#Amiga CD 32!
It was launched here in the UK last Friday (15th July) to quite a good
reception. I don't know the exact details but I'd be safe in saying it's
basically a 1200 with CD ROM drive and CD audio. A new piece of hardware has
also been added – something called Chunky Graphics. The Amiga uses video planes
which are great for some programs but not for others, namly 3D flight sim type
games. Plotting a single pixel involves accessing 8 separate memory locations
in 265 colour mode which is *very* inefficient. The IBM PC uses byte per pixel
which means plotting pixels (which make up lines, which make up polygons) is
far faster, even considering the awful IBM video standard. Chunky mode allows
Amiga programs to use byte per pixel modes. I'm not sure whether this is a new
video mode or some hardware translates a byte write into 8 pixel writes to the
video planes.
Rob.