Galileo Technology Inc, San Jose has a flexible buffer that fits true-colour imaging applications. The GT-24001 Color Pixel Formatter consists of three 32-bit wide, 1,104-locations deep, synchronous First In First Out buffers. It supports gray-scale and bi-level output directly. Bi-directionality enables two modes of operation. Under print mode, data flows from frame buffer bus to video bus and vice versa under scan mode. A single pin defines the direction of operation. It can interface to a variety of frame buffer formats on one side, to a variety of printer-scanner video formats on the other, while providing significant buffering between them, and executing necessary format conversions in both print and scan directions. By using a planar mode, in which each colour is stored in a separate address space in the frame buffer, up to 25% of memory size can be saved. It runs at frequencies up to 33MHz on both frame buffer bus and video bus; out now in small quantities it is $90 for 5,000-up.
