Lesson plan
Multimedia computer
A multimedia computer is a computer that is optimized for multimedia performance. Early home computers lacked the power and storage necessary for true multimedia. The games for these systems, along with the demo scene, were able to achieve high sophistication and technical polish using only simple, blocky graphics and digitally generated sound. The Amiga 1000 from Commodore International has been called the first multimedia computer. Its groundbreaking animation, graphics and sound technologies enabled multimedia content to flourish. Famous demos such as the Boing Ball and Juggler showed off the Amiga's abilities. Later the Atari ST series and Apple Macintosh II extended the concept; the Atari integrated a MIDI port and was the first computer under US$1000 to have 1 megabyte of RAM, which is a realistic minimum for multimedia content, and the Macintosh was the first computer able to display true photorealistic graphics as well as integrating a CD-ROM drive, whose high capacity was essential for delivering multimedia content in the pre-Internet era. While the Commodore machines had the hardware to present multimedia of the kinds listed above, they lacked a way to create it easily. One of the earliest authoring systems on the market for creating and deploying multimedia content can be found in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution and is called VirtualVideo.…
Article summary
A multimedia computer is a computer that is optimized for multimedia performance. Early home computers lacked the power and storage necessary for true multimedia. The games for these systems, along with the demo scene, were able to achieve high sophistication and technical polish using only simple, blocky graphics and digitally generated sound. The Amiga 1000 from Commodore International has been called the first multimedia computer. Its groundbreaking animation, graphics and sound technologies enabled multimedia content to flourish. Famous demos such as the Boing Ball and Juggler showed off the Amiga's abilities. Later the Atari ST series and Apple Macintosh II extended the concept; the Atari integrated a MIDI port and was the first computer under US$1000 to have 1 megabyte of RAM, which is a realistic minimum for multimedia content, and the Macintosh was the first computer able to display true photorealistic graphics as well as integrating a CD-ROM drive, whose high capacity was essential for delivering multimedia content in the pre-Internet era. While the Commodore machines had the hardware to present multimedia of the kinds listed above, they lacked a way to create it easily. One of the earliest authoring systems on the market for creating and deploying multimedia content can be found in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution and is called VirtualVideo.…
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.