Hercules Computer Technology Inc, Berkeley, California, the number one name in graphics boards for the IBM Personal, will this week announce an advanced colour graphics board that puts up 16 colours from a palette of 64, but is fully compatible with all programs that run on existing Hercules and compatible boards. According to Microbytes Daily, with the InColor Card, an application will display up to 3,072 characters in 16 colours, or up to 12,288 characters in two colours; it provides the 720 by 348 resolution as existing Hercules boards but offers an extended version of the RamFont display mode. Universal drivers included with the InColor Card will enable software to be transferred between a monochrome system using a Hercules Graphics Card Plus, and a colour system with an InColor Card. To add colour to existing applications, programmers will have to add code to the program’s device driver that changes the registers that control centre elements of the colour display. The AutoCAD driver, included with the board, takes about 500 bytes of code. The initial release of the InColor Card will include drivers for Auto-CAD, Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Symphony, and Microsoft Windows, and will need a multisync colour monitor, will list for $500 and be available on May 1.
