Release date | 1984 |
---|---|
Architecture | Intel 8088 |
Cards | |
High-end | IBM 1501 PGC Matrox PG-640, PG-1280 and QG-640 Dell NEC MVA-1024 Everex EPGA Orchid Technology TurboPGA Vermont Microsystems IM-640 and IM-1024 |
History | |
Predecessor | Color Graphics Adapter |
Successor | VGA, 8514 |
Professional Graphics Controller (PGC, often called Professional Graphics Adapter and sometimes Professional Graphics Array) is a graphics card manufactured by IBM for PCs. [1] It consists of three interconnected PCBs, and contains its own processor and memory. The PGC was, at the time of its release, the most advanced graphics card for the IBM XT and aimed for tasks such as CAD. [2]
Introduced in 1984, [3] the Professional Graphics Controller offered a maximum resolution of 640 × 480 with 256 colors on an analog RGB monitor, at a refresh rate of 60 hertz—a higher resolution and color depth than CGA and EGA supported. This mode is not BIOS-supported. It was intended for the computer-aided design market and included 320 KB of display RAM and an on-board Intel 8088 microprocessor. The 8088 ran software routines such as "draw polygon" and "fill area" from an on-board 64 KB ROM so that the host CPU didn't need to load and run these routines itself. [3] While never widespread in consumer-class personal computers, its US$2,995(equivalent to $8,800 in 2023) list price, plus $1,295 display, compared favorably to US$50,000 dedicated CAD workstations of the time (even when the $4,995 price of a PC XT Model 87 [4] was included). It was discontinued in 1987 with the arrival of VGA and 8514.
The board was targeted at the CAD market, therefore limited software support is to be expected. The only softwares known to support the PGC are IBM's Graphical Kernel System , P-CAD 4.5, Canyon State Systems CompuShow [2] [5] and AutoCAD 2.5. [6]
PGC supports:
There are six possible color arrangements: [2]
The display adapter was composed of three physical circuit boards (one with the on-board microprocessor, firmware ROMs and video output connector, one providing CGA emulation, and the third mostly carrying RAM) and occupied two adjacent expansion slots on the XT or AT motherboard or the Expansion Unit; [7] the third card was located in between the two slots. The PGC could not be used in the original IBM PC without the 5161 Expansion Unit due to the different spacing of its slots.
In addition to its native 640 × 480 mode, the PGC optionally supported the documented text and graphics modes of the Color Graphics Adapter, which could be enabled using an onboard jumper. However, it was only partly register-compatible with CGA.
The PGC's matching display was the IBM 5175, an analog RGB monitor that is unique to it and not compatible with any other video card without modification. With hardware modification, the 5175 can be used with VGA, Macintosh, and various other analog RGB video sources. [8] Some surplus 5175s in VGA-converted form were still sold by catalog retailers such as COMB (Close Out Merchant Buyers) as late as the early 1990s.[ citation needed ]
The Tandy 1000 is the first in a line of IBM PC compatible home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center chains of stores. Introduced in 1984, the product line was aimed at providing affordable but capable systems for home computing or education, with some of its Tandy specific features like graphics, sound and joystick port making it more appealing for home use.
IBM 8514 is a graphics card manufactured by IBM and introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of personal computers in 1987. It supports a display resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels with 256 colors at 43.5 Hz (interlaced), or 640 × 480 at 60 Hz (non-interlaced). 8514 usually refers to the display controller hardware. However, IBM sold the companion CRT monitor which carries the same designation, 8514.
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the IBM PC compatible industry within three years. The term can now refer to the computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector, or the 640 × 480 resolution characteristic of the VGA hardware.
The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) is a computer graphics controller formerly made by Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. that combines IBM's text-only MDA display standard with a bitmapped graphics mode, also offering a parallel printer port. This allows the HGC to offer both high-quality text and graphics from a single card.
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) is an IBM PC graphics adapter and de facto computer display standard from 1984 that superseded the CGA standard introduced with the original IBM PC, and was itself superseded by the VGA standard in 1987. In addition to the original EGA card manufactured by IBM, many compatible third-party cards were manufactured, and EGA graphics modes continued to be supported by VGA and later standards.
The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's second generation of personal computers. Released in 1987, it officially replaced the IBM PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible in IBM's lineup. Many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART, 1440 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk format, 72-pin SIMMs, the PS/2 port, and the VGA video standard, went on to become standards in the broader PC market.
The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a de facto computer display standard.
The Multi-Color Graphics Array or MCGA is a video subsystem built into the motherboard of the IBM PS/2 Model 30, introduced in April 1987, and Model 25, introduced later in August 1987; no standalone MCGA cards were ever made.
The Monochrome Display Adapter is IBM's standard video display card and computer display standard for the IBM PC introduced in 1981. The MDA does not have any pixel-addressable graphics modes, only a single monochrome text mode which can display 80 columns by 25 lines of high-resolution text characters or symbols useful for drawing forms.
The Plantronics Colorplus is a graphics card for IBM PC computers, first sold in 1982. It implements a superset of the then-current CGA standard, using the same monitor standard and providing the same pixel resolutions. It was produced by Frederick Electronics, a subsidiary of Plantronics since 1968, and sold by Plantronics' Enhanced Graphics Products division.
In computing, indexed color is a technique to manage digital images' colors in a limited fashion, in order to save computer memory and file storage, while speeding up display refresh and file transfers. It is a form of vector quantization compression.
The Olivetti M24 is a computer that was sold by Olivetti in 1983 using the Intel 8086 CPU.
The eXtended Graphics Array is a graphics card manufactured by IBM and introduced for the IBM PS/2 line of personal computers in 1990 as a successor to the 8514/A. It supports, among other modes, a display resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels with 256 colors at 43.5 Hz (interlaced), or 640 × 480 at 60 Hz (non-interlaced) with up to 65,536 colors. The XGA-2 added an 800 × 600 65,536 color mode and 1024 × 768 60 Hz non-interlaced.
The ATI Wonder is a series of video cards for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles, introduced by ATI Technologies in the mid to late 1980s. These cards were unique at the time as they offered the end user a considerable amount of value by combining support for multiple graphics standards into a single card. The VGA Wonder series added additional value with the inclusion of a bus mouse port, which normally required the installation of a dedicated Microsoft Mouse adapter.
Tandy Graphics Adapter is a computer display standard for the Tandy 1000 series of IBM PC compatibles, which has compatibility with the video subsystem of the IBM PCjr but became a standard in its own right.
Composite artifact colors is a designation commonly used to address several graphic modes of some 1970s and 1980s home computers. With some machines, when connected to an NTSC TV or monitor over composite video outputs, the video signal encoding allowed for extra colors to be displayed, by manipulating the pixel position on screen, not being limited by each machine's hardware color palette.
Vectrix Corporation was a manufacturer of high-resolution color computer graphics products. Formed in 1980 by Richard Katz, the company's first products were the VX family of graphics terminals, followed by the Pepe graphics cards for the IBM XT and AT.