CTIA and GTIA

NTSC GTIA chip manufactured by Okidata

Color Television Interface Adaptor[1] (CTIA) and its successor Graphic Television Interface Adaptor[1] (GTIA) are custom chips used in the Atari 8-bit computers and Atari 5200 home video game console. In these systems, a CTIA or GTIA chip works together with ANTIC to produce the video display. ANTIC generates the playfield graphics (text and bitmap) while CTIA/GTIA provides the color for the playfield and adds overlay objects known as player/missile graphics (sprites). Under the direction of Jay Miner, the CTIA/GTIA chips were designed by George McLeod with technical assistance of Steve Smith.[2][3][4]

Color Television Interface Adaptor and Graphic Television Interface Adaptor are names of the chips as stated in the Atari field service manual.[1] Various publications named the chips differently, sometimes using the alternative spelling Adapter[5][6] or Graphics,[3] or claiming that the "C" in "CTIA" stands for Colleen/Candy[5] and "G" in "GTIA" is for George.[3][5][6][7]

  1. ^ a b c Atari Home Computer Field Service Manual - 400/800 (PDF). Atari, Inc. pp. 1–10. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  2. ^ Neubauer, Doug (2009-06-20). "The Atari Years, by Doug Neubauer. Star Raiders, Solaris and Pokey". DougNeubauer.com.
  3. ^ a b c Sherer, Robin Alan (June 1988). "GTIA Joystick Painter - Powerful Atari Animation Tool". ANTIC. 7 (2): 37. ISSN 0113-1141. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
  4. ^ US patent 4296476, Mayer, Steven T.; Miner, Jay G.; Neubauer, Douglas G.; Decuir, Joseph C., "Data processing system with programmable graphics generator", issued 1 981-10-20, assigned to Atari, Inc. 
  5. ^ a b c Patchett, Craig; Sherer, Robin (1984). "Special Chips and ROM". The Master Memory Map for the Atari. Reston, Va.: Reston Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8359-4242-2. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
  6. ^ a b Mace, Scott (1982-03-15). "Atari quietly switches to a 16-color graphics chip". InfoWorld. 4 (10). Palo Alto, CA: Popular Computing: 3–4. ISSN 0199-6649. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  7. ^ Chamberlain, Craig (July 1982). "Atari Video Graphics And The New GTIA". Compute! (26): 124. ISSN 0194-357X. Retrieved 2011-01-24.