Sunnyvale, California-based Diamond Computer Systems Inc has launched SpeedStar 24X, a dynamic memory chip-based graphics processor board that it claims is up to 15 times faster than Super VGA when used in Graphical User Interface environments such as Windows 3 and AutoCAD: it supports 8-, 16- and 24-bit colour and comes standard with 1Mb memory at $250; it is based on the Western Digital Corp graphics processor, which off-loads graphic functions used in Windows, such as bit block transfers and hardware cursor support to leave the main CPU free to run the applications; it comes bundled with the DLD386 Deluxe accelerated display list driver for AutoCAD 10 and 11 from Panacea Inc, Diamond’s Turbo Windows optimised driver for Windows 3; and an imaging program to exploit the 16.7m colours that it supports.
