::|CONTENTS
- Standard Specs (1976)
- System II Improvements (1979)
- Music
Fairchild Channel F
The Channel F (VES), Video Entertainment System, is based on the Fairchild F8 CPU, invented by Robert Noyce before he left Fairchild to start his own company, Intel. The F8 is very complex compared to the typical integrated circuits of the day, and had more inputs and outputs than other contemporary chips. Because chip packaging was not available with enough pins, the F8 is instead fabricated as a pair of chips that had to be used together to form a complete CPU. It has an 8-bit data bus and an 8-bit address bus. Shortly said, it's completely 8-bit.
As the BotB format, it's also an exact analog of the still suggested PC Speaker category, since it also can produce just one tone channel.
Standard Specs (1976)
* CPU: Fairchild F8 1.79 MHz [NTSC], 2.22 MHz [PAL]
* RAM: 64 bytes
* Colors: 8, only four different colors per line, unless black/white palette were chosen, then only these two colors on the whole line.
* Audio: 500 Hz, 1 KHz, and 1.5 KHz tones (able to be modulated quickly to produce different tones) played through internal speaker.
* I/O Ports: TV out
* Controllers: Two 'grip-stick' controllers attached to main unit with dedicated wires. 8 way digital movement, forward/backwards, left/right, push knob down/pull up and twist counter-/clockwise
* Media: Programmable ROM cartridges
System II Improvements (1979)
* Audio: Hardware noise reduction and audio out to TV.
* Controllers: Plug-in controllers
Music
Music can be composed with
Sleizsa; an assemblese, MML-ish sequencer or the newer versions
Sleizsa Duo and
Sleizsa Trio!
