ANTIC
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ANTIC (Alpha-Numeric Television Interface Circuit) was an early video system chip used in the Atari 8-bit family of microcomputers as well as some of Atari's video game consoles of the 1980s.
ANTIC was a microprocessor dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. It was a true microprocessor, in that it had an instruction set to run programs (called display lists) to process data.
The display list and the display data were written into RAM by a 6502-compatible CPU. The ANTIC retrieved that information from RAM using a technique known as direct memory access (DMA). It processed the higher level instructions in the display list and translated these instructions into a real-time stream of simpler instructions to the CTIA chip, a combination providing for 12 graphics modes. With the more advanced GTIA, 16 modes were available.
An important part of the ANTIC's features was the capability of sprite handling (processing movable bitmap objects). Atari referred to the ANTIC's sprite techniques as Player-Missile Graphics, a term inspired from the most common use of sprites in 2D video games.
ANTIC was also the name of a computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family.pl:ANTIC