The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) is a computer
graphics controller
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...
made by
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc.
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. was a manufacturer of computer peripherals for PCs and Macs founded in 1982.
History
Hercules was formed in 1982 in Hercules, California, by Van Suwannukul and Kevin Jenkins and was one of the major graphi ...
that combines
IBM's
text-only MDA
MDA, mda, or ''variation'', may refer to:
Places
* Moldova, a country in Europe with the ISO 3166-1 country code MDA Politics
* Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (2018), ruling coalition government in the Indian State of Meghalaya led by National Pe ...
display standard with a
bitmapped graphics
file:Rgb-raster-image.svg, upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through comb ...
mode. This allows the HGC to offer both high-quality text and graphics from a single card.
The HGC was very popular, and became a widely supported
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
display standard
Computer display standards are a combination of aspect ratio, display size, display resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. They are associated with specific expansion cards, video connectors and monitors.
History
Various computer displa ...
on
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...
s. The HGC standard was used long after more technically capable systems had entered the market, especially on
dual-monitor setups.
History
The Hercules Graphics Card was released to fill a gap in the IBM video product lineup. When the
IBM Personal Computer
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
was launched in 1981, it had two graphics cards available, the
Color Graphics Adapter
The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the ''Color/Graphics Adapter'' or ''IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter'', introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a de facto computer display ...
(CGA) and the
Monochrome Display And Printer Adapter (MDA). CGA offers low-resolution (320x200) color graphics and medium-resolution (640x200) monochrome graphics, while MDA offers a sharper text mode (equivalent of 720×350) but has no per-pixel addressing modes and is limited to a fixed
character set
Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using digital computers. The numerical values that ...
.
These adapters were quickly found to be inadequate by the market, creating a demand for a card that offers high-resolution graphics and text. The founder of
Hercules Computer Technology
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. was a manufacturer of computer peripherals for IBM PC compatible, PCs and Macintosh, Macs founded in 1982.
History
Hercules was formed in 1982 in Hercules, California, by Van Suwannukul and Kevin Jenkins and ...
, Van Suwannukul, created the Hercules Graphics Card so that he could work on his
doctoral thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
on an
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
using the
Thai alphabet
The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน ...
, impossible with the low resolution of CGA or the fixed character set of MDA. It initially retailed in 1982 for $499.
Hardware design
The original HGC is an
8-bit ISA card with 64KB of
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* Ra ...
, visible on the board as eight 4164 RAM chips, and a
DE-9 output compatible with the
IBM monochrome monitor used with the MDA. Like the MDA, it includes a
parallel
Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
Computing
* Parallel algorithm
* Parallel computing
* Parallel metaheuristic
* Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel
* Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of IBM ...
interface for attaching a printer.
The video output is 5V
TTL
TTL may refer to:
Photography
* Through-the-lens metering, a camera feature
* Zenit TTL, an SLR film camera named for its TTL metering capability
Technology
* Time to live, a computer data lifespan-limiting mechanism
* Transistor–transistor lo ...
, as with the MDA card.
Nominally, the Hercules card provides a horizontal scanning frequency of 18.425 ±0.500 kHz, and 50 Hz vertical.
It runs at two slightly different frequencies depending on whether in text or graphics mode, due to the slight difference in horizontal resolution.
Capabilities
Wikipedia logo displayed on a CRT monitor by a Hercules-compatible video card
Simulated Hercules image at 720x348 (no aspect ratio correction)
Simulated Hercules image with the correct aspect ratio (as would be seen on a 4:3 monitor)
The Hercules card provides two modes: an MDA-compatible monochrome text mode, and a pixel-addressable graphics mode at 720x348.
Modes:
* 80×25 text mode with 9×14 pixel font (effective resolution of 720×350)
* 720×348 graphics mode
The text mode of the Hercules card uses the same signal timing as the MDA text mode.
The Hercules graphics mode is similar to the CGA high-resolution (640×200) two-color mode; the
video buffer contains a packed-pixel bitmap (eight pixels per byte, one bit per pixel) with the same byte format—including the pixel-to-bit mapping and byte order—as the CGA two-color graphics mode, and the video buffer is also split into interleaved banks, each 8 KB in size.
However, because in the Hercules graphics mode there are more than 256 scanlines and the display buffer size is nearly 32 KB (instead of 16 KB as in all CGA graphics modes), four interleaved banks are used in the Hercules mode instead of two as in the CGA modes. Also, to represent 720 pixels per line instead of 640 as on the CGA, each scanline has 90 bytes of pixel data instead of 80.
The 64 KB RAM of the HGC can hold two graphics display pages. Either page can be selected for display by setting a single bit in the Mode Control Register. Another bit, in a configuration register exclusive to the HGC, determines whether the second 32 KB of RAM on the HGC is accessible to the CPU at the base address B8000h. This bit is reset at system reset (e.g. power-on) so that the card does not conflict with a CGA or other color card at address B8000h.
Use
In text mode, the HGC appears exactly like an MDA card. Graphics mode requires new techniques to use. Unlike the MDA and CGA, the
PC BIOS
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...
provides no intrinsic support for the HGC. Hercules developed extensions, called ''HBASIC'', for
IBM Advanced BASIC to add HGC support and Hercules cards came with ''Graph X'', a
software library
In computer science, a library is a collection of non-volatile resources used by computer programs, often for software development. These may include configuration data, documentation, help data, message templates, pre-written code and subr ...
for Hercules graphical-mode support and
geometric primitive
In vector computer graphics, CAD systems, and geographic information systems, geometric primitive (or prim) is the simplest (i.e. 'atomic' or irreducible) geometric shape that the system can handle (draw, store). Sometimes the subroutines that ...
s.
Popular IBM PC programs such as
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...
spreadsheet,
AutoCAD
AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers. ...
computer-aided drafting,
Pagemaker
Adobe PageMaker (formerly Aldus) is a discontinued desktop publishing computer program introduced in 1985 by the Aldus Corporation on the Apple Macintosh. The combination of the Macintosh's graphical user interface, PageMaker publishing software, ...
and
Xerox Ventura desktop publishing, and
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0
''Microsoft Flight Simulator'', commonly known as ''Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0'' or ''FS2'', is a flight simulator video game. It was released in 1984 for the IBM PC as a self-booting disk.
Publication history
In May 1984, Microsoft releas ...
came with their own drivers to use the Hercules graphics mode.
Though the graphics mode of the Hercules card is not CGA-compatible, it is similar enough to the two CGA graphics modes that with the use of third-party
TSRs it can also work with programs written for the CGA card's standard graphics modes. As the Hercules card does not actually have color-generating circuitry, nor can it connect to a color monitor, color appears as simulated greyscale in varying
dithering patterns.
Clones
Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to:
Places
* Clones, County Fermanagh
* Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland
Biology
* Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...
of the Hercules appeared, including generic models at very low prices, usually without the printer port. Hercules advertisements implied that use of generic Hercules clones can damage the monitor.
Reception
The Hercules Graphics Card was very successful, especially after Lotus 1-2-3 supported it, with one half million units sold by 1985. Hercules Computer Technology had 18% of the graphics card market, second to IBM. Hercules-compatible graphics cards shipped as standard hardware with most
PC clones. As a
de facto standard
A ''de facto'' standard is a custom or convention that has achieved a dominant position by public acceptance or market forces (for example, by early entrance to the market). is a Latin phrase (literally " in fact"), here meaning "in practice b ...
, support in software was widespread.
Later cards
The Hercules Graphics Card was followed by several other Hercules cards.
; Hercules Graphics Card Plus (HGC+): This card was released in June 1986 by
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc.
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. was a manufacturer of computer peripherals for PCs and Macs founded in 1982.
History
Hercules was formed in 1982 in Hercules, California, by Van Suwannukul and Kevin Jenkins and was one of the major graphi ...
at an original retail price of $299.
It was an enhancement of the HGC, adding support for redefinable fonts called RAMFONT in
MDA
MDA, mda, or ''variation'', may refer to:
Places
* Moldova, a country in Europe with the ISO 3166-1 country code MDA Politics
* Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (2018), ruling coalition government in the Indian State of Meghalaya led by National Pe ...
compatible text mode.
It was based around a specialty chip designed by
Hercules Computer Technology
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. was a manufacturer of computer peripherals for IBM PC compatible, PCs and Macintosh, Macs founded in 1982.
History
Hercules was formed in 1982 in Hercules, California, by Van Suwannukul and Kevin Jenkins and ...
, unlike the original Hercules Graphics Card which used standard components. Software support included
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...
v2,
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...
1.1,
Framework II and
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms includin ...
3.
; Hercules Network Card Plus: In 1988 Hercules released the Network Card Plus, a variant of the Graphics Card Plus with an integrated
TOPS
Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom.
TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), S ...
/FlashTalk-compatible network adapter. Like the HGC+ it supported RAMFONT, but lacked a printer port.
;
Hercules InColor Card The Hercules InColor Card (GB222) is an IBM PC compatible 8-bit ISA graphics controller card released in April 1987 by Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. It supported a 16-colour (from a palette of 64) 720×350 display on an EGA monitor and softwa ...
: April 1987. Included color capabilities similar to the
EGA, with 16 colors from a palette of 64. It retained the same two modes (80×25 text with redefinable fonts and 720×348 graphics), and was backward compatible with software written for the earlier monochrome Hercules cards.
; Hercules Color Card: Not to be confused with the InColor Card. A CGA-compatible video board. This board could coexist with the HGC and still allow both graphics pages to be used. It would detect when the second graphics page was selected and disable access to its own memory, which would otherwise have been at the same addresses.
Clone boards
Other boards offered Hercules compatibility.
*
SiS 86C12, 86C22
*
ATI
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
Small Wonder Graphics Solution, 18700, Graphics Solution Plus
*
Tamarack Microelectronics Tamarack Microelectronics was a designer and manufacturer of mixed-signal integrated circuits, primarily Ethernet communications devices. It was founded in 1987 in Hsichih
Xizhi () is an inner city district in eastern New Taipei City in nort ...
TD3088A, TD3088A2, TD3088A3, TD3010, RY-3301, TD3010
*
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to:
* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below).
** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...
V6366C-F, V6363-F, V6363
*
Winbond
Winbond Electronics Corporation () is a Taiwan-based corporation founded in 1987. It produces semiconductors and several types of integrated circuits, most notably Dynamic RAM, Static RAM, Serial flash, microcontrollers, and personal computer ...
W86855AF, W86855AF
*
NEC
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...
μPD65042GD
*
Tseng Labs
Tseng Laboratories, Inc. (also known as Tseng Labs or TLI) was a maker of graphics chips and controllers for IBM PC compatibles, based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and founded by Jack Hsiao Nan Tseng.
Founded in 1983, Tseng Labs' first product ...
ET1000-A
*
DFI
DFI (Diamond Flower Inc) is a Taiwanese industrial computer company with headquarters in Taipei. It designs, develops, manufactures, and sells industrial motherboard, industrial PCs, System-on-Module, industrial displays, and ODM/OEM services. ...
MG-150
*
Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
HD6445P4, HD6845SP
* RAM MCG2502, MCG2502
* Proton PT6121T
*
Acer M3127
*
Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs was an American public corporation that designed and built high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital ...
53C101+53C280A
* CM607P
Certain later models of the
Tandy 1000
The Tandy 1000 is the first in a line of IBM PC workalike home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center chains of stores.
Overview
In December 1983, an executive with Tandy C ...
(such as the 1000 TL and SL) and the
Epson Equity
The Epson Equity series of IBM Compatible Personal Computers was manufactured from 1985 until the early '90s by Epson Inc. Epson was well known for its dot matrix printers at the time and the Equity series represents their entry into the growing PC ...
contained circuitry built into their CPU boards that supported Hercules display modes in addition to their standard CGA modes.
File:ET1000-A.JPG, Tseng ET-1000 Hercules compatible board
File:ATI Hercules Card 1986 (cropped and transparent).png, ATI
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
Hercules compatible card from 1986
File:HGCclone.jpg, A Tamarack Microelectronics Tamarack Microelectronics was a designer and manufacturer of mixed-signal integrated circuits, primarily Ethernet communications devices. It was founded in 1987 in Hsichih
Xizhi () is an inner city district in eastern New Taipei City in nort ...
HGC-compatible card
File:Uncle-RAY.jpg, Uncle-RAY Hercules compatible graphics card
See also
*
Orchid Graphics Adapter
The Orchid Graphics Adapter is a graphics board for IBM PC compatible computers, released in 1982 by Orchid Technology.
It was intended to provide high resolution (at the time) monochrome graphic abilities to computers limited to text displays ...
*
Plantronics Colorplus
The Plantronics Colorplus is a graphics card for IBM PC computers, first sold in 1982. It is a superset of the then-current CGA standard, using the same monitor standard and providing the same pixel resolutions. It was produced by Frederick Ele ...
*
IBM Monochrome Display Adapter
The Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA, also MDA card, Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter, MDPA) is IBM's standard video display card and computer display standard for the IBM PC introduced in 1981. The MDA does not have any pixel-addressabl ...
*
Color Graphics Adapter
The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the ''Color/Graphics Adapter'' or ''IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter'', introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a de facto computer display ...
*
List of display interfaces
This is a list of physical RF and video connectors and related video signal standards.
By signal standard
Physical connectors
D-subminiature family
DVI-related
DIN/Mini-DIN
Others
See also
*Computer display standard
Computer dis ...
*
List of defunct graphics chips and card companies
{{Unreferenced, date=June 2010
During the 1980s and 1990s a relatively large number of companies appeared selling primarily 2D graphics cards and later 3D. Most of those companies have subsequently disappeared, as the increasing complexity of GPUs ...
References
Further reading
* Wilton, Richard (1987) ''Programmer's Guide To PC and PS/2 Video Systems'', Microsoft Press,
* Hercules Computer Technology (1987) ''Hercules Compatibility Guide'' (a leaflet)
"Hercules graphics" definition, ''Wi-FiPlanet.com''
How to Print Hercules Graphics SCREEN 3 to an Epson Printer ''
Microsoft.com
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
''
Hercules Monochrome Graphics Adapter ''
Everything2.com
Everything2 (styled Everything2 or E2 for short) is a collaborative Web-based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written material. E2 is moderated for quality, but has no formal policy on subject matter. Writing on ...
''
{{Computer display standard
Graphics cards
Computer display standards
Monochrome Display Adapter
Computer-related introductions in 1982