Editing Blitter (section)

===Blitters in computers and video games===
'''1973:''' The [[Xerox Alto]], where the term [[bit blit]] originated, has a bit block transfer instruction implemented in [[microcode]], making it much faster than the same operation written on the CPU.<ref name="shirriff">{{cite web|last1=Shirriff|first1=Ken|title=Restoring YCombinator's Xerox Alto day 5: Microcode tracing with a logic analyzer|url=http://www.righto.com/2016/09/xerox-alto-restoration-day-5-smoke-and.html|website=Ken Shirriff's Blog}}</ref> The microcode was implemented by [[Dan Ingalls]].<ref name="shirriff"/>

'''1978:''' The [[Bally Astrocade]] home console has primitive blitter hardware.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ballyalley.com/ballyalley/articles/bally_blitter.txt |title=Bally's Blitter |last1=Squire |first1=Lance}}</ref>

'''1982:''' In addition to drawing shape primitives, the [[NEC μPD7220]] video display processor can transfer rectangular bitmaps to display memory via [[direct memory access]] and fill rectangular portions of the screen.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Peddie |first1=Jon |title=Famous Graphics Chips: NEC μPD7220 Graphics Display Controller |url=https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/chasing-pixels/famous-graphics-chips |website=computer.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=User's Manual: NEC μPD7220/7220A |date=December 1985 |publisher=NEC Electronics |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/nec/uPD7220-uPD7220A_User_Manual_Dec85.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616135419/http://bitsavers.org/pdf/nec/uPD7220-uPD7220A_User_Manual_Dec85.pdf |archive-date=2012-06-16 }}</ref> The design was licensed by Intel and sold as the 82720 graphics display controller.

'''1982:''' The ''[[Robotron: 2084]]'' arcade video game from [[WMS Industries|Williams Electronics]] includes two blitter chips which allow the game to have up to 80 simultaneously moving objects.<ref name="btc 185">{{cite book|last1=Wolf|first1=Mark J.P.|title=Before the Crash: Early Video Game History|date=June 2012|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=9780814334508|page=185|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oK3D4i5ldKgC&q=early+blitter+hardware&pg=PA185}}</ref> Performance was measured at roughly 910 KB/second.<ref name="btc 185"/> The blitter operates on 4-bit (16 color) pixels where color 0 is transparent, allowing for non-rectangular shapes.<ref name="riddle"/> Williams used the same hardware in other games from the time period, including ''[[Sinistar]]'' and ''[[Joust (video game)|Joust]]''.<ref name="riddle">{{cite web|last1=Riddle|first1=Sean|title=Blitter Information|url=http://seanriddle.com/blitter.html}}</ref>

'''1984:''' The [[MS-DOS]] compatible [[Mindset (computer)|Mindset]] personal computer contains a custom [[Very-large-scale integration|VLSI]] chip to move rectangular sections of a bitmap. The hardware handles transparency and eight modes for combining the source and destination data.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Williams|first1=Gregg|title=Product Preview: The Mindset Personal Computer|journal=Byte Magazine|date=April 1984|volume=9|issue=4|pages=278–280|url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1984-04/1984_04_BYTE_09-04_Real-World_Interfacing#page/n270/mode/2up}}</ref> The Mindset was claimed to have graphics up to 50x faster than [[IBM PC compatible]]s of the time,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=John J.|title=Mindset Micro: Pushing the envelope, or whatever happened to innovation?|journal=Creative Computing|date=February 1985|volume=11|issue=2|page=50|url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n2/50_Mindset_micro_pushing_th.php}}</ref> but the system was not successful.

'''1985:''' One of the coprocessors in the [[Amiga]] personal computer is a blitter. The first US patent filing to use the term ''blitter'' was "Personal computer apparatus for block transfer of bit-mapped image data," assigned to Commodore-Amiga, Inc.<ref>{{cite web | title = US Patent 4874164 "Personal computer apparatus for block transfer of bit-mapped image data" | url = https://patents.google.com/patent/US4874164 }}</ref> The blitter performs an arbitrary boolean operation on three bit vectors of size 16:
:<code>destination := op(source A, source B, source C)</code>

'''1986:''' The [[TMS34010]] is a general purpose 32-bit processor with built-in instructions, including <code>PIXBLT</code> (Pixel Block Transfer), for manipulating bitmap data. It is optimized for cases that would take extra processing if implemented in software, such as handling transparent pixels, working with non-byte aligned data, and converting between bit depths. <code>PIXBLT</code> provides 22 ways of combining the source and destination data.<ref name=byte>{{cite magazine |magazine=Byte |url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1986-12/page/n199/mode/2up |title=The TMS34010 Graphics System Processor |last=Killebrew Jr. |first=Carrell R. |page=204 |volume=11 |issue=13 |date=December 1986}}</ref> The TMS34010 serves as both CPU and GPU for a number of arcade games starting in 1988 with ''[[Narc (video game)|Narc]]'' and including ''[[Hard Drivin']]'', ''[[Smash TV]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', and ''[[NBA Jam (1993 video game)|NBA Jam]]'', <ref>{{cite web|title=Game listing for games running on the TMS34010 processor|url=http://www.mamedb.com/cpu/TMS34010?start=0|website=mamedb.com|access-date=2016-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191918/http://www.mamedb.com/cpu/TMS34010?start=0|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was also used in graphics accelerator boards in the 1990s.

'''1987:''' The [[IBM 8514|IBM 8514/A]] display adapter, introduced with the [[IBM Personal System/2]] computers in April 1987, includes bit block transfer hardware.<ref name="Necasek">{{cite web|last1=Necasek|first1=Michael|title=The 8514/A Graphics Accelerator|url=http://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-8514a-graphics-accelerator/|website=OS/2 Museum}}</ref>

[[File:Atari Blitter.jpg|thumb|Atari ST BLiTTER chip]]

'''1987:''' The [[Atari ST|Atari Mega ST 2]] ships with a blitter chip.<ref>{{cite web |title=Atari Mega ST 2 |url=http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/28563/Atari-Mega-ST-2/ |website=Centre for Computing History}}</ref> Officially called the "Atari ST Bit-Block Transfer Processor", stylized as BLiTTER, it provides 16 options for merging source and destination data.<ref>{{cite web |title=User Manual for the Atari ST Bit Block Transfer Processor |url=https://archive.org/details/User_Manual_for_the_Atari_ST_Bit-Block_Transfer_Processor_BLiTTER_Jun_17_1987/mode/2up |website=archive.org |publisher=Atari Corporation |date=June 17, 1987}}</ref> The blitter is supported on most subsequent ST machines.

'''1989:''' The short-lived [[Atari Transputer Workstation]] contains blitter hardware as part of its (Mega ST-based) "Blossom" video system.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rosenthal|first1=Marshal M.|title=The Transputer Connection: An Exclusive Interview with Perihelion's Dr. Tim King|journal=STart|date=November 1989|volume=4|issue=4|url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n4/transputer.html}}</ref>

'''1989:''' The [[Atari Lynx]] color handheld game system has a custom blitter with scaling and distortion effects.

'''1993:''' The [[Atari Jaguar]] game console has blitter hardware as part of the custom "Tom" chip.<ref>{{cite web|title=Technical Reference Manual Tom & Jerry|date=February 2001|pages=4–5|url=https://www.hillsoftware.com/files/atari/jaguar/jag_v8.pdf}}</ref>

'''1996:''' The [[VESA]] Group introduced a standardized way to access features like hardware Bit Block transfers with [[VESA_BIOS_Extensions#VBE/accelerator_functions_(VBE/AF)_(August_1996)|VBE/accelerator functions (VBE/AF)]] on IBM PC compatibles.