ELSA Erazor II Computer Hardware User Manual


 
Glossary
ELSA ERAZOR II and ELSA VICTORY Erazor LT
32
DPMS – Abbreviation of VESA Display Power
Management Signaling. This standard allows
an energy-saving operation of monitors in sev-
eral steps. The graphics boards described in
this manual support VESA DPMS.
DRAM – Abbreviation of Dynamic Random
Access Memory. Volatile memory for read and
write operations.
EDO-RAM – Abbreviation for Extended Data
Output Random Access Memory (Hyper Page
Mode). EDO-RAM is very common on graphics
boards, as the most recently used data persist
in memory. A number of read accesses to sim-
ilar data occur during the generation of an
image, so that use of EDO-RAM gives a signifi-
cant speed advantage.
FCC – FCC compliance means that a device
has been tested and found to comply with the
limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to
Part 15 of the FCC Rules, designed to provide
reasonable protection against harmful inter-
ference in a residential installation.
FIFO method – (first in, first out) a system
used in batch processing and queues in which
the first signal to arrive is processed first.
Fill Rate – Is the rate at which pixels are
drawn into the screen memory, and expresses
the overall performance of the processor. Cur-
rent values are around 50-70 Mpixels/s. With
increasing demands of resolution, depth
complexity and fps, the fill rates will have to
increase dramatically.
Fixed-frequency monitor – A monitor that
can only be operated at a specific resolution
and refresh rate.
Flat shading – 'Shading'.
Flipping – The image generated in the back
buffer is displayed.
Fps – Or frame rate, refers to how many times
per second the scene is updated by the render-
ing engine. Frame rates beyond 30 fps achieve
smoother, more realistic animation.
Frame buffer – Part of the graphics memory in
which the image next to be displayed on the
screen is generated. In addition, transparency
effects are calculated in the frame buffer.
Front buffer – is the name for the visible
image page in double buffering.
Geometrical transformation – The position
of the object in space is determined from the
observer's point of view.
Gouraud shading – 'Shading'.
Graphics accelerator – refers to a graphics
accelerator board, i.e a board particularly
suited for graphics intensive user environ-
ments.
HighColor – designates a 15-bpp or 16-bpp
(bits per pixel) graphics mode, i.e. 32,768 or
65,536 colors.
Horizontal frequency – The horizontal fre-
quency (scan frequency) of a monitor in kHz.
This value must be set in accordance with the
operating limits of the monitor, otherwise the
monitor might be damaged in extreme cases.
Horizontal scan frequency – The horizontal
scan frequency of a monitor in kHz. This value
must be set in accordance with the operating
limits of the monitor, otherwise the monitor
might be damaged in extreme cases.
Interpolation – A video image must be
stretched or shrunk in order to fit into the dis-
play window. If pixels are simply multiplied (for
example, a block of four equally colored pixels
represents the original pixel), aliasing effects
("blocks" and "stairs") will occur. This can be
avoided by interpolation procedures (using