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Very few are aware of the personal computer that lets them create the best color graphics. It's the Advanced Personal Computer from NEC.
One reason the APC is better is that it lets you do more kinds of graphics than any other personal computer. In fact, it gives you the kind of graphics you'd expect only from a more expensive computer. But it's no accident - the APC uses the NEC 7720 graphics processor, the most advanced graphics chip available.
Unlike other PCs, the APC graphics option has its own dedicated memory, so there's never a tradeoff between color and resolution.
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The NEC uPD7720 Graphics Display Controller (GDC) is an intelligent microprocessor peripheral designed to be
the heart of a high-performance raster-scan computer graphics and character display system.
Positioned between the video display memory and microprocessor bus, the GDC performs the tasks needed to generate the raster display and manager the display memory. Processor software overhead is minimized by the GDC's sophisticated instruction set, graphics figure drawing, and DMA transfer capabilities. The display memory supported by the GDC can be configured in any number of formats and sizes up to 256K 16-bit words. The display can be zoomed and panned, while partitioned screen areas can be independently scrolled. With its light pen input and multiple controller capability, the GDC is ideal for advanced computer graphics applications. |
The APC can actually use *two* NEC 7220 graphics display controllers, one for text and one for graphics,
the outputs of which are mixed and fed to a single screen. Screen resolution is 640x494,
with the top text line devoted to a time/date display. You can turn this line off and display
graphics in that area, but you can't display your own text there.
This particular APC is a DesktopCAM system, used for running a Bridgeport CNC machine with EZ-CAM software. It weighs 80 pounds / 35 kg!
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This page last updated on 05/08/2016 01:07:08
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