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> One of the custom chip on the Amiga had hardware for teh track decoding If memory serves correct, the raw data was pulled in from disk to memory DMA-style, b
by richrichardsson 8y ago
> One of the custom chip on the Amiga had hardware for teh track decoding
If memory serves correct, the raw data was pulled in from disk to memory DMA-style, but the actual decoding could be done either using the blitter or 68k.
True about performing operations whilst loading from disk though; I coded a trackloader demo that was loading the next part of the demo whilst the current part was ongoing, using the 68k to decode so that the blitter could be hammered for graphic effects!
- puzzle 8y agoThe MFM encoding used 2 raw bits for each bit of data to be stored. As such, people figured how to use the Blitter to do just that. I'm not sure if the OS did it; it was probably not the case in the 1.x days.
- jacobush 8y agoI don't know either when it did what, but when Amigas got faster CPUs IIRC there were patches (or newer Kickstarts?) to move the decoding to the CPU because the blitter was slower than the CPU then.