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Sony's CXA Chroma Encoders
Sony's Chroma Encoders provided the video (and sometimes S-video) output of pretty much every modern game console, from SNK, Sony, Sega and others. There are three chips in this series:
- CXA1145
- CXA1645
- CXA2075
The 1145 is the first chip, and it doesn't offer S-video output. It was used in most early consoles, up to and including the Genesis and Neo Geo. The 1645 powered many later consoles, including the Genesis3, Saturn and NeoGeo CD/CDZ. The 2075 was never used in a console as far as I know, however it was considered for use in Sega's Saturn (it used too much power and had to be dropped).
The CXA2075 is the most powerful chip, requiring far fewer external components, and producing better output. Micomsoft used it in later revisions of their X-AV2s encoding product. According to one of the chip's designers it was pretty amazing. It was a drop-in replacement for the 1645, it didn't need an external circuit, and it produced much better output.
- this page could probably use some PDF links.