14.11.2012 Views

PC Architecture. A book by Michael B. Karbo

PC Architecture. A book by Michael B. Karbo

PC Architecture. A book by Michael B. Karbo

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Texture cache and RAMDAC<br />

Textures are things like backgrounds in games. They can be uploaded directly from RAM to the video card.<br />

The system is called DIME (Direct Memory Execute). This allows the video card memory to be extended<br />

using standard RAM on the motherboard. In Fig. 155 you can see the system shown graphically.<br />

In this figure you can also see the RAMDAC device. This is a chip on the video card which looks after the<br />

“translation” of digital data into analogue signals, when the card is connected to an analogue screen. The<br />

RAMDAC is a complete little processor in itself; the higher it’s clock frequency, the higher the refresh rate<br />

with which the card can supply the screen image.<br />

Fig. Figur 155. The AGP bus provides direct access to RAM.<br />

Video card on <strong>PC</strong>I Express<br />

With the new <strong>PC</strong>I Express bus, we get a new system for the video card. Replacing the AGP, the <strong>PC</strong>I Express<br />

X16-bus offers a transfer of 8 GB/sec, which leaves plenty of room for even the most graphical-intensive pc<br />

games.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!