Digital system field/frame rates.

[Mike Watterson]

NHK were transmitting HD TV in 1989, when PCs were struggling with 800 x 600. The BBC did a co-production with them called "The Ginger Tree".

Maybe entry level IBM PCs, but decent CAD PCs and Workstations had far better than that. PCs didn't struggle with 800 x 600, they either did it, or better or not. The PC SVGA standard was 1987 (specified up to 1280 x 800) though VESA may not have ratified it till later. The actual official IBM resolutions were FAR  behind professional  & CAD graphics cards for PCs, never mind CAD/CAE Workstations.

I was using 1280 x 800 in 1986 for PCB layout on a PC.  IBM's failed PS/2 introduced the "behind the curve" 640 x 480 VGA in 1987. 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 (interlaced on cheap screens) and 1280 x 800 were common by 1988 if you needed it.

I have CAD graphics cards for EISA based PCs (released 1988) till recently in the attic which had a VGA daughter card and their own CPU, made in 1989.

All the CHEAP SVGA cards in 1987 were based on the 82c441 chip.

When IBM only had Text on PC on 1981 and then 640x 200 CGA card in 1981, competitors had 800 x 400 as graphics for lower price. CAD workstations where better.

My Jan 2000 laptop wasn't state of the art. Small company. It was 1400 x 1050 (I got to keep it when I upgraded in April 2002 to a 1600 x 1200 15" laptop. I still have both working).

In the late 1980s till CRTs replaced by LCD, the top of the range CRTs for computers were made by iiyama. I have an iiyama 17" CRT now, that does 2048 x 1536. My 2002 laptop can drive that resolution as well as the built in 15" ultrasharp 133dpi 1600 x 1200.

So RETAIL, PRODUCTION PCs have ALWAYS outperformed Public Broadcast TV and the NHK/BBC thing was not not available generally. Two years earlier anyone could buy a much higher resolution CAD/CAE system based on a PC off the shelf.

https://xkcd.com/732/



Go to link and "Mouse over"

Edit: See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vecto...dards2.svg