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Table Of Contents  CertiGuide to A+ (Core Hardware)
 9  Chapter 1000:  Multimedia
      9  III  Video Cards

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Video Chipset
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 Frame Buffer (Video Memory)
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Video BIOS

It should be becoming readily apparent the statement made earlier about video cards being "mini-computers inside your PC," is beginning to take shape.

Like PCs, video cards have their own BIOS programs that control the interface of the video chipset and video memory.

Of course BIOS programs are simpler versions of the ROM BIOS found on your motherboard, as it only needs a set of instructions related specifically to video functions.

Like BIOS programs found on motherboards, video BIOS programs can differ on different video cards that use the same chipset.

In fact many video cards differ primarily in software, with not much difference in hardware.

[spacer]Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA)

Because of the overwhelming number of different video card technologies, chipsets, and video BIOS programs, programming software to make use of these advancements became difficult very quickly. The Video Electronics Standard Association, VESA, introduced a standard for high resolution BIOS code called the VESA BIOS Extensions, or VBE. These extensions can be implemented in either hardware or software drivers and allow a more standard method of controlling video output.



Previous Topic/Section
Video Chipset
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
Next Page
 Frame Buffer (Video Memory)
Next Topic/Section

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