Plantronics Colorplus

Plantronics Colorplus
Cards

Release date	1982 (1982)
Entry-level	Plantronics Colorplus
High-end	ATI Graphics Solution, Paradise AutoSwitch EGA 480
History
Predecessor	CGA
Successor	EGA

The Plantronics Colorplus was a graphics card for IBM PC computers,^[1] first sold in 1982. It was a superset of the then-current CGA standard, using the same monitor standard and providing the same pixel resolutions.^[2] It was produced by Frederick Electronics, of Frederick, Maryland.

The Colorplus had twice the memory of a standard CGA board (32k, compared to 16k). The additional memory could be used in graphics modes to double the color depth, giving two additional graphics modes—16 colors at 320×200 resolution, or 4 colors at 640×200 resolution.

It used the same Motorola MC6845 display controller as the previous MDA and CGA adapters.^[2]

The original card also included a parallel printer port.

Output capabilities

CGA compatible modes:

160×100 16 color mode
320x200 in 4 colors from a 16 color hardware palette. Pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.2.
640×200 in 2 colors. Pixel aspect ratio of 1:2.4
40×25 with 8×8 pixel font text mode(effective resolution of 320×200)
80×25 with 8×8 pixel font text mode(effective resolution of 640×200)

In addition to the CGA modes, it offers:

320x200 with 16 colors
640x200 with 4 colors
New high-resolution text font

Software support

Few programs made use of these modes, for which there was no BIOS support. A 1984 advertisement^[3] listed as compatible software Color-It, UCSD P-system, Peachtree Graphics Language, Business Graphics System,^[4] Graph Power, The Draftsman, Videogram, Stock View and GSX. In addition, Canyon State Systems CompuShow^[5] supports the 320×200 mode.

Hardware Clones

Some third-party CGA and EGA clones, such as the ATI Graphics Solution and the Paradise AutoSwitch EGA 480,^[6] could emulate the extra modes (usually describing them simply as 'Plantronics mode').

References

↑ "Colorplus High Resolution Color Graphics Adapter from Plantronics (1984)". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
1 2 PC Mag Jul 1983, p. 435, at Google Books
↑ "Colorplus High Resolution Color Graphics Adapter from Plantronics (1984)". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
↑ PC Mag, p. 203, at Google Books
↑ http://cd.textfiles.com/clipart1996/UTILS/CSHOW860/ABOUT860.TXT
↑ PC Mag, p. 218, at Google Books

External links

"+COLORPLUS Shatters The Mold.", an original advertisement.
A USENET posting describing the Plantronics Colorplus
The technical documentation for the Paradise EGA chipset in the Amstrad PC-1640 describes its Plantronics compatibility mode.

Computer display standards

Video hardware	MDA (1981) CGA (1981) Orchid Graphics Adapter (1982) HGC (1982) Plantronics Colorplus (1982) Tandy (1984) PGC (1984) EGA (1984) HGC+ (1986) InColor (1987) MCGA (1987) VGA (1987) 8514 (1987) SVGA (1987) TIGA (1989) XGA (1990)	Size comparison

Standard display resolutions	160×120 320×200 640×200 640×350 640×480 720x348 800×600 1024×768 1152×864 1280×1024 1400×1050 1600×1200 2048×1536 2560×2048 3200×2400 4096×3072 5120×4096 6400×4800

Widescreen display resolutions	240×160 320×240 432×240 480x270 480×320 640×400 800×480 854×480 1024×576 1280×720 1280×768 1280×800 1366×768 1366×900 1440×900 1600×900 1680×945 1680×1050 1920×1080 (1080p) 1920×1200 2048×1152 2560×1440 2560×1600 3200×2048 3840×2160 3200×2400 5120x2880 5120×3200 5760x3240 6400×4096 7680×4320 7680×4800 15360x8640

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