The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" integrated circuit was the first in a series of ICs from General Instrument designed for the consumer video game market. These chips were designed to output video to an RF modulator , which would then display the game on a domestic television set . The AY-3-8500 contained six selectable games — tennis (a.k.a. Pong ), hockey (or soccer ), squash , practice, and two shooting games. The AY-3-8500 was the 625-line PAL version and the AY-3-8500-1 was the 525-line NTSC version. It was introduced in 1976, Coleco becoming the first customer having been introduced to the IC development by Ralph H. Baer . A minimum number of external components were needed to build a complete system.
31-457: The AY-3-8500 was the first version. It played seven Pong variations. The video was in black-and-white, although it was possible to colorize the game by using an additional chip, such as the AY-3-8515. Six selectable games for one or two players were included: In addition, a seventh undocumented game could be played when none of the previous six was selected: Handicap, a hockey variant where
62-572: A 14.31818 MHz 4 × colorburst clock by 7, producing 2.04545 MHz. It featured independent video outputs for left player, right player, ball, and playground+counter, that were summed using resistors, allowing designers to use a different luminance for each one. It was housed in a standard 28-pin DIP . Some of the dedicated consoles employing the AY-3-8500 (there are at least two hundred different consoles using this chip): The AY-3-8550
93-407: A chrominance subcarrier near 3.6 MHz was desirable. 227.5 = 455/2 times the line rate was close to the right number, and 455's small factors (5 × 7 × 13) make a divider easy to construct. However, additional interference could come from the audio signal . To minimize interference there, it was similarly desirable to make the distance between the chrominance carrier frequency and
124-470: A common QRP calling frequency in the 80-meter band , and its doubled frequency of 7.159 MHz is a common calling frequency in the 40-meter band . Tripling this frequency is also how FM radio circuits came to use a nominally 10.7 MHz intermediate frequency in superheterodyne conversion. Frequency domain In mathematics , physics , electronics , control systems engineering , and statistics ,
155-411: A discrete frequency domain. The discrete-time Fourier transform , on the other hand, maps functions with discrete time ( discrete-time signals ) to functions that have a continuous frequency domain. A periodic signal has energy only at a base frequency and its harmonics; thus it can be analyzed using a discrete frequency domain. A discrete-time signal gives rise to a periodic frequency spectrum. In
186-455: A field in which frequency-domain analysis gives a better understanding than time domain is music ; the theory of operation of musical instruments and the musical notation used to record and discuss pieces of music is implicitly based on the breaking down of complex sounds into their separate component frequencies ( musical notes ). In using the Laplace , Z- , or Fourier transforms, a signal
217-408: A frame rate of 30 Hz and 525 lines per frame, or 15750 lines per second. The audio was frequency modulated 4.5 MHz above the video signal. Because this was black and white, the video consisted only of luminance (brightness) information. Although all of the space in between was occupied, the line-based nature of the video information meant that the luminance data was not spread uniformly across
248-474: A pair of mathematical operators called transforms . An example is the Fourier transform , which converts a time function into a complex valued sum or integral of sine waves of different frequencies, with amplitudes and phases, each of which represents a frequency component. The " spectrum " of frequency components is the frequency-domain representation of the signal. The inverse Fourier transform converts
279-407: A sine wave of a different amplitude and phase. The response of a system, as a function of frequency, can also be described by a complex function. In many applications, phase information is not important. By discarding the phase information, it is possible to simplify the information in a frequency-domain representation to generate a frequency spectrum or spectral density . A spectrum analyzer
310-653: A situation where both these conditions occur, a signal which is discrete and periodic results in a frequency spectrum which is also discrete and periodic; this is the usual context for a discrete Fourier transform . The use of the terms "frequency domain" and " time domain " arose in communication engineering in the 1950s and early 1960s, with "frequency domain" appearing in 1953. See time domain: origin of term for details. Goldshleger, N., Shamir, O., Basson, U., Zaady, E. (2019). Frequency Domain Electromagnetic Method (FDEM) as tool to study contamination at
341-434: Is a device that displays the spectrum, while the time-domain signal can be seen on an oscilloscope . Although " the " frequency domain is spoken of in the singular, there is a number of different mathematical transforms which are used to analyze time-domain functions and are referred to as "frequency domain" methods. These are the most common transforms, and the fields in which they are used: More generally, one can speak of
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#1732783807345372-466: Is a list of consoles that use this chip: The AY-3-8610 was a major update from General Instruments. It played more games (10), like basketball or hockey , with higher-quality graphics. It was nicknamed "Superstar" by GI. It was in black and white, although it was possible to add color by using an additional AY-3-8615 chip. Prior to producing the 8610, GI created the AY-3-8600. The pin configuration
403-426: Is described by a complex function of frequency: the component of the signal at any given frequency is given by a complex number . The modulus of the number is the amplitude of that component, and the argument is the relative phase of the wave. For example, using the Fourier transform , a sound wave , such as human speech, can be broken down into its component tones of different frequencies, each represented by
434-413: The transform domain with respect to any transform. The above transforms can be interpreted as capturing some form of frequency, and hence the transform domain is referred to as a frequency domain. A discrete frequency domain is a frequency domain that is discrete rather than continuous . For example, the discrete Fourier transform maps a function having a discrete time domain into one having
465-470: The chrominance (color) signals, and in turn decode the color information. The most common use of colorburst is to genlock equipment together as a common reference with a vision mixer in a television studio using a multi-camera setup . In NTSC , its frequency is exactly 315/88 = 3.579 54 MHz with a phase of 180°. PAL uses a frequency of exactly 4.43361875 MHz, with its phase alternating between 135° and 225° from line to line. Since
496-447: The frequency domain refers to the analysis of mathematical functions or signals with respect to frequency (and possibly phase), rather than time, as in time series . Put simply, a time-domain graph shows how a signal changes over time, whereas a frequency-domain graph shows how the signal is distributed within different frequency bands over a range of frequencies. A complex valued frequency-domain representation consists of both
527-435: The frequency domain ; it was concentrated at multiples of the line rate. Plotting the video signal on a spectrogram gave a signature that looked like the teeth of a comb or a gear, rather than smooth and uniform. RCA discovered that if the chrominance (color) information, which had a similar spectrum, was modulated on a carrier that was a half-integer multiple of the line rate, its signal peaks would fit neatly between
558-399: The AY-3-8600 chip: Colorburst Colorburst is an analog and composite video signal generated by a video-signal generator used to keep the chrominance subcarrier synchronized in a color television signal. By synchronizing an oscillator with the colorburst at the back porch (beginning) of each scan line , a television receiver is able to restore the suppressed carrier of
589-404: The audio carrier frequency a half-integer multiple of the line rate. The sum of these two half-integers implies that the distance between the frequency of the luminance carrier and audio carrier must be an integer multiple of the line rate. However, the original NTSC standard, with a 4.5 MHz carrier spacing and a 15750 Hz line rate, did not meet this requirement: the audio was 285.714 times
620-415: The colorburst signal has a known amplitude, it is sometimes used as a reference level when compensating for amplitude variations in the overall signal. SECAM is unique in not having a colorburst signal, since the chrominance signals are encoded using FM rather than QAM , thus the signal phase is immaterial and no reference point is needed. The original black and white NTSC television standard specified
651-547: The frame rate to 30/1.001 ≈ 29.9700 Hz, and placed the color subcarrier at 227.5/286 = 455/572 = 35/44 of the 4.5 MHz audio subcarrier. An NTSC or PAL television's color decoder contains a colorburst crystal oscillator . Because so many analog color TVs were produced from the 1960s to the early 2000s, economies of scale drove down the cost of colorburst crystals, so they were often used in various other applications, such as oscillators for microprocessors or for amateur radio : 3.5795 MHz has since become
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#1732783807345682-426: The frequency-domain function back to the time-domain function. A spectrum analyzer is a tool commonly used to visualize electronic signals in the frequency domain. A frequency-domain representation may describe either a static function or a particular time period of a dynamic function (signal or system). The frequency transform of a dynamic function is performed over a finite time period of that function and assumes
713-400: The function repeats infinitely outside of that time period. Some specialized signal processing techniques for dynamic functions use transforms that result in a joint time–frequency domain , with the instantaneous frequency response being a key link between the time domain and the frequency domain. One of the main reasons for using a frequency-domain representation of a problem is to simplify
744-420: The line rate. While existing black and white receivers could not decode a signal with a different audio carrier frequency, they could easily use the copious timing information in the video signal to decode a slightly slower line rate. Thus, the new color television standard reduced the line rate by a factor of 1.001 to 1/286 of the 4.5 MHz audio subcarrier frequency, or about 15734.2657 Hz. This reduced
775-404: The magnitude and the phase of a set of sinusoids (or other basis waveforms) at the frequency components of the signal. Although it is common to refer to the magnitude portion (the real valued frequency-domain) as the frequency response of a signal, the phase portion is required to uniquely define the signal. A given function or signal can be converted between the time and frequency domains with
806-462: The mathematical analysis. For mathematical systems governed by linear differential equations , a very important class of systems with many real-world applications, converting the description of the system from the time domain to a frequency domain converts the differential equations to algebraic equations , which are much easier to solve. In addition, looking at a system from the point of view of frequency can often give an intuitive understanding of
837-403: The peaks of the luminance data and interference was minimized. It was not eliminated, but what remained was not readily apparent to human eyes. (Modern televisions attempt to reduce this interference further using a comb filter .) To provide sufficient bandwidth for the chrominance signal, yet interfere only with the highest-frequency (and thus least perceptible) portions of the luminance signal,
868-399: The player on the right has a third paddle. This game was implemented on very few systems. The AY-3-8500 was designed to be powered by six 1.5 V cells (9 V). Its specified operation is at 6-7 V and a maximum of 12 V instead of the 5 V standard for logic. The nominal clock was 2.0 MHz, yielding a 500 ns pixel width. One way to generate such a clock is to divide
899-451: The qualitative behavior of the system, and a revealing scientific nomenclature has grown up to describe it, characterizing the behavior of physical systems to time varying inputs using terms such as bandwidth , frequency response , gain , phase shift , resonant frequencies , time constant , resonance width , damping factor , Q factor , harmonics , spectrum , power spectral density , eigenvalues , poles , and zeros . An example of
930-515: Was the next chip released by General Instruments. It featured horizontal player motion, and a composite video output. It was pin compatible with the AY-3-8500. It needed an additional AY-3-8515 chip to output video in color. Six selectable games for one or two players were included: The AY-3-8550 used the No Connect pins from the AY-3-8500, so it was possible to put an AY-3-8550 on an AY-3-8500 (without horizontal movement), and vice versa. This
961-494: Was the same as the 8610, but it was missing the two rifle/target games, bringing the total number of games down to 8. The 10 selectable games for this chip included: The AY-3-8610 featured a completely different pinout. It, too, required an external crystal oscillator. It still had separate video output pins, and removed the dedicated sync pin. This is a list of consoles that use the AY-3-8610: Some consoles that use