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| A F R |
|
A graphical load-balancing scheme where two graphics cards are used to
render alternate frames of the display. This configuration increases the detail
of the 3D objects each card can render,as each card handles half of the total
number of frames. Essentially,each card has more time to render a scene,
delivering a noticeable increase in 3D detail. This type of graphical operation
is only available in Radeon® CrossFire graphics cards running Microsoft®
Direct 3D® and OpenGL® games or applications. | | ADSL2+ MODEM |
| The DSL642WLG is an ideal product combining ADSL2+ Modem with built-in four ports 10/100 Mbps switch and 802.11g Wireless Router for LAN connectivity.
The Diamond DSL642WLG Full Rate ADSL2+ Router provides the full rate maximum 24Mbps download speed and maximum 1024Kbps upload speed with built in support for Triple Play service (Voice,Data and Video). The built-in DHCP server assigns IP addresses to all workstations on your LAN. The DSL642WLG is a stand alone device that can be simply configured through Web-based management. The DSL642WLG Auto Configuration Wizard makes installation as easy as 1...2...3
Complies with FCC part15 & part68 regulations and CE approval..
| | AGP |
| Accelerated graphics port. The standard PC interface for videocards. The current spec is AGP 8x,which provides about 2.1GB/s of bandwidth between the videocard and motherboard chipset. | | AGP APERTURE SIZE |
| The amount of system memory an AGP videocard can use for storing 3D information. | | AGP FAST WRITES |
| Technology that lets a program directly access a video cards memory,resulting in faster performance. | | ALIASING |
| The tendency of a straight,diagonal line to form jagged edges? on a computer monitor. | | ALPHA BLENDING |
| Graphics technique that simulates transparency,such as in smoke or fog. | | ANALOG TV |
| This is the TV signal that is obtained by attaching a coaxial TV cable to your ATI TV Wonder. Analog TV gives you standard definition,analog TV channels. | | ANISOTROPIC FILTERING |
| Filtering technique that automatically blends and corrects perspective. Preferable over,but slower than,bilinear or trilinear filtering. | | ANTI-ALIASING |
| A method that smooths out the jagged edges of a curved object. A black
curved line on a white background displayed on a computer screen will have
some jaggedness along its edges due to the inherent limitations of using
discrete pixels to display the image. Anti-aliasing smooths out this jaggedness
by filling in the white spaces between the jagged edges with varying shades
of grey. | | API |
| A set of pre-defined instructions that allows programmers quick access to routine tasks. Since APIs automate certain functions,they become attractive to game programmers who have to program the same tasks to occur repeatedly. | | ARTIFACT |
| Distorted or otherwise undesirable video output such as tearing (gaps between textures),ghosting (blurring of images),erroneous pixels,or image flickering. | | ASIC CORE |
| Pronounced ay-sik,and short for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit,a chip designed for a particular application (as opposed to the integrated circuits that control functions such as RAM in a PC). ASICs are built by connecting existing circuit building blocks in new ways. | | ASPECT |
| A group of related features in ATIs Catalyst® Control Center software. For
example,the Color aspect clusters together controls that handles gamma,
brightness,contrast,and other features relating directly to the display of color.
Similarly,the 3D aspect provides a set of related controls dealing with such
features as anti-aliasing,anisotropic filtering,mipmap details levels,and
more. | | ASPECT RATIO |
|
The proportions of a display are expressed as a ratio of its width and height.
Common ratios include 4:3 for TVs and CRTs,5:4 for LCDs,and 16:9 for
widescreen displays. | | ATI OVERDRIVE |
| ATI Overdrive maximizes the performance of the GPU by dynamically
altering its speed to an optimal level depending on usage. An on-chip thermal
sensor constantly monitors the temperature of the GPU,allowing for
maximum clock speed to be maintained while avoiding overheating. | | AUDIO PLAYBACK |
| The act or process of replaying a newly made audio or video recording,as to monitor quality. | | AUTOMATIC COLOR CONTROL |
| a VET (see Video Enhancement Technology below) that ensures that colors remain true to the actual image
| | AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL |
| a VET (see Video Enhancement Technology below) that provides faster brightness adjustments. Especially effective during video scenes that change rapidly between bright and dark scenes.
| | AVIVO TRANSCODER |
| The method by which Avivo is able to transcode video files from one format to another,such as a high definition WMV down to a PSP video format. |
| BACK BUFFER |
| A type of offscreen memory used to provide smooth video and 2D graphics
acceleration. This technique uses two frame buffers,so the process is often
referred to as double-buffering.? While the contents of one buffer are
displayed,a second buffer,called the back? buffer,holds the frame being
worked on. In thisway,users will only see complete,smooth frames displayed
onscreen. | | BILINEAR FILTERING |
| Filtering technique that blends adjacent textures. Provides less visual quality than trilinear or anisotropic filtering,albeit with more speed. | | BILINEAR FILTERING |
|
This filtering method reduces the blockiness caused when zooming into a 3D
surface that is at a right angle to the viewer. A newspaper photo examined
closely enough will show that the picture is made up of tiny dots. If the photo
was enlarged it would start to look blocky? and less distinct. This is also a
problem for computer-generated images,especially for surface details. | | BIT DEPTH |
| Refers to the number of data bits required to store color information about a
pixel. Larger bit depth means a greater range of color information is capable
of being encoded into each pixel. For example,1 binary bit of memory can
only encode to either 0? or 1.? So a graphical bit depth of 1 means that the
display can only show two colors,the black and white of a monochrome
display. Four-bit color depth is capable of displaying 16 colors because there
are only 16 different combinations of 4 bits (0000?,0001?,0010?... to
1111?). Sixteen-bit color is capable of reproducing 65,36 colors,24-bit
color can display up to 16,77,16 individual colors,and 30-bit color can
display up to one billion individual colors. | | BITMAP |
|
A bitmap is a graphic or character representation composed of individual
pixels,arranged horizontally in rows. A monochrome bitmap uses one bit per
pixel (bpp). Color bitmaps may use up to 32bpp,depending on the color depth
selected. | | BIZ VIEW |
| Designed for the multitasker to enhance business productivity,all the way to up to corporate enterprise use,the Biz View Graphics solution can organize,control,deliver,monitor,and communicate your work more effectively. These cards will focus on the business user with an emphasis on productivity,extended life and low heat. | | BLUERAY |
| Optical Content delivery system. More as a format. Supports High Deinition: 1920×1080 24p or 50/60i HDTV | | BRIGHTNESS |
| The amount of white or black that is applied to all colors onscreen. By making
the screen brighter? you are adding more white to it. This should not be
confused with luminosity,which measures the actual light level emitted from
the computer display.
| | BUFFER |
| A name referring to portions of on-board video memory. One large buffer is
always used to display images to the screen; this is the display buffer.? The
rest of offscreen memory is typically used by applications as back buffers,
z-buffers,and texture buffers. | | BUMP-MAP |
| A 3D texture with feel.? Imagine a cobblestone street: a regular texture would have 2D stones drawn onto a flat surface and shaded to give the impression of the desired size. A very effective technique,but one that requires a lot of processing power. |
| CATALYST CONTROL CENTER |
| Catalyst Control Center is the successor technology to the Catalyst software formerly available only through the Windows® Control Panel. It has a new user interface,providing a more interactive means of controlling such things as 2D and 3D performance while providing immediate feedback using a more intuitive graphical user interface. | | CATALYST® CONTROL CENTER |
|
Catalyst® Control Center is the successor technology to the Catalyst® software
formerly available only through the Windows® Control Panel. It has a new
user interface,providing a more interactive means of controlling such things
as 2D and 3D performance while providing immediate feedback using a more
intuitive graphical user interface.
| | COAXIAL CABLE |
| Coaxial cable,also known as RF cable,is the cable type that carries the signal of various devices such as TVs and VCRs and is the type of cable that connects to the Cable TV jack.
| | COLOR COMPONENT |
| Three color components”Red,Green,and Blue”combine in various
intensities to determine the color of each pixel on the screen. The values of
each color component are graphically represented by a corresponding color
curve. | | COLOR CORRECTION |
| Correct discrepancies between the real color value and the way a screen
displays it. Color discrepancies can be caused by a variety of sources,
including the lighting conditions in the work area and gradual shifts in color
over time on monitors or flat panel displays.
| | COLOR CURVE |
| A color curve represents all possible intensity values (from 0 to 255) for a
color component (Red,Green or Blue). For each color curve,the horizontal
axis represents the input value (the color value a program wants to display),
while the vertical axis represents the output value (the color value that the
display driver will write to the screen). A value of 0 (in the lower left corner)
represents the complete absence of that particular color,while a value of 255
(in the upper right corner) represents the full? strength for that color. | | COMPONENT VIDEO |
| Typically used on DVD players and HDTV systems,component video is a standard Red/Green/Blue (RGB) color signal for televisions. The signal is split and compressed into separate luminance and color values”luminence
(Y?),red minus luminence (R-Y),and blue minus luminence (B-Y). The value for green is not transmitted. The display device automatically fills in? the color values that are not red or blue. DVDs are encoded using component video,so display devices will provide enhanced playback when this type of connection is used. A common variant of this format used in North America is YPbPr.
| | CONTROL POINT |
| A control point is a user-created point on the color curve. Users can change
the color of the screen by moving the control points with a mouse.
| | CORE CLOCK |
| The speed of a video cards GPU or VPU,measured in megahertz (MHz). | | CORE CLOCK / CORE FREQUENCY |
| The speed of a video cards GPU or VPU, measured in megahertz (MHz). | | CROSSFIRE |
| AMD solution and ability to unify two graphics cards to function as one virtual supercard | | CRT |
| Acronym for cathode ray tube, which is the main component of computer monitors and TVs. Color CRTs use three separate electron beams fired through a shadow mask and onto the back of the glass screen. The electron |
| DASHBOARD |
|
The dashboard is the part of the Catalyst® Control Center used to display a
graphical representation of the features available in installed ATI hardware
and software. The dashboard can be used to access all of the aspects (sets of
related graphical features) available on a graphics card. The dashboard is only
available in Advanced view and Custom view which is aimed at more
experienced users.
| | DATA RATE |
| A speed measurement that calculates how fast information is moved from one place to another. This is usually measured in bits.
| | DDR |
| A type of memory that transfers data twice each clock cycle. | | DDR-II |
| A type of memory that transfers data twice each clock cycle. | | DECODER |
| A software,hardware or circuit that is designed to translate a coded or scrambled signal in to a readable form. | | DHCP |
| Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This is a process of dynamically allocating IP addresses so that they can be reused. This provides a way of managing IP addresses for all PC's connected to cable modems in a network.
| | DIE |
| Refers to the size of a chip. Die size is measured in square millimeters (mm2); a smaller die size means that more chips can fit on a sheet of silicon while consuming less power. Circuit size,measured in microns,is key to reducing the die size of a chip. | | DIRECT 3D® |
| Part of Microsoft®s DirectX API designed for rendering 3D graphics on
Windows® systems. It provides software developers with low-level access to
functions on graphics cards,providing the type of performance necessary for
intensive 3D applications such as games. | | DIRECT3D |
| Microsofts API for rendering 3D graphics. | | DIRECTX |
| A collection of seven APIs (DirectDraw,Direct3D,DirectSound,DirectMusic,DirectInput,DirectPlay,DirectShow) produced and distributed by Microsoft. | | DITHERING |
| A computer graphics technique that takes advantage of the human eyes
tendency to mix two colors that are adjacent to each other to produce smooth
boundary transitions. Dithering adds intermediate color values between two
or more boundaries,producing smoother,more natural look to 2D images or
3D objects.
| | DOT PITCH |
| Dot pitch specifies the sharpness of a monitors display. It is measured in
millimeters (mm) and is the distance between the individual phosphor sub-
pixels in a CRT display or cells of the same color within an LCD display. The
smaller the number,the sharper the image. The most common dot pitches for
monitors range from .24 mm to .31 mm. Also,if a monitor with a .24 mm dot
pitch is set to its highest possible resolution,the pixel size will equal the dot
pitch. If the monitor is set to lower resolutions,the pixels will be comprised
of multiple dots.
| | DTS |
| Digital Theater Systems sound. Discrete 5.1 channel surround system similar but not the same as Dolby Digital. A surround sound format for synchronized film sound. DTS Coherent Acoustics, a codec | | DUAL LINK DVI |
| The DVI specification mandates a fixed single link maximum pixel clock frequency of 165 MHz,where all display modes that require less than this must use single link mode,and all those that require more must switch to dual link mode. | | DVD AUTHORING SOFTWARE |
| With a DVD-R or DVD-RW drive,Catalyst Media Center software allows you to take your library of recorded TV shows and videos and burn them onto a blank DVD. This software also permits you to create a title for your DVD and choose the appropriate menu and music to accompany your disk.
| | DVI |
| Acronym for Digital Video Interface, a standard video connection used on many current computer displays. There are three types of DVI connections: DVI-A (analog),DVI-D (digital),and DVI-I (integrated,capable of either analog or digital). It supports high-bandwidth video signals over 160 Hz,so it is most often used for high-resolution displays. | | Dynamic Lighting |
| Scene lighting that changes based on in-game actions; e.g., shooting a hanging light causes the light to swing, bouncing shadows all over the room. |
| EDTV |
| Acronym for Enhanced Definition Television?,which produces better
television image quality than Standard Definition Television (SDTV).
Applicable to the NTSC broadcast format,EDTV displays are capable of
depicting the standard 480 horizontal scan lines in a non-interlaced format.
Instead it paints all of the scan lines in one pass,which is called progressive
scanning,a process which also removes the jaggies? inherent in the
interlaced television signals. |
| F P S |
| In terms of 3D graphics,refers to the rate at which the graphic processor can
render new screens per second. Higher rates equals better,more naturalistic
performance for such things as games set in a 3D environment. Sometimes
abbreviated to fps.? | | FAB |
| Refers to the process of chip construction,e.g.: That GPU was fabbed in Germany.? A chip is fabbed on a certain die size. | | FCC |
| Federal Communications Commission. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency,directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio,television,wire,satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states,the District of Columbia,and U.S. possessions. | | FLAT SHADING |
| A lighting technique that shades each polygon of a 3D object based on where
the source of the light is and the angle ofthe polygon in relation to it. It enables
relatively fast rendering of 3D objects,although it can make those objects
appear faceted? as each visible polygon is set to a particular color value,and
consequently does not produce as realistic an effect as obtained when using
Gouraud shading. | | FLOATING POINT |
| A number described with a decimal point (e.g.,5.76) to allow for more precise 3D images. | | FOG |
| Term used to describe the blending of an object using a fixed color as objects
are made to appear more distant from the viewer. | | FRAME BUFFER |
|
The portion of the memory buffer on the graphics card used to store the image
being displayed. All rendering processes have been accomplished by this
stage and this buffer contains only a one-to-one relationship of the data to be
relayed to the display. | | FRAME RATE |
| The speed at which still images are generated on the screen in order to create the effect of full motion is referred to as the frame rate,which is measured in terms of frames per second (fps). While humans can generally only see 30 frames per second,many gaming benchmarks indicate that cards can provide performance far exceeding this value,and some may consider something around 60 fps the current minimum for acceptable performance. Adjusting many of the setting described in this Tech Tip will have an impact on the frame rate,and finding a balance of good performance and appearance in todays games may take some work on anything but the best graphics cards.
| | FSAA |
(Full-screen anti-aliasing) – Applying the anti-aliasing process to the entire screen. Measured in “x” amounts: for example, 8x FSAA removes more aliasing than 4x FSAA.
|
| GAMMA |
|
Sometimes confused with brightness,gamma actually refers to the correction
that is applied to any display device in order to produce more gradual
increases or decreases in the perceived brightness for that device. A change in
gamma produces a non-linear change in the color curve,ensuring that
perceived changes in color and intensity are consistently applied. | | GEOMETRY ENGINES |
| Geometry Pipelines,also called Geometry Engines (GE) are the first stage in a classical Graphics Pipeline,such as the Reality Engine. They do the transformation from 3D coordinates used to specify the geometry to a unified coordinate system used by the Raster Manager (RM) to rasterize the geometry into framebuffer pixels. | | GEOMETRY PIPELINES |
| Geometry Pipelines,also called Geometry Engines (GE) are the first stage in a classical Graphics Pipeline,such as the Reality Engine. | | GLOSSARY_TOPIC |
| GLOSSARY_DETAIL | | GOURAUD SHADING |
|
A shading method used toproduce a smooth lighting effect across a 3D object.
A specific color is used at each vertex of a triangle or polygon and interpolated
across the entire face. | | GPU |
| The main chip attached to a 3D video card that performs most of the calculations required to display 3D images. |
| HD DVD |
| HD DVD or High-Definition DVD is a high-density optical disc format designed for the storage of data and high-definition video. | | HDDVD |
| Optical Content delivery system. More as a format. Supports High Deinition: 1920×1080 24/25/30p or 50/60i HDTV | | HDMI |
| The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a licensable audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed,encrypted digital streams. | | HDR FLOATING POINT RENDERING |
| HDR Rendering is basically comprised of one component; rendering to a floating point buffer. This render target format can be FP16,FP24,or FP32. | | HDTV |
| Acronym for High Definition Television, a format that produces much greater picture quality than a standard television,and in a wide-screen format that matches that of a movie theater screen. The two most popular formats are 1080i and 720p,where the number represents how many horizontal scan lines they have,and the following letter represents whether the picture is interlaced,or the product of progressive scanning technology. Interlaced displays paint the odd-numbered scan lines and then the even- numbered lines to produce a picture,whereas progressive scan paints all of the scan lines at once. Both formats use an aspect ratio of 16:9. In contrast,standard North American television signals are displayed using 480 interlaced (480i) scan lines with a more square aspect ratio of 4:3. | | HQV |
| HQV | | HUE |
| Refers to a specific color within the visible spectrum of light,defined by its
dominant wavelength. A light wave with a central tendency within the range
of 565-590 nm is visible as yellow. In the standard RGB color space used by
most computer displays,hue refers to a coordinate of the color as described
by its red,green,and blue values,minus any additional brightness or
saturation values for that color.
| | HYDRAVISION |
| HydraVision is ATIs multi-monitor management software,enabling users
to manage the display of multiple windows and applications across two or
more adjacent monitors. It also includes a range of productivity features
designed to effectively manage applications in this environment. | | HYPERTERMINAL |
| HyperTerminal (also known as HyperTerm) is a communications and terminal emulation program that comes with the Windows operating system,beginning with Windows 98.
|
| INTERFACE |
| Method or piece of equipment for interconnecting units or systems which may not be directly compatible. |
No entries begining with the letter J | KEYFRAME INTERPOLATION |
| This feature is also known as morphing.? In an animation,a start and end
point are picked as the key frames. In a 3D rendering,the start point could
have a character with a neutral expression,and the end point could have that
same character smiling. Additional frames are interpolated (inserted) between
the two keyframes in order that morphs? (transforms) the image so that there
is a smooth transition between the key frames. | | KTX BUFFER REGION EXTENSION |
|
This OpenGL® programming term refers to a feature that rapidly updates
portions of the display of 3D modelling applications that change very quickly,
or have been moved or occluded. It does this by optimizing the storage of
buffer regions in the graphics cards memory buffer. Other applications are
typically not adversely affected when this is enabled |
| LIGHTING |
| In 3D computer graphics,refers to aspects and quality of the virtual light
source being used to make an object visible. Lighting can strongly affect the
mood? of a scene. For example,a harsh? light could be a bare lightbulb that
is glaringly bright on the objects closest to it while casting strong shadows in
the background. A softer? light would be more diffuse and not cast shadows,
such as you would get outdoors on a typical overcast day. |
| MANUFACTURING PROCESS |
| The producing of goods or wares by manual labour or machinery,often on a large scale and with division of labour.
| | MAX RESOLUTION ANALOG |
| The number of pixels displayed on the screen is referred to as the resolution,and the value is represented by the number of horizontal pixels times (x) the number of vertical pixels. Raising the resolution from 800x600 to 1600x1200,for example,will provide enhanced image quality but generally at the expense of lower frame rates.
| | MAX RESOLUTION DIGITAL |
| The number of pixels displayed on the screen is referred to as the resolution,and the value is represented by the number of horizontal pixels times (x) the number of vertical pixels. Raising the resolution from 800x600 to 2560x1600,for example,will provide enhanced image quality but generally at the expense of lower frame rates.
| | MEMORY BANDWIDTH |
| Memory bandwidth is the rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by a processor. | | MEMORY CLOCK |
| Memory clock governs the speed of the memory I/O buffers and the rate at which data is prefetched. | | MEMORY CONFIGURATION |
| The amount of memory in an IC and how it is accessed. | | MEMORY SIZE |
| Every system has a maximum amount of memory and maximum cacheable memory that it will support. There are in fact several limiting factors that dictate how much memory can be used in any system. | | MEMORY TYPE |
| A type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly. That is any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. | | MIP-MAPPING |
| The process of placing low-quality textures in the background of a 3D scene and moving high-quality textures to the front. As the players viewpoint shifts,these textures are shuffled in order to bring the highest-quality images to the front. Without filtering,mip-mapping can degrade image quality because of the seams that develop between the different quality textures. | | MIPMAPPING |
| The most memory-intensive aspect of 3D graphics are the textures that give
an object its realism (like wood,marble,leather,and cloth). Because objects
in real life become less detailed as they move farther away from the viewer,
3D programmers simulate this by using less detailed,lower resolution texture
maps on distant objects. These texture maps are merely scaled down versions
of the main texture map used when the object is up close,and they use less
memory.
| | MPEG-2,MPEG-4,DIVX,WMV9,AND H.264 |
| Various video formats and standards. Catalyst Media Center is capable of capturing or converting video into any one of these formats. MPEG-2 format is ideal for DVD authoring while H.264 formats are ideal for transferring onto a Personal Video Player such an an ipod Video or Sony PSP.
| | Multi-sampling |
| Anti-aliasing technique that fills in the extra pixels required to make a line appear straight. |
| NTSC |
| The name for the type of analog television signal used throughout the Americas (except Brazil) and in Japan. It draws a total of 525 vertical interlaced frames of video at a refresh rate of 60 Hz,making it relatively flicker-free. The acronym refers to the National Television Systems Committee,which devised this color video standard in 1953. |
| OFFSCREEN MEMORY |
| An area of memory used to preload images so that they can be quickly drawn
to the screen. Offscreen memory refers to all of the remaining video memory
not taken up by the front buffer,which holds the contents of the display screen
currently visible. | | OPENGL |
| Another 3D API that competes with Direct3D. OpenGL differs from Direct3D in that OpenGL is not maintained by a corporation (as Direct3D is maintained by Microsoft) and,as such,updates and revisions to its code tend to come quicker. All 3D video cards made today support both OpenGL and Direct3D. | | OPENGL® |
|
Short for Open Graphics Library, this is an industry standard for cross-
platform 3D graphics development. It consists of a large number of functions
that can be called upon in various programs,such as games,CAD,and virtual-
reality systems,to produce complex 3D objects from simpler,more
primitive? building blocks. Implementations currently exist under
Windows®,Mac OS® X,and various forms of Unix,including Linux® .
| | OUTPUT |
| Information transferred from the internal storage of a computer to output devices or external storage. | | OVER-THE-AIR HDTV |
| With an amplified indoor antenna,you will be able to tune and watch high definition free-to-air television programs. |
| PAL |
| An acronym for Phase Alternating Line?,the name for a video broadcast standard used in much of Europe (except France),most of Asia,the Middle-East,Africa and Australia. It draws a total of 625 vertical interlaced frames of video at a refresh rate of 25 Hz. | | PCI |
|
Acronym for Peripheral Component Interconnect?,which is the
specification for a type of computer bus used for attaching computer
peripherals to a computers motherboard. PCI encompasses both integrated
motherboard components (such as built-in graphical processors) and
peripherals that fit into an expansion card slot,such as a separate graphics
card. PCI replaced the older ISA and VESA bus standards,and was itself
superseded by the AGP standard for the main graphics card bus. | | PCI EXPRESS |
| A high-speed port that connects video cards and other peripherals to a motherboard. PCIE nearly doubles the performance potential of its predecessor, AGP. | | PCI EXPRESS® (PCIE) |
|
The successor standard to the PCI and AGP bus standards,with a significantly
faster serial communications system,further opening up bandwidth for more
communications between such peripherals as graphics cards and the
computers CPU. PCIe cards can come in several physical configurations,the
fastest currently being X16,which is typically used for graphic cards,and X1,
typically used for other peripherals,such as separate multimedia cards. | | PER PIXEL COLOR COMPONENT OUTPUT |
| Per Pixel Color Component Output" refers to the depth of each color. 24bit Turecolor has 8bit Red,8bit,Blue,and 8bit Green. 32bit color is basically the same as it offers 8bit for all three but has an 8bit segment for the alpha value. Beyond that there is 10bit and 16bit per color channel but you will only see that on professional cards like FireGL and Quadro. There are differeing formats for using the 32 bits. 8:8:8:8,10:10:10:2 | | PIPELINE |
| In relation to computer graphic processors,refers to the number of separate
arithmetic units available for rendering the output on a display. In general,
more pipelines available on a graphical processor means there are more 3D
rendering capabilities available,increasing overall 3D performance.
| | PIXEL |
| All computer images are made up of tiny dots. Each individual dot is called a
pixel,a word created from the term picture element.? A pixel is the smallest
indivisible unit of a digital image and can be only a single color. The size of
the pixel depends on howthe displayresolution has been set. The smallest size
a pixel can be is determined by the displays dot pitch,which is measured in
millimeters (mm). | | PIXEL PIPELINE |
| A component within 3D accelerators,most prominently prior to DirectX 9. The term encompasses one of a number of parallel processing pipelines within a graphics processing unit (GPU). | | PIXEL SHADER |
| Unit of GPU responsible for the appearance of individual pixels. Pixel shaders are used in bump-mapping and reflective surfaces. |
No entries begining with the letter Q | RAMDAC |
| Chips on a video card that convert digital information (received from the GPU) to analog,which can then be displayed on a monitor. | | RCA STEREO AUDIO INPUT |
| Also known as composite audio input,the red and white audio connectors together supply stereo audio from an external source such as a camcorder or VCR. | | REFRESH RATE |
| Also referred to as vertical refresh rate.? This is the rate at which a monitor
or television can redraw the screen from top to bottom. NTSC television
systems have a refresh rate of approximately 60 Hz whereas computer
displays typically have refresh rates of 75 Hz or more. At refresh rates of 70
Hz and lower,screen flicker is often noticeable. | | Render |
| The process of creating a 3D image. | | RENDERING |
|
Rendering refers to the final drawing stages where the 2D image that appears
on a display is derived from its 3D descriptions. What appears on the display
may look three dimensional,but it is really just a 2D grid of pixels designed
to appear that way. | | RESOLUTION |
| The resolution of any display is the number of pixels that can be depicted on
screen as specified by the number of horizontal rows against the number of
vertical columns. The default VGA resolution of many video cards is capable
of displaying 640 rows of pixels by 480 columns. The typical resolution of
current displays is set to higher values,such as 1024x768 (XGA),1280x1024
(SXGA),or 1600x1200 (UXGA).
| | RING BUS MEMORY CONTROLLER |
| It determines the DRAM to service the request. | | ROHS COMPLIANT |
| The definition of a RoHS complaint component involves six materials listed and not just lead. Lead,Cadmium,Mercury,Hexavalent chromium,Polybrominated biphenyls,Polybrominated diphenyl ethers. |
| S-VIDEO |
| Short for Separate Video, S-Video is a type of analog video interface that produces a higher-quality signal compared to composite video. The signal is split into two separate channels” luminance (Y) and chrominance (C). Sometimes referred to as Y/C video? or Y/C?,the connectors typically contain 4-pins within a single connection housing and are commonly found on consumer DVD players,video tape recorders,game consoles,and related devices. | | SATURATION |
| Refers to the intensity of a specific hue (color). A highly saturated hue is vivid
and intense,whereas a less saturated hue appears more grey. A completely
unsaturated color is grey. In terms of the RGB color model,a fully saturated
color exists when you have 100% brightness in one of the three channels (say,
red)and 0% in the twoothers (green and blue). Conversely,a fullydesaturated
color is one where all of the color values are the same. Saturation can therefore
be thought of as the relative difference between the values of the channels. | | SCART |
|
SCART is an acronym for Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils
Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs?. SCART is an 21-pin connector used mainly
in Europe for transferring analog audio and video signals between VCRs,
DVD players,personal computers,and set-top boxes. It is sometimes referred
to as PĂ©ritel or the Euroconnector. | | SCISSOR MODE |
| A graphical load-balancing scheme where two graphics cards are used to
render two halves of an image display. One graphics card renders the top half
of the screen while the second graphics card renders the bottom half. This
configuration offers a form of dynamic load balancing between the two cards
as each only needs to render 3D object details on only half of the screen
instead of the full screen at any one time. This type of graphical operation is
only available in Radeon® CrossFire graphics cards running Microsoft®
Direct 3D® and OpenGL® games or applications. | | SDTV |
| SDTV is an acronym for Standard Definition Television? that identifies
lower resolution systems when compared to High Definition Television
(HDTV) systems. SDTV systems use the same 4:3 aspect ratio and 480 scan
lines to produce a picture as regular analog television sets,but digital
decoding enhanced of the signal,displaying a sharper and crisper picture.
SDTV broadcasts are either interlaced (480i) or use progressive scan (480p),
the latter method providing the best overall image quality.
| | SECAM |
| An analog color video signal that originated in France,and is used in many
other countries,including (but not limited to) much of Eastern Europe,parts
of the Middle East and Asia. Like the PAL video standard,SECAM also
draws a total of 625 vertical interlaced frames of video at a refresh rate of
25Hz,but uses a fundamentally different way of encoding its colors. The
name is an acronym for SĂ©quential Couleur avec MĂ©moire, which is French
for sequential color with memory.? | | SHADER MODEL SUPPORT |
| A shader in the field of computer graphics is a set of software instructions,which is used by the graphic resources primarily to perform rendering effects. Shaders are used to allow a 3D application designer to program the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) "programmable pipeline",which has mostly superseded the older "fixed-function pipeline",allowing more flexibility in making use of advanced GPU programmability features | | SHADER UNITS |
| A shader in the field of computer graphics is a set of software instructions,which is used by the graphic resources primarily to perform rendering effects. Shaders are used to allow a 3D application designer to program the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) "programmable pipeline",which has mostly superseded the older "fixed-function pipeline",allowing more flexibility in making use of advanced GPU programmability features.
| | SHADOW MASK |
|
In CRT monitors,the shadow mask is a metal plate full of tiny holes that is
attached to the inside of the glass screen. It focuses the beams from the
electron guns at the back of the CRT. The distance between these holes is
called the dot pitch.
| | SMARTSHADER HD |
| SmartShader HD contains advanced vertex and pixel-shading capabilities.
A shader is a small program that runs on the GPU and describes how an image
should be rendered. Vertex shaders manipulate the individual polygons that
make up 3D objects,and pixel shaders operate on the individual pixels that fill
in these polygons to create a visible image. SmartShader HD is designed to
alleviate the resource constraints of earlier shader hardware,paving the way
for more complex,detailed,and realistic shader effects in applications
requiring high-performance 3D rendering. | | SPECULAR HIGHLIGHT |
| The bright,usually small,intense light reflected from a 3D surface with a high
refraction value. From the intensity and spread of this highlight users can
differentiate between a hard, smooth surface,such as metal or porcelain,or
a soft, textured surface,such as fabric or skin. | | STEALTH |
| Get the most from your gaming,digital photography,video editing and web surfing experiences with the Stealth® X550,an affordable graphics upgrade featuring ATIs industry-leading performance,technology and support. The Stealth X550 fully supports the PCI Express® bus,the newest PC industry standard for delivering maximum real-time performance for your graphics-intensive software applications. | | SUPER ANTI-ALIASING |
| A feature that improves image quality by combining the results of full-screen
anti-aliasing across two graphics cards in a CrossFire configuration. The
two graphics cards work on different anti-aliasing patterns within each frame.
The results of which are combined by the compositing engine on the
CrossFire Master graphics card to produce 3D images featuring smoother
contours,lines,and shading effects. | | Super-sampling |
| Anti-aliasing technique that first renders a screen in high resolution and then scales the image down to the desired size. A very effective technique, but one that requires a lot of processing power. | | SUPERTILING |
| A graphical load-balancing scheme where two graphics cards are used to
render alternate small 32x32 pixel squares in a fine-grained checkerboard
pattern. This configuration increases image rendering quality,as each card
processes half of the complex 3D objects in the pixel squares. SuperTiling is
better optimized for most applications thanScissor Mode (where two graphics
cards are used to render the top and bottom halves of the screen),since the
checkerboard pattern better ensures a more even distribution of what needs to
be rendered. This type of graphical operation is only available in Radeon®
CrossFire graphics cards running Microsoft® Direct 3D® games or
applications.
| | SUPRA MAX |
| Diamond Supra unleashes the highest performance SupraMax modems with newly adopted ITU,V.92 and V.44 compression standards.
SupraMax gives you the advantages of extensive analog access to the Internet with an added boost of speed over earlier standards. These improvements includes accelerated upstream data transfers (up to 40% faster),faster Internet dial-up connection times using an intelligent start-up sequence,and advanced compression algorithms that let you send common file type (such as HTML,e-mail,and executable files) more efficiently. The new Modem-On-Hold feature lets you receive incoming voice calls without dropping your current modem connections. And,because the SupraMax V.92 is backward compatible with V.90 and earlier standards,you can relax and enjoy faster Internet speeds without worry |
| T&L |
| The process of offloading transform (displaying 3D images on a 2D monitor) and lighting (providing multiple dynamic light sources) onto the GPU,leaving the CPU free to perform other game-related functions. | | TEXEL |
|
Short for texture element, the 3D equivalent of a pixel,describing the base
unit of the surface of a 3D object,such as a sphere; for a 2D object,such as a
circle,the base unit is a pixel. | | TEXTURE |
| A skin? applied over a 3D image to give it a distinct look. | | TEXTURE COMPRESSION |
| The process of reducing the amount of memory a single texture occupies. | | TEXTURE FILTERING |
| The process of improving the image quality of textures. | | TEXTURE MAPPING |
| In computer graphics,two-dimensional textured surfaces are referred to as
texture maps. Texture mapping is the process by which a two-dimensional
surface gets wrapped around a three-dimensional object so that the 3D object
takes on the same texture qualities. For example,if you take a 2D textured
surface that looks like cloth and wrap it around a 3D sphere,the sphere will
now appear to have a cloth-like surface. | | TEXTURE PREFERENCE |
| Texture Preference is a feature enabling the user to select the texture quality
level for the surface of a 3D object. Selecting the highest quality possible will
provide the most realism,although it may also have some impact on the
performance of any 3D intensive application. | | THX |
| THX is the trade name of a high-fidelity sound reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and car audio systems. | | TMDS |
| A technology designed to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) and
improve the digital signal delivered to flat panel displays. Its encoding
algorithm converts the original 8-bit graphic data into a more fault-tolerant
| | TRILINEAR FILTERING |
| Filtering technique that compensates for the loss of quality during mip-mapping by blending the pixels on adjacent mip-maps. Intermediate visual quality between bilinear and anisotropic filtering. | | TRILINEAR FILTERING |
| A sampling method used to produce realistic-looking 3D objects. Trilinear
filtering averages one of the bilinear filter mipmap levels along with the
standard mipmap samples. |
| UVD |
The Unified Video Decoder,previously called \"Universal Video Decoder\",or UVD in short,is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support hardware decode of H.264 and VC-1 video codec standards,and being a part of AVIVO HD technology.
UVD will provide video acceleration for Blu-Ray & HD-DVD decode, Advantages: Less CPU cycles needed for HD playback
End-user Benefits: Smooth Video playback, more CPU cycles for background tasks |
| VERTEX SHADER |
| Vertex shader (abbreviation VS) is a shader program,normally executed on the Graphics processing unit. | | VGA CONNECTOR |
| A type of graphics connector,sometimes also called an analog connector. It is the most common type of video connector available,consisting 15-pins set in three rows. The VGA? is an acronym for Video Graphics Array, which is also the name for the video resolution mode of 640x480 pixels,the lowest standard resolution supported by virtually all video cards. | | VIDEO CARD PORT |
| A video card,also referred to as a graphics accelerator card,display adapter,graphics card,and numerous other terms,is an item of personal computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a display. It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices | | VIPER |
| Specifically designed for the user who wants to experience whats on the screen more so than to just see it, Diamond Viper® graphics cards feature the cutting edge in graphics processing technologies and as well as the advanced features hardcore gamers are looking for like Diamond tools. | | VISTA RATING |
| The Windows System Assessment Tool runs a series of tests on the various system hardware components such as processor,memory,disk drive and graphics and rates your computer on a scale of 1 through 5 (5 being the highest). The rating is supposed to make it easier to see if your hardware is capable of running various software applications. | | VPU |
| An advanced,fully-programmable kind of GPU. | | VPU RECOVER |
| A feature designed to significantly reduce the number of system crashes
caused by problems occurring with the graphics hardware. If the display
driver detects that the graphics processor has hung,VPU Recover will attempt
to reset the graphics processor,eliminating the need for a system reboot and
allowing users to continue using the computer without interrupting or losing
their work. | | VSYNC |
| An option in some 3D games that synchronizes the games frame rate with the monitors refresh rate,providing maximum stability. Turning Vsync off will result in a higher frame rate but might cause artifacts to appear. |
| WINDOWS ME |
| Windows Me (Millenium Edition) is an operating system from Microsoft,released commercially September 14,2000. |
| XTREME SOUND |
| Diamond Xtreme Sound allows the user to experience high level,theater quality sound while watching videos,listening to music,and playing games all in true 7.1 channel surround sound. This is an essential upgrade for anyone interested in increasing their computer audio experience while freeing up valuable computer system resources. | | XTREME TV |
| Whether you want to watch TV on your LCD,flat-panel,computer monitor or turn your PC into a full-featured Personal Video Recorder,XtremeTV comes complete with a digital software entertainment suite. Use the included remote control to watch,pause,rewind,record upcoming shows,replay live TV and burn everything to DVD with the push of a button. It also features FM Radio Tuner. |
| YPBPR |
| A type of analog composite video signal that splits and compresses the standard Red/Green/Blue (RGB) colors of a television signal into separate luminance and color values. The Y? stands for the luminance channel,while Pb? and Pr? represent the blue and red channels respectively,both of which have the luminance value subtracted from them. It is an equivalent color space to the chrominance-based |
| Z-BUFFER |
| The area of a video cards memory used to store information about an objects 3rd dimension (depth,or distance from the camera). | | Z-BUFFER |
| The portion of video memory that keeps track of which onscreen elements can
be viewed and which are hidden behind other objects. In the case of a 3D
image,it keeps track of which elements are occluded by the foreground in
relation to the users perspective,or by another 3D object. |
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