Blitter

The Atari ST Bit-Block Transfer Processor (BLiTTER) is a hardware implementation of the bit-block transfer (BitBlt) algorithm. BitBlt can be simply described as a procedure that moves bit-aligned data from a source location to a destination location through a given logic operation.

Applications

The BitBlt primitive that is implemented in the blitter can be used to perform such operations as:

• Area seed filling
• Rotation by recursive subdivision
• Slice and smear magnification
• Brush line drawing using Bresenham DDA
• Text transformations (eg. bold, italic, outline)
• Text scrolling
• Window updating
• Pattern filling

Programming

See Blitter manual and the Blitter "category".

The Blitter in TOS Machines

The blitter chip first became available in the Mega ST range, followed by the STE and Mega STE. It was also available as an upgrade for the standard ST range but not the TT.