Isle Graphics
Published 01 Aug 2025, Updated 22 Jan 2026 (DRAFT)
In part 1 of Building Isle, we design graphics hardware for our computer. Starting with graphics lets us do interesting things immediately, tackle important concepts, and have something compelling to do with our CPU when it arrives. Each new component gets a complete working design, so you can clearly see how it works and adapt it to your own projects. These Building Isle chapters are initial sketches; I'll expand and refine them as Isle develops.
If you're new to the project, read Isle FPGA Computer for an introduction. See Isle Index for more pages.
The Display chapter explores how we drive a display, whether it's a computer monitor or a television. Bitmap Graphics adds video ram (vram), extending our graphics capabilities and preparing for the 2D Drawing engine that renders lines and shapes. Text mode gives us high-resolution Unicode text that complements the bitmap graphics.
Isle code, docs, and tests are available from the Isle git repo under the MIT license. This blog, including Building Isle, is subject to standard copyright restrictions; don't republish it without permission.
Next step: Display or Isle Index