Project OMNI
A PSEUDO THREE DIMENSIONAL VIDEO
GRAPHICS SYSTEM
Designer: Mark Filipak
Chipset for advanced game systems
and computers. This new chipset consisted of 3 chips: Penny,
Vivian and Heather. It was intended to be complimented by the
AMY Sound processor for audio.
Omni would've given Atari
computers and video games spectacular high resolution graphics, the
likes of which would not be seen until around 1987 with the
introduction of the VGA standard. For example, the chipset was
capable of a
648x488x256 display is within a 2048x1024x512 virtual space.
Omni "Design
Guide" (March 27, 1984)
Chip Technical's:
Penny
(Named after Mark's wife) would be the Sprite Generator,
up to 3 Penny's could be networked together onto the system Bus.
Penny
Specifications
Penny Semiconductor Information
Display Functionality
Schematic
Vivian
(Named
after Mark's mother) would be the Memory Manager and DMA Controller.
Vivian Specifications
Vivian Semiconductor information
Programming Vivian
Heather
(Named
after Arlen Olive's daughter. Arlen assisted in the project) - would
be the Video Signal Generator & Signal Synchronizer.
Heather
Specifications
Documents:
COMBOS
- How colors can be combined and formed.
DEMO1
- Document on setting up a Demonstration of the OMNI Technology.
MAP
- Memory Map for the OMNI Chipset.
OMNI1 - October 20, 1983 Memo on the OMNI Chipset.
PLAN - January 23, 1984 Development Plan for the OMNI
Chipset.
POLY - Binary to Polycode
converter.
SMOOTHING
- Technical document on Edge Smoothing.
SPEC - January 13, 1984 Technical Specifications for
OMNI.
THEORY - March 9, 1984 Theory of Operation for OMNI.
