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What are the typical functions/acceleration that this type of GPU supports other than the blitter mentioned in the post?

I'm very surprised to see so few chips being used; doesn't 7400 logic only give you ~4-8 gates per chip?!?

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The 74-series is not just plain gates, there are multiplexers, latches, counters, adders, and even complete ALUs.

+ shift registers, amplifiers ("bus drivers"), tri-state thingies, carry generation circuits (for faster ALUs, especially when you connect several ALU chips together for wider additions).

I believe his GPU (or VDP in the old terminology, GPU seems more specific to 3D coprocessors) can do horizontal and vertical scrolling and 100 sprites.

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