From: broehl@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Bernie Roehl)
Subject: TECH: Re: New 386 polyblit release
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1992 22:11:59 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Jan29.221159.2416@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo


In article <1992Jan28.152614.27104@swvgs.vak12ed.edu> govstude@swvgs.
vak12ed.edu (Southwest Virginia Governor's School STUDENT) writes:

>What is a blitter?... 

I'll take this one.

A blitter is any piece of software or hardware that does very fast screen
writes.  The name derives from the "blt" or "block transfer" instructions
on certain cpu's that move blocks of data around in memory very quickly.

Most blitters just move rectangular (or even linear!) blocks of data to
a screen; Dave Stampe's polygon blitter does it for polygons.


	Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept
	Mail: broehl@sunee.waterloo.edu OR broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca
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