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16 Dell PowerEdge 6300 Systems User’s Guide
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On some systems with a built-in VGA
video adapter, a VGA feature connector
allows you to add an enhancement adapt-
er, such as a video accelerator, to your
computer. A VGA feature connector can
also be called a
VGA pass-through
connector
.
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The logical circuitry that provides—in
combination with the monitor or display—
your computer’s video capabilities. A
video adapter may support more or fewer
features than a specific monitor offers.
Typically, a video adapter comes with
video drivers for displaying popular
application programs and operating envi-
ronments in a variety of video modes.
On most current Dell computers, a video
adapter is integrated into the system
board. Also available are many video
adapter cards that plug into an expansion-
card connector.
Video adapters can include memory sep-
arate from RAM on the system board. The
amount of video memory, along with the
adapter’s video drivers, may affect the
number of colors that can be simulta-
neously displayed. Video adapters can
also include their own coprocessor chip
for faster graphics rendering.
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Graphics-mode application programs and
operating environments, such as Win-
dows, often require video drivers in order
to display at a chosen resolution with the
desired number of colors. A program may
include some “generic” video drivers.
Any additional video drivers may need to
match the video adapter; you can find
these drivers on a separate diskette with
your computer or video adapter.
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Most VGA and SVGA video adapters in-
clude VRAM or DRAM memory chips in
addition to your computer’s RAM. The
amount of video memory installed prima-
rily influences the number of colors that a
program can display (with the appropriate
video drivers and monitor capability).
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Video adapters normally support multiple
text and graphics display modes. Charac-
ter-based software (such as MS-DOS)
displays in text modes that can be defined
as
x
columns by
y
rows of characters. Graph-
ics-based software (such as Windows)
displays in graphics modes that can be de-
fined as
x
horizontal by
y
vertical pixels by
z
colors.
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Video resolution—640 x 480, for exam-
ple—is expressed as the number of pixels
across by the number of pixels up and
down. To display a program at a specific
graphics resolution, you must install the
appropriate video drivers and your moni-
tor must support the resolution.
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An operating mode supported by Intel386
or higher microprocessors, virtual 8086
mode allows operating environments—
such as Windows—to run multiple pro-
grams in separate 1-MB sections of
memory. Each 1-MB section is called a
virtual machine
.
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A method for increasing addressable
RAM by using the hard-disk drive.
(MS-DOS does not support true virtual
memory, which must be implemented at
the operating system level.) For example,
in a computer with 8 MB of RAM and
16 MB of virtual memory set up on the
hard-disk drive, the operating system
would manage the system as though it
had 24 MB of physical RAM.
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A self-starting program designed to incon-
venience you. Virus programs have been
known to corrupt the files stored on a
hard-disk drive or to replicate themselves
until a system or network runs out of
memory.
The most common way that virus pro-
grams move from one system to another
is via “infected” diskettes, from which
they copy themselves to the hard-disk