A Blitter (acronym for BLock Image TransferrER) is a chip that specialises in bitmap data-transfer using bit blit methods. An integrated circuit (IC) is a thin chip consisting of at least two interconnected semiconductor devices, mainly transistors, as well as passive components like resistors. ... For the use of the term raster in radio regulation, see frequency raster. ... Bit blit (bitblt, blitting etc. ...

When first introduced the computer's CPU typically had difficulty moving the bitmaps around in memory fast enough to be able to use CPU-driven blitting as the primary method of character graphics display. For some time in the 1980s many home computers included either a co-processor or a special-purpose chip known as a blitter for this task. The CPU would send the bit blit operations to the blitter, which would then carry out the operation much faster than the CPU could. A drawing of the everyday computer. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... For the use of the term raster in radio regulation, see frequency raster. ... The terms storage (U.K.) or memory (U.S.) refer to the parts of a digital computer that retain physical state (data) for some interval of time, possibly even after electrical power to the computer is turned off. ... Bit blit (bitblt, blitting etc. ... The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... A co-processor is a secondary processor in a computer that handles tasks that the general-purpose CPU either cannot implement, or does not implement for efficiency reasons. ... An integrated circuit (IC) is a thin chip consisting of at least two interconnected semiconductor devices, mainly transistors, as well as passive components like resistors. ...

One of the first personal computers that used this solution was the Commodore Amiga. The Amiga's chipset included a blitter. On top of the ability to copy and manipulate large areas of graphics, the Amiga's blitter also included line drawing and area-filling hardware. Amiga is the name of a range of home/personal computers using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982. ... The Commodore Amiga Original Chip Set (OCS) is a chipset used in the earliest Amiga computers, from the 1985 Amiga 1000 onwards. ...

Some models of the Atari ST also included the BLiTTER, a similar chip to the Amiga version. Not only was the ST's blitter not as powerful as the Amiga's, but because it was introduced into the ST line near the middle of its lifetime not many developers made use of it, as the perceived user-base was small. The Atari 520 ST The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ...

Modern graphics processing units found on most graphics cards can be regarded as descendants of the early "blitters". GeForce 6600GT (NV43) GPU Radeon 9800 Pro (R350) GPU A Graphics Processing Unit or GPU (also occasionally called Visual Processing Unit or VPU) is the microprocessor of a graphics card (or graphics accelerator) for a personal computer or game console. ... A graphics card, video card, v card, video board, video display board, display adapter, video adapter, or graphics adapter [1] is a component of a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an image stored in memory to a signal that can be used as input for...

See also

• Bit blit