

This article discusses the design and evolution of the Abekas A72 Digital Character Generator, and discusses how its architecture has affected its evolution. The A72 was intended to offer the highest possible character quality and smooth motion effects. While these goals were achieved, the CG was initially unable to satisfy market needs for density and complexity of text pages. However, the flexibility of the design allowed the system to grow and evolve, not only to remedy its initial shortcomings, but to offer capabilities and effects previously thought impossible to implement. The use of many general-purpose processors, with software used to control even low-level tasks normally “hardwired” on a CG, allowed this growth to occur with few hardware modifications to existing A72s. This approach proved invaluable in keeping the CG up-to-date, and it is suggested that such an approach may be increasingly advantageous for future equipment design.

Published

1992-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00713

ISBN

978-1-61482-941-6