Thomson EF936x


The Thomson EF936x series is a type of Graphic Display Processor by Thomson-EFCIS. The chip could draw at 1 million pixels per second, which was relatively advanced for the time of its release. There are various versions of the chip with slightly different capabilities.
The first version, EF9364 CRT Processor, was introduced in 1981.
In 1982 Commodore released a "High Resolution Graphics" board for the PET based on the EF9365 and EF9366 chips, allowing it to display or resolution graphics. The EF9366 was also used on the SMP-E353 graphic card for the Siemens computer series and on the NDR-Klein-Computer introduced in 1984.
Version EF9369, introduced in 1984, was used on computers such as the Thomson MO5NR, MO6, TO8, TO9 and TO9+, and from 1985 to 1989 on the DAI Personal Computer.

Versions

Based on the 1989 data book published by the company, the EF936x series was split into Graphics Controllers and Color Palette models:

Graphics Controllers

  • EF9364 CRT Processor introduced in 1981
  • EF9365 ,,, ; 50 Hz
  • EF9366 ; 50/60 Hz
  • EF9367 , ; 50/60 Hz.
  • '''SFF96364'''

    Color Palette

  • EF9369 - 4-bit DACs, generating gamma corrected voltages.
  • TS9370 - 4-bit DACs

    Capabilities

  • Integrated DRAM controller
  • Line drawing, with delta-x and delta-y limited to 255 each. Support for solid, dotted, dashed and dotted/dashed lines.
  • Built-in pixel ASCII font. Support for rendering tilted characters, and scaling by integer factors
  • Clear screen
  • Light Pen support
The GPUs did not support direct access to the graphics memory, although a special command was provided to aid in implementing access to individual memory words.

Character Set

The Thomson EF9365/6 used the following character, displayed with a pixel font: