Computer Graphics Hardware

Basic Graphics Hardware

 Display devices
 Video controller
 Memory
 CPU
 System bus
 Basic Definitions

 Raster: A rectangular
array of points or dots.
 Pixel (Pel): One dot or
picture element of the
raster
 Scan line: A row of Video raster devices display an
image by sequentially drawing
pixels out the pixels of the scan lines
that form the raster.
 Frame Buffer
 A frame buffer is
characterized by its size, x, y,
and pixel depth.
 the resolution of a frame
buffer is the number of pixels
in the display. e.g. 1024x1024
pixels.
 Bit Planes or Bit Depth is the Bilevel or monochrome displays have 1
bit/pixel (128Kbytes of RAM)
number of bits corresponding 8bits/pixel -> 256 simultaneous colors
to each pixel. This determines 24bits/pixel -> 16 million simultaneous
the color resolution of the colors
buffer.
 Output Technology
 Calligraphic Displays
 also called vector, stroke or line drawing graphics
 lines drawn directly on phosphor
 display processor directs electron beam according to
list of lines defined in a "display list“
 phosphors glow for only a few micro-seconds so lines
must be redrawn or refreshed constantly
 deflection speed limits number of lines that can be
drawn without flicker.
 Output Technology (2/3)

 Raster Display
 Display primitives (lines, shaded regions,
characters) stored as pixels in refresh buffer
(or frame buffer)
 Electron beam scans a regular pattern of
horizontal raster lines connected by horizontal
retraces and vertical retrace
 Video controller coordinates the repeated
scanning
 Pixels are individual dots on a raster line
 Display Technology

 2D Displays  3D Displays
 CRT  Stereo presentation
 LCD (raster) (raster/vector)
 plasma screen (raster)  Vibrating mirror (vector)
 Light valves (raster)  Helical rotor (vector)
 Micromirror (raster)  LED plate (raster)
 Projected laser (vector)  Photoactive cube
 Direct laser (vector) (raster)
 Parabolic mirror (raster)
Display Technologies: Cathode Ray
tube
 Display Technologies
 Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs)
 Some of the common display device today
 Evacuated glass bottle (last of the vacuum tubes)
 Heating element (filament)
 Electrons pulled towards anode focusing cylinder
 Vertical and horizontal deflection plates
 Beam strikes phosphor coating on front of tube
 Display Technologies: CRTs
 Vector Displays
 First computer displays: basically an
oscilloscope
 Control X,Y with vertical/horizontal plate
voltage
 Often used intensity as Z
 Disadvantage
 Display needs constant update to avoid fading
 Display Technologies: CRTs
 Raster Displays
 Black and white television: an oscilloscope with a fixed scan
pattern: left to right, top to bottom
 Paint entire screen 30 times/sec
 Actually, TVs paint top-to-bottom 60 times/sec, alternating
between even and odd scanlines
 This is called interlacing.
 To paint the screen, computer needs to synchronize with the
scanning pattern of raster
 Solution: special memory to buffer image with scan-out
synchronous to the raster. We call this the framebuffer.
 Comparing Raster and Vector
 Advantages of vector:
 very fine detail of line drawings (sometimes curves),
whereas raster suffers from jagged edge problem
due to pixels.
 geometry objects (lines) whereas raster only handles
pixels
 eg. 1000 line plot: vector dispaly computes 2000
endpoints
 raster display computes all pixels on each line
 Comparing Raster and Vector
 Advantages of raster:
 cheaper
 colours, textures, realism
 unlimited complexity of picture: whatever you
put in refresh buffer, whereas vector complexity
limited by refresh rate
 Display Technology: Color CRTs
 Color CRTs are much more complicated
 Requires manufacturing very precise geometry
 Uses a pattern of color phosphors on the screen:

Delta electron gun arrangement In-line electron gun arrangement

 Display Technology: Color CRTs
 Color CRTs have
 Three electron guns
 A metal shadow mask to differentiate the
beams
 Display Technology: LCDs
 Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs)
 LCDs: organic molecules, naturally in crystalline state,
that liquefy when excited by heat or E field
 Crystalline state twists polarized light 90º.
 LCDs
 Transmissive & reflective LCDs:
 LCDs act as light valves, not light emitters, and thus
rely on an external light source.
 Laptop screen: backlit, transmissive display
 Palm Pilot/Game Boy: reflective display
 Plasma
 Plasma display panels
 Similar in principle to
fluorescent light tubes
 Small gas-filled capsules
are excited by electric field,
emits UV light
 UV excites phosphor
 Phosphor relaxes, emits
some other color
 Advantages of LCDs
 Physical Size
 Compact and Lightweight
 Space saving
 Can be mounted on a wall or panel
 Display Size
 Available at comparable in screen size as traditional CRT
 LCD monitors are typically sized by their actual viewable
diagonal measurement, but CRTs typically are not.
 Viewing
 Cause less eyestrain
 Does not flicker or glare
 Advantages of LCDs
 Power Consumption and Radiation Emission
 Doesn’t not emit Radiation
 Not subject to Electromagnetic Interference
 Consume less energy and more durable
 A typical CRT losses approximately 50% of its brightness after
10,000 hours. An LCD bulb will maintain its brightness anywhere
from 25,000 to 50,000 hours.
 LCD consumes fewer watts than a CRT. LCD will use an average
30 watts compared to 120 watts for the CRT.
 Can reduce electric bill by 40-85%.
 Uses a combination of fluorescent-based backlight, color filters,
transistors, and liquid crystal to create and illuminate images. It
blocks light rather emit light
 Advantages of CRT
 Color
 Most are capable of displaying unlimited colors.

 Resolution
 Multiple video Resolutions.

 Response Time
 Faster response time. Critical to people who watch

videos or play games on their PC’s.

 The fastest LCD’s response time is about 25

milliseconds while a CRT’s is about 13 milliseconds.

 Viewing Angle
 Has a larger viewing angle
 Disadvantages of LCDs
 Resolution
 Displays Native Resolutions (Resolution that it displays

best)
 Viewing Angle
 Smaller, needed to be viewed more directly from the

front.
 From the side the images on an LCD screen can seem

to disappear, or invert colors.

 Price
 Upfront cost, it is more costly but will conserve energy in

the long run.

 Disadvantages of LCDs
 Installation
 Need a plug interface to connect to the computer.

 Some require a special digital plug-interface in

order to work .
 Problem: is that this plug is not available on most

computers, so another video card or adapter must

be purchased to plug these LCD monitors into the
computer.
 Response Time
 It is much slower. The delay can cause a ghosting

effect on images it displays.

 Disadvantages of CRTs
 Physical size
 Takes more desktop space.

 Power Consumption and Radiation Emission

 Consumes more energy

 Emits harmful radiation. The metal shield behind the

glass of your monitor protects your body from a flood of

radiation.
 It holds a dangerous electrical charge even after turned off

and can last up to several years and be hazardous and

even deadly to anyone who opens a CRT monitor casing.
 Know to cause fires due to electrical malfunctions and

excessive heat if the ventilation holes are accidentally

covered up.
 Input Devices
 Input devices
 Keyboards, button boxes, dials
 Mouse devices
 Trackballs and space balls
 Joysticks
 Digitizers
 Image scanners
 Touch panels
 Light pens
 Voice systems
 3D Gloves
 Hard Copy Devices

 Printers
 Non-Impact printers --- Ink jet; laser;
 Xerographic;
 Electrostatic;
 Dye sublimation.
 Plotters
 Flatbed, Beltbed
 Multiple pens available
 Plotter `languages’
 Built in character sets, line styles etc.
 Pixels and Frames
 Images are created on television and computer
displays by combining thousands of little dots
(pixels) on the screen.
 Each set of pixels that fills the entire screen is called
a frame.
 Many individual still frames are shown every second,
so quickly that they blend together and we see
continuous motion.
 The number of different frames that are shown on
the screen every second relates to the refresh rate
 Pixels and Frames
 Each pixel in a color display is made up of three
colors: red, green and blue.
 Red, green and blue light combines in varying
intensities to allow each pixel to display all the colors
of the rainbow and thousands or millions of shades
in between.
 The number of shades of colors your computer can
display relates to the bit depth.
 Each frame is drawn one pixel at a time, line by line,
from left to right, top to bottom, just as you would
type a paper
 Resolution
 The number of pixels on a screen relates to
display's resolution.
 The more pixels there are on a screen, the
more detail can be seen in an image on the
screen. Higher resolution means smaller
pixels.
 If you have a High-Definition Television,
or HDTV, then the display has a higher-
resolution than a standard television.
Computer Display Resolution
Computer Display Resolution vs. Pixel Size

 The three most common resolutions for

computer displays are 640 x 480 (known as
VGA), 800 x 600 (known as Super VGA) and
1024 x 768 (known as XGA).
 Most CRT displays can handle all of these
resolutions, and many more.
 LCDs have a fixed number of pixels (usually at
least 1024 x 768) and can use software to
display resolutions below their fixed resolution
with a process called interpolation, but cannot
go above their fixed resolution.
 Computer Display Resolution
 In higher resolution, the display must fit more
pixels onto the screen , hence smaller pixels.
 An advantage of higher resolution is that you
will be able to fit more toolbars onto your
screen. The image below shows how a large
font will shrink on your display when you
switch to a higher resolution.
 Toolbars, menu bars and other objects on the
screen will also shrink proportionally.
Computer Display Resolution
 Refresh Rate and Frame Rate
 Pixels are drawn in rows across the screen from
upper left to lower right and the entire display
image, or frame, is updated numerous times per
second.
 The term for "times per second" is Hertz,
abbreviated Hz."
 The frequency at which the frames are displayed,
or refreshed, is called the Refresh Rate.
 There are two ways to refresh the
display: interlaced and progressive scan.
 Refresh Rate and Frame Rate
 Interlaced means that every other line is drawn
each time the display refreshes.
 For example lines 1, 3, 5, ... 457 and 459 are
drawn in one frame, and lines 2, 4, 6, ... 458 and
460 are drawn in the next frame.
 The frames are drawn so quickly that they are
blended together, or interlaced.
 Refresh Rate and Frame Rate
 Progressive scan displays refresh every line of
the frame each time the display refreshes.
 Computer monitors generally have variable refresh
rates, with 60 Hz being the lowest.
 Displays can only refresh the frames up to a
certain point, but our eyes do not notice any
difference after about 85 Hz.
 A refresh rate of 85 Hz will give a good image
without noticeable flicker to most peoples' eyes.
 Refresh Rate and Frame Rate
 When we talk about movies or animation, we
refer to the frame rate.
 The frame rate relates directly to the number of
frames of the movie that are shown each second.
 Frame rates are given in units of fps (frames per
second).
 For example, movies in the theater are shown at
a frame rate of 24 fps.
 The refresh rate is always greater than or equal
to the frame rate.
 Bit Depth (Color)
 Bit depth relates to how many different colors
each pixel can display.
 Computer monitors were originally monochrome
- meaning that each pixel could only display two
colors such as black and white.
 Monochrome monitors have now been replaced
with RGB monitors.
 Each pixel on an RGB monitor contains three
dots - one for each primary color.
 Bit Depth (Color)
 RGB stands for the primary additive colors Red,
Green and Blue, which combine to form every
possible color.
 One bit color is what monochrome monitors use.
 A bit is a binary digit, which has two possible
values - zero and one.
 A bit can represent colors, for example, black (0)
and white (1).
 The more bits are used per pixel, the more colors
it can display
 Video Memory
 It used to be very simple to figure out how much
video memory you needed.
 You just took the total number of pixels on the screen
and multiplied that by the amount of memory that
was used by each pixel.
 Nowadays, with 3-D graphics, texture rendering and
other fancy stuff like that, computers use the video
memory for a lot more than just displaying colored
pixels.
 However, we can still use the formula for computers
that do not have fancy video cards designed to
handle 3-D graphics.
 Video Memory
 Bits and Bytes represent a quantity of information,
whether it be data flowing across a network
or stored on a hard drive.
 There are eight bits in every byte.
 A bit is the tiniest unit of data.
 Bit can only have two values, zero or one.
 These values are easily represented in computers
with electricity either off (0) or on (1).
 How do bits and bytes relate to computer
graphics?
 Computer graphics are nothing more than data, composed
of little bits.
 Your computer needs enough storage in its video memory.
 Q: How do you calculate the amount of video memory a
computer needs to display a given resolution at a given bit
depth?
 A: The bit depth represents how many bits of memory
each pixel uses.
 So, you multiply the number of pixels on your screen by
the bit depth.
 To get the memory in bytes, just divide by eight
(remember: 8 bits per byte).
 Example 1

How much memory is required for an 800 by 600

display resolution with thousands of colors per
pixel (16 bit)?

800 * 600 * (16 bits) / (8 bits / byte) = 960,000

bytes, or about 1 MB
You would need 1 MB of video memory to run your
monitor at 800 by 600 with thousands of colors.
 Example 2

Consider three different raster systems with resolutions of 640 x 480,

1280 x 1024, and 2560 x 2048.
i) What size is frame buffer (in bytes) for each of these systems to
store 12 bits per pixel?
 Because eight bits constitute a byte, frame-buffer sizes of the

systems are as follows:

 640 x 480 x 12 bits / 8 = 450KB;

 1280 x 1024 x 12 bits / 8 = 1920KB;

 2560 x 2048 x 12 bits / 8 = 7680KB;

ii) How much storage (in bytes) is required for each system if 24 bits
per pixel are to be stored?
 Similarly, each of the above results is just doubled for 24 (12×2)

bits of storage per pixel.

 Quiz

 Consider a raster system with the resolution of

1024 x 768 pixels and the color palette calls for
65,536 colors.
 What is the minimum amount of video RAM that
the computer must have to support the above-
mentioned resolution and number of colors?
 Solution
 Recall that the color of each pixel on a display is represented
with some number of bits. Hence, a display capable of showing
up to 256 colors is using 8 bits per pixels (i.e., “8-bit color”).
 Notice, first that the color palette calls for 65,536 colors. This
number is but 216, which implies that 16 bits are being used to
represent the color of each pixel on the display.
 The display’s resolution is 1024 by 768 pixels, which implies
that there is a total of 786,432 (1024 × 768) pixels on the
display. Hence, the total number of bits required to display any
of 65,536 colors on each of the screen’s 786,432 pixels is
12,582,912 (786,432 × 16).
 Dividing this value by 8 yields an answer of 1,572,864 bytes.
Dividing that value by 1,024 yields an answer of 1,536 KB.
Dividing that value by 1,024 yields an answer of 1.5 MB.
 Example 3
 Consider two raster systems with the resolutions of 640 x 480 and 1280 x
1024.
i) How many pixels could be accessed per second in each of these systems
by a display controller that refreshes the screen at a rate of 60 frames per
second?
 Ans. Since 60 frames are refreshed per second and each frame consists

of 640 x 480 pixels, the access rate of such a system is (640 x 480) * 60 =
1.8432 x 107 pixels/second.
 Likewise, for the 1280 x 1024 system, the access rate is (1280 x 1024) *

60 = 7.86432 x 107 pixels/second.

ii) What is the access time per pixel in each system?

 Ans. According to the definition of access rate, we know that the access

time per pixel should be

 1/(access rate). Therefore, the access time is around 54

nanoseconds/pixel for the 640 x 480 system, and the access time is
around 12.7 nanoseconds/pixel for the 1280×1024 system.