X-Nico

unusual facts about Graphics hardware


Graphics hardware

An integrated graphics card, usually by Intel for use in their computers, is bound to the motherboard and shares RAM(Random Access Memory) with the CPU, reducing the total amount of RAM available.



see also

AmigaBASIC

AMOS BASIC, developed by François Lionet, was a commercial language which provided extensive support for the Amiga's graphics hardware and was designed primarily for games programming.

Gemsvnc

This is desirable when one is using VNC for a customer service or training tool, or where special graphics hardware (such as OpenGL) is being used so that a normal vncserver would not work.

HD View

Developed by Microsoft Research's Interactive Visual Media group, HD View uses current graphics hardware to provide smooth panning and zooming of images and to handle the transformation of a panoramic image back into the appearance of a natural 3D illusion.

High-level emulation

Emulating such an architecture programmatically on a PC, characterised by the emphasis put on floating-point operations, and specialised graphics hardware with memory separate from the system memory would be extremely difficult, especially taking into account the scarcity of documentation typical for specialised, proprietary hardware.

Mode X

Mode X is an alternative video graphics display mode of the IBM VGA graphics hardware that was popularized by Michael Abrash, first published in July 1991 in Dr. Dobb's Journal, republished in chapters 47-49 of Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book (now freely available online).

SGI Onyx

The Onyx's basic system architecture is based on the SGI Challenge servers, but with the notable inclusion of graphics hardware.

SGI Onyx2

The Onyx2's basic system architecture is based on the Origin 2000 servers, but with the inclusion of graphics hardware.

SGI Prism

Released in April 2005, the Prism's basic system architecture was based on the Altix 3000 servers, but with graphics hardware.