I want to open here a small debate about how to take real advantage of the colour input.
What uses could it have?
I think it is easy and perfect for overlaying on the screen any external information. Think for example on a Gotek or HxC connected to the EXDOS without the little screen, instead the image disk information shown on the Enterprise screen. Or I also have though about the external screen on the Dream Turbo Card from Pear. He has took it in consideration, but not for the present version.
Theoretically, several video inputs can coexist at the same time if they are protected with diodes. I want to test this, but at the moment I only have one way to inject colour.
Of course I don't forget the initial purpose of the colour input... a hardware sprite generator or video input. Using the same system that my friend has used to add colour to the only green PCW Amstrad computer, can serve to easy inject a digital video source, but I think it would be very limited quality due the way the 8 high colours of the palette have been implemented, through the Nick register Bias.
Soon(I still don't know when...) I will receive a GFX-NINE from TMTLogic. It is a clone of the renowned Sunrise GFX-9000 MSX graphics cartridge that Prodatron supports on the MSX, and now CPC, versions of SymbOS. Sure it will work on the Enterprise interfaced with the M-Slot, but new software has to be written for it, or at least adapted. The Z80 ports it uses have not been used before on any Enterprise hardware extension, so this is new terrain.... Hans says that this is not a straight copy of the classic GFX-9000 card, it has been completely redesigned and fixed maintaining its original operation.
As you already know, this cartridge uses its own video output, but the V9990 chip has a few interesting modes that can suit our Enterprises if we discover a way to digitise the output video. Also, a interesting characteristic of the chip is that it accepts superimposing an external video output.... Think, not on injecting colour to the Enterprise, but injecting the Enterprise output video signal on the V9990... But this is nothing more than a dream by now...
Returning to the Hardware Sprite Generator and the basic tests shown in this thread, you must understand that they will not go further than to understand completely the mechanism. But... it may be we can find an easy way to inject the whole screen of the V9990 in pattern mode P2(see the
data sheet page 13), offering 128 sprites on 16 colour, more than 15000 8x8 pixel tiles and omnidirectional scroll....