Graphics Hardware
(Hill: not covered. Foley & van Dam: Ch. 18, p. 855-922)
History
- 1968
- Evans & Sutherland, flight simulation
3D vector pipeline, matrix multiplier, clipping
- 1982
- Clarke, Geometry Engine
IRIS: Integrated Raster Imaging System -- SGI
- 1983
- VRAM: Texas Instruments
video random access memory for frame buffers
- 1994
- 3D hardware support for PCs
- 2001
- vertex shaders, pixel shaders
- future ??
- further IC integration
compression
multiple levels of detail
Common characteristics
- z-buffer projective rendering, gouraud shading
- multiple floating or fixed-point multipliers
- high bandwidth framebuffer access
- tuned to particular `average scene'
Framebuffer Design
DRAM
- one transistor per bit
- requires refresh
- cheap
- slow: ~ 80ns
VRAM
RAMDACs
Geometry Subsystem
Rasterization Subsystem
- polygon, span, and edge processors
- 3d RAM
- texture memory
