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Graphics Chips
A video display controller (VDC), also called a display engine or display interface, is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computing or game system. Some VDCs also generate an audio signal, but that is not their main function. VDCs were used in the home computers of the 1980s and also in some early video picture systems. The VDC is the main component of the video signal generator logic, responsible for generating the timing of video signals such as the horizontal and vertical synchronization signals and the blanking interval signal. Sometimes other supporting chips were necessary to build a complete system, such as RAM to hold pixel data, ROM to hold character fonts, or some discrete logic such as shift registers. Most often the VDC chip is completely integrated in the logic of the main computer system, (its video RAM appears in the memory map of the main CPU), but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dual-ported Video RAM
Dual-ported video RAM (VRAM) is a type of dual-ported RAM derived from dynamic RAM (DRAM), and was historically used to store the framebuffer in graphics card. Unlike conventional DRAM, VRAM features two ports: one for the CPU and one for the video display controller (VDC). This architecture allows simultaneous access—while the CPU writes data, the VDC can read it independently. This eliminates wait states ensuring smoother performance and efficient screen rendering. VRAM was widely used between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. As newer high-performance memory technologies emerged, dual-ported VRAM was gradually phased out. Today, the term "VRAM" can refer to modern types of video memory as well, which can lead to confusion with this original dual-ported variant. History Early computers used dynamic RAM to store video data to be output to a conventional television or a simple conversion of a television that accepted composite video input. To work with such a display it is e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture
Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) is the third-generation Amiga graphic chipset, first used in the Amiga 4000 in 1992. Before release AGA was codenamed Pandora by Commodore International. AGA was originally called AA for Advanced Architecture in the United States. The name was later changed to AGA for the European market to reflect that it largely improved the graphical subsystem, and to avoid trademark issues. AGA is able to display graphics modes with a depth of up to s per pixel. This allows for in indexed display modes and (18-bit) in Hold-And-Modify (HAM-8) modes. The palette for the AGA chipset has 256 entries from (24-bit), whereas previous chipsets, the Original Chip Set (OCS) and Enhanced Chip Set (ECS), only allow out of 4096 or 64 colors in Amiga Extra Half-Brite (EHB mode). Other features added to AGA over ECS are super-hi-res smooth scrolling and 32-bit fast page memory fetches to supply the graphics data bandwidth for 8 bitplane graphics modes and wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the successful Sega Genesis, Genesis. The Saturn has a dual-Central processing unit, CPU architecture and eight processors. Its games are in CD-ROM format, including several Porting, ports of arcade games and original games. Development of the Saturn began in 1992, the same year Sega's groundbreaking 3D computer graphics, 3D Sega Model 1, Model 1 arcade hardware debuted. The Saturn was designed around a new CPU from the Japanese electronics company Hitachi. Another video display processor was added in early 1994 to better compete with the 3D graphics of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony's forthcoming PlayStation (console), PlayStation. The Saturn was initially successful in Japan but not in the United States, where it was hindered by a surprise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bit Blit
Bit blit (also written BITBLT, BIT BLT, BitBLT, Bit BLT, Bit Blt etc., which stands for ''bit block transfer'') is a data operation commonly used in computer graphics in which several bitmaps are combined into one using a ''boolean function''. The operation involves at least two bitmaps: a "source" (or "foreground") and a "destination" (or "background"), and possibly a third that is often called the "mask". The result may be written to a fourth bitmap, though often it replaces the destination. The pixels of each are combined using a program-selectable ''raster operation'', a bit-wise boolean formula. The most obvious raster operation overwrites the destination with the source. Others may involve AND, OR, XOR, and NOT operations. The Commodore Amiga's graphics chipset (and others) could combine three source bitmaps using any of the 256 possible 3-input boolean functions. Modern graphics software has almost completely replaced bitwise operations with more general mathematical o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blitter
A blitter is a circuit, sometimes as a coprocessor or a logic block on a microprocessor, dedicated to the rapid movement and modification of data within a computer's memory. A blitter can copy large quantities of data from one memory area to another relatively quickly, and in parallel with the CPU, while freeing up the CPU's more complex capabilities for other operations. A typical use for a blitter is the movement of a bitmap, such as windows and icons in a graphical user interface or images and backgrounds in a 2D video game. The name comes from the bit blit operation of the 1973 Xerox Alto, which stands for bit-block transfer. A blit operation is more than a memory copy, because it can involve data that's not byte aligned (hence the ''bit'' in ''bit blit''), handling transparent pixels (pixels which should not overwrite the destination), and various ways of combining the source and destination data. Blitters have largely been superseded by programmable graphics process ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sprite (computer Graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene, most often in a 2D video game. Originally, the term ''sprite'' referred to fixed-sized objects composited together, by hardware, with a background. Use of the term has since become more general. Systems with hardware sprites include arcade video games of the 1970s and 1980s; game consoles including as the Atari VCS (1977), ColecoVision (1982), Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom (1983), Sega Genesis, Genesis/Mega Drive (1988); and home computers such as the TI-99/4 (1979), Atari 8-bit computers (1979), Commodore 64 (1982), MSX (1983), Amiga (1985), and X68000 (1987). Hardware varies in the number of sprites supported, the size and colors of each sprite, and special effects such as scaling or reporting pixel-precise overlap. Hardware composition of sprites occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a cathode-ray tube, without i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NEC μPD7220
The High-Performance Graphics Display Controller 7220 (commonly μPD7220 or NEC 7220) is a video display controller and a Graphics processing unit, capable of drawing lines, circles, arcs, and character graphics to a bit-mapped display. It was developed by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in order to support the Kanji character set efficiently, which explains why the APC computer line had superior graphics compared to competing models. The chip was first used in the NEC N5200 and in later computers, such as the NEC PC-9801, APC II and APC III, the NECcomputer, the optional graphics module for the DEC Rainbow, the NCR Decision Mate V, the Tulip System-1, and the Epson QX-10. (Translation of "Grafik mit dem 7220 von NEC", ''mc'', 1986, H11, pp. 54-65) The μPD7220 was one of the first implementations of a graphics display processor as a single Large Scale Integration (LSI) integrated circuit chip, enabling the design of low-cost, high-performance video graphics cards such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3dfx
3dfx Interactive, Inc. was an American computer hardware company headquartered in San Jose, California, founded in 1994, that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units, and later, video cards. It was a pioneer in the field from the mid 1990s to 2000. The company's original product was the Voodoo Graphics, an add-in card that implemented hardware acceleration of 3D graphics. The hardware accelerated only 3D rendering, relying on the PC's current video card for 2D support. Despite this limitation, the Voodoo Graphics product and its follow-up, Voodoo2, were popular. It became standard for 3D games to offer support for the company's Glide API. Renewed interest in 3D gaming led to the success of the company's products and by the second half of the 1990s products combining a 2D output with 3D performance were appearing. This was accelerated by the introduction of Microsoft's Direct3D, which provided a single high-performance API that could be implemente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matrox Mystique
The Mystique and Mystique 220 were 2D, 3D, and video accelerator cards for personal computers designed by Matrox, using the VGA connector. The original Mystique was introduced in 1996, with the slightly upgraded Mystique 220 released in 1997. History Matrox had been known for years as a significant player in the high-end 2D graphics accelerator market. Cards they produced were Windows accelerators, and the company's Millennium card, released in 1995, supported MS-DOS as well. In 1996 '' Next Generation'' called Millenium "the definitive 2D accelerator." With regard to 3D acceleration, Matrox stepped forward in 1994 with their ''Impression Plus''. However, that card only could accelerate a very limited feature set, and was primarily targeted at CAD applications. The Impression could not perform hardware texture mapping, for example, requiring Gouraud shading or lower-quality techniques. Very few games took advantage of the 3D capabilities of Impression Plus, with the only known g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S3 ViRGE
The S3 ViRGE (Video and Rendering Graphics Engine) graphics chipset was one of the first 2D/ 3D accelerators designed for the mass market. Introduced in 1996 by then graphics powerhouse S3, Inc., the ViRGE was S3's first foray into 3D-graphics. The S3/Virge was the successor to the successful Trio64V+. ViRGE/325 was pin compatible with the Trio64 chip, retaining the DRAM-framebuffer interface (up to 4MB), and clocking both the core and memory up to 80 MHz. In Windows, Virge was benchmarked as the fastest DRAM-based accelerator of the era. The VRAM-based version, ViRGE/VX, was actually slower in lower resolutions, but had a faster RAMDAC to support high-resolution modes not available on the 325. Support Part of S3's marketing plan for the ViRGE included the "S3D" standard, stating that members of the ViRGE family carried the ''S3D Graphics Engine''. Games that supported ViRGE directly put this logo on their box so owners of the 3D card would know that it would run as wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
