So the bwtwo-to-VGA video board is all soldered
up (yes, that bizarre combination of point-to-point
soldering, wire-wrap, and header plugs that
accumulates itself when trying to rush-design a
board.
input BW2 monochrome signal
1152x900 one-bit (that means black-and-white)
62.5KHz
66.667HZ
output VGA color signal
anaglyph red/blue alternating even/odd
What it does:
Allows the bwtwo framebuffer to output
1152x900 interlaced anaglyph (red/blue)
3D output.
Unachieved hopes and dreams:
to also interface an interrupt to the
NCR 5380 SCSI controller, and have
true interrupt-driven double buffered
anaglyph 3D on the Sun 3. After killing
the video output on one board, I didn't
risk sending signals into the SCSI port.
How it works:
Uses dual D-type flip-flop as
toggle mode, using the vertical and
horizontal sync signals as the clock.
Uses comparators as and gates based
on whether the current frame/line
match parity (which is output of the
flip flop) to power transistors which
are switched by the bwtwo's video
signal (which is approximately 100MHz).
If the current frame is even, and the
line number is also even, drive the
video signal on red. If the current
frame is even, and the line number is odd,
do not drive any signal. This blanks
odd lines on even frames.
If the current frame is odd, and the
line number is even, blank as well.
However, if the frame is odd, and the
line number is odd, drive the video
signal on blue.
So the video stream is interlaced across
odd and even lines. Since the alternative
lines are blank, the Sun 3 can be drawing
into those lines without any visible
artifacts appearing on screen, but since
I didn't get the interrupt happening
there isn't any way to time the updates
as it stands right now.
Photos to come soon, don't worry, I have a pile
of stuff to upload still. As far as I can tell, there's
no reason this couldn't have been done in 1987,
as the parts are bog-standard. I had them all on
hand. The only thing I had to buy during this
compo was the Torx screwdrivers to open the
keyboard.
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