Design and Evolution of the A72 Digital Character Generator

Adam J. Wilt

This article discusses the design and evolution of the Abekas A72 Digital Character Generator (CG), and discusses how its architecture has affected its evolution. The A72 was built to offer the highest possible character quality and smooth motion effects, but it was initially unable to satisfy market needs for density and complexity of text pages. However, the flexibility of its design allowed the system to grow and evolve, and 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 “hard-wired” on a CG, allowed this growth to occur with few hardware modifications to existing models. This approach proved invaluable in keeping the CG up-to-date, and it may prove to be increasingly advantageous for future equipment design.

Print ISSN
Published
1992-12
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J02167