Computer Graphics

Lecture 02
Graphics Systems
 Graphics Systems

There exist various graphic systems:

RASTER-SCAN SYSTEMS
RANDOM-SCAN SYSTEMS
GRAPHICS CARDS OR DISPLAY ADAPTORS
GRAPHICS SOFTWARE

We are going to discuss the working of each system.

 Raster-Scan Systems
 In simple organization; frame buffer can be anywhere in
the system memory
 Video controller accesses the frame buffer to refresh the
screen

Architecture of a simple raster graphics system

 Raster-Scan Systems
 Video controller or display controller : A device that
controls display information

 Raster scan display processor : A processor used

specifically for executing process related to
graphics/display

 Frame Buffer : The part of system memory that is being

used for storing graphics/display information

 CRT : Cathode Ray Tube used to fire beam on screen

 Video Controller

Architecture of a raster system with a fixed portion of

system memory reserved for the frame buffer.
 Video Controller
Raster Scan Generator

Register X Register Y

Memory Addresses Pixel Register Intensity

Frame Buffer

Basic Video Controller Refresh Operations

 Video Controller
 Raster Scan Generator : Generates the value of x and y registers

 The value of X is set to 0 and Y is set to MAX

 Memory buffer is accessed on the location according to X and Y

register value. That memory location consist of RGB(red, blue, green)
code which tells us what colour to fire on screen. This way 1st pixel of
the screen is refreshed.

 Then increment the value of X by 1 and refresh the second pixel and
so on. When value of X reaches maximum, decrement the value of Y
by 1 and set X to 0 again.

 Pixel Register : In order to store all the colours needed for screen
refreshing in one go.
 Raster Scan Display Processor
Display Processor Frame Video
Buffer Monitor
Memory Controller

Display System
CPU
Processor Memory

System Bus

I/O Devices

Architecture of a raster graphics systems with a display processor

Raster-Scan Characters

Defined as a grid Defined as a

of pixel positions curve outline
 Random-Scan Systems

Architecture of a simple random scan system

 Random-Scan Systems
• Refreshes just the part of display that is needed instead of whole
display

• This information is stored in a display file

• Might damage the part of screen that is being refreshed over and
over again. For this reason we slow the refresh cycle and introduce
delays between each cycle.
 Graphics Card or Display Adaptors
A video card is typically an adaptor, a removable expansion
card in the PC. Thus, it can be replaced!

A video display Adaptor which is the special printed circuit

 
board that plugs into one of the several expansion slots
present on the mother board of the computer. A video display
Adaptor is referred to as a video card as well.
                                                                       

The video card can also be an integral part of the system

board; this is the case in certain brands of PCs and is always
the case in laptops and clear preference for the replaceable
video card in some PCs.
 Graphics Card or Display Adaptors
A number of display Adaptors are available with varying
capabilities specially Intel systems support following Adaptors:

Monochrome Adaptor (MA)

 
Hercules Adaptor (HA)
Color Graphics Adaptor (CGA)
Enhanced Graphics Adaptor (EGA)
                                                                       

Multicolor Graphics Adaptor (MCGA)

Video Graphics Adaptor (VGA)
Super Video Graphics Adaptor (SVGA)
Extended Graphics Adaptor (XGA)
 Monochrome Adaptor

 
Simplest and the first available Adaptor
Can display only text and that too in single color
                                                                       
 Hercules Adaptor

 
Emulates the Monochrome Adaptor
Can also operate in a graphics mode
Also supports visuals but black and white.
                                                                       
 Color Graphics Adaptor

Can display text and graphics in more than one color

Text mode is supported with 25 rows by 80 columns

 
Two resolutions available:
•320 * 200 with 4 colors from a palette of 16
•640 * 200 with 2 colors
                                                                       
 Color Graphics Adaptor

One drawback is that it produces:

 
•Flicker
•Snow
                                                                       
 Enhanced Graphics Adaptor

 Introduced by IBM in 1984 as alternative to CGA

 EGA could emulate all functions of CGA and MA

 
 palette of 64 colors
                                                                       
 Enhanced Graphics Adaptor

 Designed to avoid:
• Snow

 
• Flicker

 A serious limitation is that it supports only write operation

                                                                       

and no read operations

 Multicolor Graphics Adaptor

Designed to emulate the CGA

 
To maintain compatibility with all the CGA modes
Provides two new graphics modes
                                                                       

• 640 * 480 in 2 colors

• 320 * 200 in 256 colors
 Video Graphics Adaptor

Supports all the display modes of MA, CGA, MCGA

 
Provides graphics mode
• 640 * 480 in 16 colors
                                                                       
 Super Video Graphics Adaptor

 SVGA refers to enhancements to the VGA

 SVGA has different capabilities on different cards for

 
example:
• 800 * 600 and 1024 * 768
• Another may have same resolution but more colors
                                                                       

SVGA required different driver for different cards

 Extended Graphics Adaptor

XGA evolved from the VGA provides:

• greater resolution

 
•More colors
•Much better performance
XGA has its own graphics processor and bus mastering
                                                                       

XGA offers 2 new modes:

• 640 * 480 with 16 bit colors
• 1024 * 768 with 8 bit colors
 Video Card Supports the CPU
The video card provides a support function for the CPU. It is a
processor like the CPU. However it is especially designed to
control screen images.

                                                                         
 RAM on the Video Card

 How much RAM? That is significant for color depth at the

 
highest resolutions
                                                                       

 Which type of RAM? This is significant for card speed

 3D - lots of RAM

 To support the demand for high quality 3D performance

new cards are coming with a frame buffer of 16 or 32 MB

 
RAM

 They use the AGP interface for:

                                                                       

• better bandwidth

• better access to the main memory

 VRAM

Most cards use very fast editions of ordinary RAM (SDRAM

or DDR)

Some high end cards (like Matrox Millennium II) earlier used

 
special VRAM (Video RAM) chips.

In principle, a VRAM cell is made up of two ordinary RAM

                                                                       

cells, which are "glued" together. Therefore, you use twice

as much RAM than otherwise.
 VRAM

VRAM has features:

 Costs twice

 Double cell allows the video processor to simultaneously

read old and write new data on the same RAM address

 VRAM is capable of reading and writing simultaneously

due to the dual port design.
 UMA and DVMT

 Unified memory architecture (UMA) and Shared Memory

Buffer Architecture (SMBA), both were very slow because it

 
used system memory

 DVMT, Dynamic Video Memory Technology, found on Intel

                                                                       

chip set 810 and 815

 DVMT is integrated in mother board and uses part of the

system RAM as frame buffer
 The RAMDAC
All traditional graphics cards have a RAMDAC chip

RAMDAC converts the signals from digital to analog form

                                                                         
 The RAMDAC
The recommendation on a good RAMDAC go like this:

External chip not integrated in the VGA chip

 
Clock speed 250 - 360 MHz

                                                                       
 Heavy Data Transport
 The original VGA cards were unintelligent. It could only
display the image according to information provided by CPU.

 CPU had to make all necessary calculations to create the

 
screen image
                                                                       

 Screen image of 1024*768 in 16 bit color is a 1.5 MB bit map

1024 x 768 x 2 bytes
refresh rate of 75 HZ

 Transfer went through the ISA bus which was of limited

width
 Accelerator Cards
 Appeared in the early nineties

 Now all cards are accelerated and they are connected to

 
the CPU through high speed buses like PCI and AGP.

 No need to calculate and design the entire bit map from

                                                                       

image to image. Here the job of CPU is to just calculate the

difference between current image and next image and update
just that

 Built in algorithms for drawing lines, Windows, and other

image elements
 Accelerator Cards
 The AGP bus is an expanded and improved version of the PCI bus -
used for video cards only

 The CPU transfers instruction to AGP. AGP creates a bitmap and

displays image.

 
For new image the already existing bitmap is updated accordingly
                                                                       
 Accelerator Cards
A game in a resolution of 1280 x 1024 at 80 Hz
may need to move 400 MB of data each second
The calculation goes like this:

 
1280 X 1024 pixels x 32 bit (color depth) x 80
= 419,430,400 bytes = 409,600 kilobytes = 400 megabytes.
                                                                       
 Graphics Card

                                                                         
 Graphics Card

                                                                         
 Graphics Libraries
Graphics developers some time use 2D or 3D libraries to create
graphics rapidly and efficiently. These developers include game
developers, animators, designers etc.

The following libraries are commonly used among developers:

 FastGL
 OpenGL
 DirectX
 Others
 Advantages of Graphics Libraries
These libraries help developers to create fast and optimized
animations and also help to access features that are
available on video hardware.

Hardware manufacturers give support in hardware for

libraries

Famous manufacturers includes.. SIS, NVIDIA, ATI, INTEL

etc.
 Graphics Software

There are lot of 2D and 3D software are available in the

market. These software provide visual interface for creation
of 2D and 3D animation/ models, image creation. These
tools are under use of movie makers professional animators
and designers.

These tools are flash, maya, 3D studio max, adobe photo

shop, corel draw, image viewer, paintbrush etc.