Computer Graphics

Graphics Systems Cont

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

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

Raster scan display processor

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

Horizontal and Vertical

Deflection Voltages

Register Y

Memory Addresses

Pixel Register

Frame Buffer

Basic Video Controller Refresh Operations

Intensity

Working of Video Controller

the x register is set to 0 and the y register is set to ymax.

The value stored in the frame buffer for this pixel position is then
retrieved and used to set the intensity of the CRT beam.
Then the x register is incremented by 1, and the process repeated for
the next pixel on the top scan line.
This procedure is repeated for each pixel along the next line by
resetting x register to 0 and decrementing the y register by 1.
Pixels along this scan line are then processed in turn, and the
procedure is repeated for each successive scan line.
After cycling through all pixels along the bottom scan line y=0, the
video controller resets to he first pixel position on the top scan line
and the refresh process starts over

Raster Scan Display Processor

Display Processor
Memory

CPU

Frame
Buffer
Display
Processor

Video
Controller

Monitor

System
Memory

System Bus

I/O Devices

Architecture of a raster graphics systems with a display processor

Raster Scan Display Processor

Following figure shows one way to setup the organization of a raster

system containing a separate display processor, sometimes
referred to as a graphics controller or a display coprocessor.
The purpose of the display processor is to free the CPU from the
graphics chores.
A major task of the display processor is digitizing a picture definition
given in an application program into a set of pixel-intensity values
for storage in the frame buffer. This digitization process is called scan
conversion.

Raster-Scan Characters

Defined as a grid
of pixel positions

Defined as a
curve outline

Raster Scan Characters

Graphics commands specifying straight lines and other geometric

objects are scan converted into a set of discrete intensity points.
Scan converting a straight line segment, for example, means that we
have to locate the pixel positions closest to the line path and store the
intensity for each position in the frame buffer.
Characters can be defined with rectangular grids, as shown in
following figure, or they can be defined with curved outlines shown in
the right hand side figure given below.
The array size for character grids can vary from about 5 by 7 to 9 by
12 or more for higher-quality displays.
A character grid is displayed by superimposing the rectangular grid
pattern into the frame buffer at a specified coordinate position.
With characters that are defined as curve outlines, character shapes
are scan converted into the frame buffer.

Random-Scan Systems

Architecture of a simple random scan system

Random Scan Systems

An application program is input and stored in the system memory

along with a graphics package.
Graphics commands in the application program are translated by the
graphics package into a display file stored in the system memory.
This display file is then accessed by the display processor to refresh
the screen.
The display processor cycles through each command in the display
file program once during every refresh cycle. Sometimes the display
processor in a random scan system is referred to as a display
processing unit or graphics controller.

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

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) was very slow
Shared Memory Buffer Architecture (SMBA)
DVMT, Dynamic Video Memory Technology, found on Intel
chip set 810 and 815
DVMT integrates the graphics controller 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
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
Zaps the PC energy
Transfer went through the ISA bus (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
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
Modern video cards made for 3D gaming use expensive
high-end RAM to secure a sufficient bandwidth

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.