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Glossary 15
Abbreviation for volt(s) alternating
current.
Abbreviation for Voluntary Control Council
for Interference.
Abbreviation for video cassette recorder.
Abbreviation for volt(s) direct current.
Acronym for Video Electronics Standards
Association.
Abbreviation for video graphics array. VGA
and SVGA are video standards for video
adapters with greater resolution and color
display capabilities than previous
standards.
To display a program at a specific resolu-
tion, you must install the appropriate
video drivers and your monitor must sup-
port the resolution. Similarly, the number
of colors that a program can display de-
pends on the capabilities of the monitor,
the video driver, and the amount of video
memory installed for the video adapter.
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
.
The logical circuitry that provides—in
combination with the monitor—your com-
puter’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 dis-
playing popular application programs and
operating systems in a variety of video
modes.
On some 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 often include memory
separate 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 for
faster graphics rendering.
A program that allows graphics-mode ap-
plication programs and operating systems
to display at a chosen resolution with the
desired number of colors. A software
package may include some “generic”
video drivers. Any additional video drivers
may need to match the video adapter in-
stalled in the computer.
Most VGA and SVGA video adapters in-
clude memory chips in addition to your
computer’s RAM. The amount of video
memory installed primarily influences the
number of colors that a program can dis-
play (with the appropriate video drivers
and monitor capabilities).
Video adapters normally support multiple
text and graphics display modes. Charac-
ter-based software displays in text modes
that can be defined as
x
columns by
y
rows of characters. Graphics-based soft-
ware displays in graphics modes that can
be defined as
x
horizontal by
y
vertical pix-
els by
z
colors.
Video resolution—800 x 600, 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.