Black Belt Systems HAM-E & HAM-E Plus - Amiga Hardware Database

Manufacturer Black Belt Systems, UK	Date 1991	Amiga any Amiga	Interface RGB port

Manufacturer

Black Belt Systems, UK

Date

1991

Amiga

any Amiga

Interface

RGB port

external framebuffer

shares the RGB display with the Amiga - it can even display both on a split screen
when HAM-E detects a special display-line signature (magic cookie) in a 640 pixels wide screen, then converts it to one that is half as wide with twice as many colour bitplanes
a side effect of sharing the screen is that this signature data can be seen as a couple of slim lines of garbage at the top left side - they can be eliminated by using an overscan screen on which they are above the visible screen area
register mode:
- analogous to the Amiga lo-res mode, whereby a hardware colour register controls the colour of each individual pixel
- up to 256 colours from a 24 bit palette
- supports colour cycling
extended HAM mode:
- similar to the normal Amiga HAM mode
- uses compression techniques to achieve 18 bit colour form 8 bits of data
- diminishes precise control over individual pixel colour
HAM-E Plus includes hardware antialiasing

screen modes

notes

supplied with Image Professional image processing and paint program
direct support for NewTek's 21 bit DigiView buffers
supported fileformats: IFF24, IFF, HAM, RGB8 and RGBN, Targa, GIF, Dynamic HiRes
compatible with external genlocks, but a special shielded cable is required to improve performance
plugs to the 23 pin video port, the RGB port is passed through
an 8" × 10" unit with external power supply

Advert (US)
1991-04

Advert (US)
1991-05

Advert (GB)
1991-07