Author: Anthony (203.214.144.253)
Date: 11-09-2004 07:37
I upgraded two STFM's with a blitter chip, the chip was quite easy to get 15 years ago, but quickly became hard to source after Mega ST production ceased. TOS 1.2 and 1.4 support the blitter, the only ROM TOS for 16 bit machines that didn't support it was TOS 1.0.
Most mainboards had the socket space for the blitter, even some design variations with surface mount chips. Of all the machines (about 20) I ripped apart I only ever saw 1 STFM without routing for the chip. Was a standard PLCC socketed chip in most machines.
The blitter was not included in the TT as it was slower than other TT hardware to perform the same functions. Additionally I suspect they did not want to "spin" a 32MHz Blitter ASIC (the type of chip the blitter is) for a low volume machine as the TT was. It is very expensive to produce ASIC's, especially if a mistake is made in design that a software fix cannot circumvent!
The STe, Mega STe and Mega ST (a modular variant of the STFM hardware to be more "professional") were the only 16 bit systems with blitter hardware standard.
Cheers
Anthony
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RE: Blitter upgrade