Additional Video Modes?

[TwoPigsToTheWind]

How useful do you all think it would be to have another video mode or two for the Minimal? The current setup is 400 by 240 single bit pixels using a total of 16k of memory. In that same space we could fit say 200 by 240 2 bit ( 4 value) gray scale or 200 by 160 3 bit ( 8 value) gray scale or color or 200 by 120 4 bit (16 value) color.

Any of those options would require additional hardware. A 2-4 bit DAC for gray scale or color at the very least, and some additional hardware to manage the timing. An additional register to hold the data to identify the current mode that the card should be in. If we ended up with four video modes a single register would be enough, if we're being really ambitious the additional bits in the register could be used for palette selection. The resolutions given above are just top of the hat examples, they may be other values that are more practical or useful.

There's been some talk in a few of the discussion threads about changing the expansion port. What about adding a dedicated video card port? A quick look at the current VGA section in the Kicad schematic the video card port would need to have the usual address and data lines, four additional control lines, and an additional clock signal. Moving the video hardware off of the main board would free up some space, of course the video card slot would take up some space on its own but it's probably still a net gain in terms of board space given that the current Minimal VGA hardware uses 9 chips.

While on the one hand I think adding additional resolutions and color options is not very minimalistic, trading resolution for color depth is very much in line with the late 70s early 80s feel of the Minimal.