[Jukebox-list] OT-Mac quesion

[Steve Wahl]

On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 02:54:01AM -0500, Karl wrote:
> Ron,
> You know I have never even seen a MAC? I know lots of people swear by them 
> for graphics and user interface. Anyway, I'm surprised to find out that 
> they use (I guess, according to your question) something different than the 
> industry standard RGB HVsync plus whatever extras. I learn something new 
> every day here.

[This is *almost* antique electronic stuff, so *maybe* it's germane
here?]

At the time the macintosh line incorporated color, VGA was not yet an
established standard.  Remember CGA and EGA on the IBM systems?  I
think VGA came out about the same time that the Mac II did, so it was
contemporaneous, not established standard.

Monitors also had either a fixed scanning frequency or a small number
to select from; so they had to more closely match the electronics that
drove them.

Anyway, it wasn't uncommon for different computers to have different
connectors and signalling (Scanning frequencies? TTL or analog RGB?
Separate sync, composite sync, or sync-on-green?) for their monitors
back then.  Sun, IBM & compatibles, Amigas, Ataris, and others all had
different connectors & signals, unless they did NTSC television
standard video on an RCA jack.

Once the multisync monitors that could handle all the different
signals showed up, you started to see gravitation to the 15 pin VGA
connector, often through adapters like the one Ron has.

I also seem to recall that early macs were sync-on-green, the later
ones made more VGA compatible by also offering separated sync signals;
but I'm fuzzy on that.

--> Steve

-- 
Steve Wahl    steve at pro-ns.net

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