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The VIC (Video Interface Chip), specifically known as the MOS Technology
MOS Technology

MOS Technology, Inc., also known as CSG , was a integrated circuit design and Semiconductor device fabrication company based in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in the United States....
 6560 (NTSC
NTSC

NTSC is the analog television system used in most of the Americas, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Burma, and some Pacific island nations and territories ....
 version) / 6561 (PAL
PAL

PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a color-encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analog television systems are SECAM and NTSC....
 version), is the integrated circuit
Integrated circuit

In electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin Wafer of semiconductor material....
 chip responsible for generating video graphics and sound in the Commodore VIC-20
Commodore VIC-20

The VIC-20 is an 8-bit home computer which was sold by Commodore International. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the Commodore PET....
 home computer
Home computer

A home computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles....
. It was originally designed for applications such as low cost CRT
Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen....
 terminals
Computer terminal

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical computer hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system....
, biomedical monitors, control system displays and arcade
Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, public houses, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers....
 or home video game console
Video game console

A video game console is an game development that produces a video signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to buy and use solely for playing video games from a personal computer, which has many other functions, or arcade machi...
s.

The chip was designed by Al Charpentier in 1977 but Commodore could not find a market for the chip.






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Encyclopedia


The VIC (Video Interface Chip), specifically known as the MOS Technology
MOS Technology

MOS Technology, Inc., also known as CSG , was a integrated circuit design and Semiconductor device fabrication company based in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in the United States....
 6560 (NTSC
NTSC

NTSC is the analog television system used in most of the Americas, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Burma, and some Pacific island nations and territories ....
 version) / 6561 (PAL
PAL

PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a color-encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analog television systems are SECAM and NTSC....
 version), is the integrated circuit
Integrated circuit

In electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin Wafer of semiconductor material....
 chip responsible for generating video graphics and sound in the Commodore VIC-20
Commodore VIC-20

The VIC-20 is an 8-bit home computer which was sold by Commodore International. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the Commodore PET....
 home computer
Home computer

A home computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles....
. It was originally designed for applications such as low cost CRT
Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen....
 terminals
Computer terminal

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical computer hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system....
, biomedical monitors, control system displays and arcade
Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, public houses, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers....
 or home video game console
Video game console

A video game console is an game development that produces a video signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to buy and use solely for playing video games from a personal computer, which has many other functions, or arcade machi...
s.

The chip was designed by Al Charpentier in 1977 but Commodore could not find a market for the chip. In 1979 MOS Technology
MOS Technology

MOS Technology, Inc., also known as CSG , was a integrated circuit design and Semiconductor device fabrication company based in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in the United States....
 began work on a video chip
Video Display Controller

A Video Display Controller or VDC is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a Television Composite video in a computing or game system....
 named MOS Technology 6564 intended for the TOI computer and had also made some work on another chip, MOS 6562 intended for a color version of the Commodore PET
Commodore PET

The PET was a home computer-/personal computer produced by Commodore International starting in 1977. Although it was not a top seller outside the Canadian, US, and UK educational markets, it was Commodore's first full-featured computer and would form the basis for their future success....
. Both of these chips failed due to memory timing constraints (both required very fast and thus expensive SRAM, making them unsuitable for mass production). Before finally starting to use the VIC in the VIC-20, chip designer Robert Yannes fed features from the 6562 (a better sound generator) and 6564 (more colors) back to the 6560, so before beginning mass production for the VIC-20 it had been thoroughly revised.

Its features include:
  • 16 KB address space for screen, character and color memory (only 5 KB points to RAM on the VIC-20 without a hardware modification)
  • 16 colors (the upper 8 can only be used in the global background and auxiliary colors)
  • two selectable character sizes (8×8 or 8×16 bits; the pixel width is 1 bit for "hires" characters and 2 bits for "multicolor" characters)
  • maximum video resolution depends on the television system (176 × 184 is the standard for the VIC-20 firmware, although at least 224 × 256 is possible on the PAL
    PAL

    PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a color-encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analog television systems are SECAM and NTSC....
     machine)
  • 4 channel sound system
    Programmable sound generator

    A Programmable Sound Generator is a sound chip that generates sound waves by synthesizing multiple basic waveforms, and often some kind of Noise generator, and combining and mixing these waveforms into a complex waveform, then shaping the amplitude of the resulting waveform using ADSR envelope time periods, so that the resulting waveform t...
     (3 square wave + "white" noise + global volume setting)
  • on-chip DMA
    Direct memory access

    Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers and microprocessors that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system Computer storage for reading and/or writing independently of the central processing unit....
  • two 8-bit A/D converters
  • light pen
    Light pen

    A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode ray tube TV set or Computer display....
     support


The VIC was programmed by manipulating its 16 control registers, memory mapped to the range $9000–$900F in the VIC-20 address space. The on-chip A/D converters were used for dual paddle
Paddle (game controller)

A paddle is a game controller with a round wheel and one or more fire buttons, where the wheel is typically used to control movement of the player object along one axis of the video screen....
 position readings by the VIC-20, which also used the VIC's lightpen facility. The VIC preceded the much more advanced VIC-II
MOS Technology VIC-II

The VIC-II , specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/8562/8564 , 6569/8565/8566 , is the integrated circuit tasked with generating S-Video/composite video graphics and dynamic random access memory memory refresh signals in the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computers....
, used by the VIC-20's successors, the C64
Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of United States dollar595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes of Random-access memory with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of tha...
 and C128
Commodore 128

The Commodore 128 home computer/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore International . Introduced in January of 1985 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas metropolitan area, it appeared three years after its predecessor, the bestselling Commodore 64....
.

VIC IC list


  • MOS Technology 6560 NTSC
    NTSC

    NTSC is the analog television system used in most of the Americas, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Burma, and some Pacific island nations and territories ....
  • MOS Technology 6561E PAL
    PAL

    PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a color-encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analog television systems are SECAM and NTSC....
     Ceramic version, used in early VIC-20's
  • MOS Technology 6561-101 PAL
    PAL

    PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a color-encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analog television systems are SECAM and NTSC....


See also

  • Video Display Controller
    Video Display Controller

    A Video Display Controller or VDC is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a Television Composite video in a computing or game system....
  • List of home computers by video hardware
    List of home computers by video hardware

    This is a list of home computers, sorted alphanumerically, which lists all relevant details of their Video Display Controller.A home computer was the description of the second generation of desktop computers, entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s....
  • MOS VIC-II as used in the Commodore 64
    Commodore 64

    The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of United States dollar595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes of Random-access memory with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of tha...


External links