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Hypermedia Online Publishing: the Transformation of the Scholarly Journal

4.2.2 Multimedia facilities

Early computers (including early personal computers) were largely limited to displaying textual information. Text is only a fraction (albeit a large one) of the possible universe of information that one might wish to present. Current entry-level computers now routinely come equipped with the following features to support multimedia information forms and delivery mechanisms:

sufficient CPU power to decompress and process complex compressed information streams (including streaming audio and video)
colour display screens with at least 800 by 600 pixel resolution and 16-bit (= 65,535 discrete colours) pixel depth
built-in CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) drives, usually operating at least at 6 times the rotation speed of audio CD's (and hence providing faster access to computer data encoded on CDROMs)
built-in sound card (or equivalent) for processing sound output and input
built-in or external speakers for playing sound data.

These features can now start to be assumed by those who wish to deliver content to display on these hardware platforms. It should be pointed out, though, that the resolution of current display screens (at about 90 dots per inch or dpi) is still significantly inferior even to low-end printing devices (300 dpi).

Last modified: Monday, 11-Dec-2017 14:38:21 AEDT