1. EET 450 - Advanced Digital Display Adapters

2. A vital part to the system provides the visual part of the Human/Computer interface In boot process, goes through a variety of steps from mono-text through the highest color mode available Display unit must support the output

3. Board Types VGA boards - standard now Super VGA - follow VESA standards for high resolutions Graphic Accelerator - include 2D drawing instructions 3D accelerator board - includes 3D/rendering commands

4. Adapters Process - depends on commands from the CPU to display information –source of image may be from RAM, Disk, or created ‘on the fly’ –Accelerator chips provide hardware support for the ‘on the fly’ image generation –all other image forms are restricted by bus speed.

5. Technologies that affect speed –Chip-sets for accelerators –BUS technology –Register width of D/A card –Memory technology used VRAM –Designed to be accessed by both input and output devices at the same time

6. Video Memory SGRAM – Synchronous Graphics RAM –Not dual ported – used on moderate to high end cards WRAM – Window RAM –Faster & less expensive than VRAM –Supports full motion video 3-D RAM – designed to improve simulated three dimensional representations

7. –Resolution support 3 basic resolutions 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 See Table 9-8 –Color support (mode) 24 bit or 32 - 16.7 Mhues –Speed rating resolution vs frame rate –Bus bandwidth ISA – 16 bit, PCI - 32, AGP – 64 bit

8. Other Issues BIOS support OS support MMX Technology (3DNow) –Graphics accelerator in the CPU (Pentium)

9. Video Controllers CRTC – CRT Controller –Motorola 6845 – single chip control of traditional monochrome display. –Pages of text information, erase, scroll, etc. VGA Controller –Added control registers to allow complex control of detailed color images with greater color depth Cursor control –Included in hardware

10. RAM DAC Random Access Memory – Digital to Analog Converter –Provides analog control voltage for color control. Video information must be stored in MEMORY –Memory contents (text or graphic information) is converted to display

11. BIOS PC Video Bios –Original PC design provided CRT controls in BIOS VGA Bios –Extended BIOS controls to include color palettes & LCD control information Super VGA –VESA Bios extensions

12. Mode Numbers VESA Standard modes –See Table 16.5

13. Interfaces ISA VESA Local Bus UMA – Unified Memory Arch. VGA Auxiliary Video Connector –Card edge connector on VGA Board VESA feature Connector/ Advanced Feature Connector

14. Interfaces VESA Media Channel –Uses PCI Standard for video control features Advanced Graphics Port

15. Speed Comparison Each of the standard ports for Video Adapters are classified as ‘Local Bus’

16. FeatureVL-BusPCIAGP Speed132 MB/s 533M/1.06G Slots34/51 PnPNoYes CostInexpensiveHigherSim. to PCI Use486Pentium/P6PII/III etc StatusObsoleteCurrent

17. Other Video Issues TV Tuner Video Capture –NTSC –PAL –SECAM –HDTV

18. Assignment Review ‘Flat Panel Displays’ Write 1-2 page ‘summary’ of information found - include periodicals –SEE WEB PAGE