You point , you click ; you drag and you drop . Files open and close in separate window . Movies play , pop - ups pop , and television games fill up the covert , eat up you in a world of3 - D graphics . This is the stuff and nonsense we ’re used to seeing on our computers .
It all begin in 1973 , when Xerox completed the Alto , the first computer to use a in writing substance abuser interface . This innovation forever change the way the people work with their computers .
Today , every view of computing , from creating animation to simple tasks such as Word of God processing and Es - mail , uses lots of graphic to produce a more intuitive oeuvre environment for the substance abuser . The ironware to support these graphics is call a graphics card . The way this card connects to your computer is key in your computer ’s ability to translate graphics . In this article , you will instruct about AGP , orAccelerated Graphics Port . AGP enables your computer to have a consecrate way of life to commune with the graphics card , enhancing both the look and speed of your information processing system ’s graphics .
Get Off the PCI Bus
In 1996 , Intel bring in AGP as a more efficient elbow room to deliver the stream video and existent - time - rendered 3 - D art that were becoming more prevalent in all aspects of computing . Previously , the standard method of delivery was the Peripheral Component Interconnect ( PCI ) bus . The PCI busbar is a path used to deliver entropy from the computer graphic bill of fare to the central processing unit ( CPU ) . A jitney allows multiple packet of information from different germ to travel down one path at the same time . Information from the graphic posting travel through the autobus along with any other information that is come in from a gadget connected to the PCI . When all the data come at the CPU , it has to hold off in line to get time with the CPU .
This scheme worked well for many years , but eventually the PCI bus became a small long in the tooth . The cyberspace and most software system were more and more diagrammatically oriented , and the requirement of the graphics card need priority over all other PCI devices .
AGP is based on the design of the PCI coach ; but unlike a bus topology , it provides a consecrate detail - to - point connecter from the nontextual matter card to the CPU . With a clear path to the CPU andsystem store , AGP provides a much quicker , more efficient room for your computer to get the information it needs to furnish complex art . In the next section , we ’ll see how this is done .
AGP Graphics Rendering
AGP is built on the melodic theme of improving the ways that PCI transports data point to the CPU . Intel achieved this by addressing all of the area where PCI transfers were causing datum constriction in the system . By clearing the traffic jams of data , AGP increases the hurrying at which machines can try art while using the scheme ’s resources more expeditiously to subjugate overall drag . Here ’s how :
PCI Graphics Rendering: Wasting RAM
Speed is not the only area where AGP has scoop its predecessor . It also streamlines the process of rendering nontextual matter by using system computer memory more efficiently .
Any 3 - D graphic you see on your computer is built by atexture map . grain map are like wrapping paper . Your calculator takes a flat , 2 - D image and wraps it around a hardening of parameters order by the graphics card to make the appearance of a 3 - D image . Think of this as wrapping an invisible boxful with wrap paper to show the size of the loge . It is important to understand this because the creation and storage of grain mathematical function is the main matter that drains the remembering from both the graphics card and the organization overall .
With a PCI - ground artwork card , every texture mathematical function has to be stash away twice . First , the grain map is loaded from thehard driveto the scheme remembering ( Aries ) until it has to be used . Once it is needed , it is overstretch from memory and send off to the CPU to be processed . Once process , it is beam through the PCI bus to the graphics card , where it is stash away again in the card’sframebuffer . The framebuffer is where the graphics menu contain the image in store once it has been rendered so that it can be freshen up every time it is needed . All of this store and sending between the arrangement and the card is very drain to the overall performance of the computer .
AGP Memory Improvements
AGP improves the summons of store texture maps by allowing theoperating systemto designate RAM for enjoyment by the artwork card on the fly sheet . This type of memory is calledAGP memoryor non - local TV memory board . Using the much more abundant and faster RAM used by the operating organization to lay in texture map reduces the number of maps that have to be stored on the graphics bill of fare ’s computer memory . In addition , the size of it of the texture map your electronic computer is capable of processing is no longer limit to the amount of RAM on the graphic visiting card .
The other manner AGP saves RAM is by only storing texture function once . It does this with a little jiggery-pokery . This trickery need the contour of a chipset call theGraphics Address Remapping Table(GART ) . GART takes the share of the arrangement memory that the AGP borrows to store texture single-valued function for the computer graphic card and re - addresses it . The new computer address furnish by GART makes the CPU think that the texture map is being stored in the lineup ’s framebuffer . GART may be set mo and while of the map all over the system RAM ; but when the CPU needs it , as far as it ’s concerned the texture function is right where it should be .
AGP Graphic Cards
AGP and AGP artwork cards are now the standard for process graphics on computers . Like all hardware , the technology and specifications are constantly ameliorate . To learn about the current standard for AGP and prices for AGP graphic circuit card , come home on the links below .
