OReilly PC hardware in a nutshell 3rd edition jul 2003 ISBN 059600513x

viewing USB HCI Properties under Windows 2000/XP viewing USB HCI Properties under Windows 9X viewing USB Root Hub Properties under Windows 2000/XP viewing USB Root Hub Properties under

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considering when selecting motherboards CPUs and

family support

multiple CPU support

speed support

viewing USB HCI Properties under Windows 2000/XP viewing USB HCI Properties under Windows 9X

viewing USB Root Hub Properties under Windows 2000/XP viewing USB Root Hub Properties under Windows 9X USB devices automatically

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power supplies

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Celeron processors

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Celeron systems, memory upgrades chipset characteristics

chipsets for

CPU slots

quad-pumped FSB speed

Pentium-class systems, memory upgrades Processor Specification Update

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considerations when selecting motherboards cooling requirements of

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restocking fees, avoiding

retail computer stores

boxed components versus OEM components versus direct resellers

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power supplies

SCSI CD-ROM drives

installation on Windows serial port problems

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viewing USB HCI Properties under Windows 2000/XP viewing USB HCI Properties under Windows 9X

viewing USB Root Hub Properties under Windows 2000/XP viewing USB Root Hub Properties under Windows 9X data transfer modes

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Z-CLV (Zoned CLV)

Zoned CLV (Z-CLV)

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The following sections describe the important characteristics ofvideo adapters

15.1.1 2D Versus 3D

The first graphics accelerators were 2D models, designed toprovide hardware acceleration for common display tasks

(drawing and moving windows, scaling fonts, and so on) whenrunning standard business applications under Windows 2D

adapter must determine the relative positions of the characterand the table as seen from the viewer's position and displaythat portion of the character that is in front of the table ratherthan the portion of the table that should be concealed by thecharacter 3D video cards also support a variety of supplementalfunctions to enhance realismfor example, adding textures to thesurface of concrete or adding reflections to a pool of standingwater Adding these minor but visually important enhancementsconsumes a great deal of memory and processor power, so

high-performance 3D video adapters are relatively expensivedevices, with typical street prices of $125 to $300 or more

Midrange 3D video adapters, those that are 12 to 18 months behind the current generation, sell for $50 or so, and provide all the 3D

performance most people need For example, Robert built a

replacement for his primary desktop system in April 2003 He used an Intel D875PBZ motherboard, an 800 MHz FSB Pentium 4/3.0G

processor, a Plextor DVD+RW DVD writer, and two Seagate Serial ATA Barracuda V hard drives, all top-of-the-line products at the time If this had been a gaming system, Robert would have installed a $400 ATI RADEON 9800 Pro But because Robert doesn't play intensive 3D games on that system, he instead bought a $50 RADEON 7500 video adapter.

Note that 3D performance is merely a matter of degree That is,even an elderly 2D-only adapter can be used to play 3D games,but because it does not incorporate 3D acceleration features inhardware, the main system CPU itself must do all of the

calculations that would otherwise be done by a 3D adapter Theresult is very high CPU utilization (with the associated systemsluggishness) and jerky or poorly rendered 3D video withoutthe modeling nuances provided in hardware by the 3D

accelerator

In fact, pure 2D accelerators haven't been manufactured foryears In the early 1990s, two distinct types of video adapterswere available: moderately priced ($50 to $200) 2D

accelerators intended for mainstream use with standard

Windows programs, and very expensive ($500 to $2,000) 3Dadapters intended for niche markets such as animation and

video production As 3D applications (particularly games)

became more common, old-line 2D manufacturers such as

Matrox and ATI incorporated a limited subset of 3D functions intheir mainstream adapters There it stood until a few years ago,

when upstart companies such as 3dfx and nVIDIA caught the

old-line makers napping by releasing graphics accelerators with

a full range of 3D functionality

That led to the current situation, where 3D performance is theonly aspect of a graphics card that interests most people

Reviews talk of little but how video cards compare in various 3Dbenchmarks That's unfortunate because in reality 3D

performance is unimportant to most users In fact, unless youare a serious gamer, 3D performance should probably be the

All video cards and embedded video chipsets currently availableprovide at least minimal 3D support The important thing toremember is this: just as there is not much absolute

performance difference between a $75 processor and a $300processor, neither is there much real difference between a $75video card and a $300 one Benchmarks aside, the $75 carddoes everything that 99% of users are likely to need Yes, thereare differences, just as there are between processors, but

unless you push your hardware to the limit you're not likely tonotice much difference in day-to-day use

15.1.2 Components

A video adapter comprises the following components:

Graphics processor

Rather than depending on the main system CPU to createeach video frame, a graphics accelerator contains a graphicsprocessor, which is optimized to perform in hardware low-level video functions such as transferring bitmaps, doingcolor and pattern fills, scaling fonts, sizing and positioningwindows, and drawing lines, polygons, and other graphicsprimitives An accelerated video adapter also requires muchless data to be transferred between the system bus and thevideo adapter For example, to draw a circle with a framegrabber, the system CPU must create a bitmap of that circleand transfer it to the frame grabber Conversely, given onlythe center and radius of the circle, a graphics acceleratorcan render the circle directly

Early accelerators were optimized for 2D graphics

processors and web browsers More recent accelerators,including all current models, provide 3D acceleration, which

is primarily useful for playing 3D graphics-intensive games

Unfortunately, some recent 3D adapters, particularly nVIDIA

models, are so heavily optimized for 3D that they providemediocre 2D performance We have several venerable

Matrox video adapters, for example, that are useless forplaying 3D games, but provide better 2D video quality thanany current 3D accelerator

adapters also allocate memory not being used by the mainframe buffer as a second frame buffer, allowing the nextframe to be created in the background while the currentframe is being displayed The most important characteristics

adapters because it is so slow, mainly because it is

single-ported, which means that it does not allow data

to be read and written simultaneously

EDO DRAM (Extended Data Out DRAM)

access more efficiently EDO is single-ported, typicallyoperates with 50 to 60 ns access times, is usually 64bits wide, and yields overall bandwidth of 400 MB/s.EDO was commonly used in video adapters before theadvent of SDRAM and the various specialized types ofvideo memory described later in this list, and continued

to be used until mid-2000 in some of the least-expensive video adapters Nowadays, even the

cheapest video adapters use something faster than EDODRAM

VRAM (Video RAM)

A special type of DRAM, VRAM is used only in video

adapters and is designed to overcome the limitations ofthe single-ported arrangement used by DRAM and EDO

by SDR-SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM, described later in thislist

WRAM (Windows RAM)

WRAM, first introduced by Matrox with its Milleniumseries of video adapters, is an enhanced version of

VRAM that is somewhat less expensive to produce andprovides about 20% higher performance than VRAM.Like VRAM, WRAM has been superseded by SDR-SDRAMand DDR-SDRAM

A step up from EDO, SDRAM runs the memory and

graphics processor on a common clock reference,

allowing faster access times and higher throughput.SDRAM is single-ported, operates at 8 to 15 ns accesstimes, is typically 64 bits wide, and yields overall

bandwidth of 800 MB/s at 100 MHz SDRAM is now usedonly in inexpensive video adapters SDRAM is now

SDRAM) to differentiate it from DDR-SDRAM

sometimes described as Single Data Rate SDRAM (SDR-SGRAM (Synchronous Graphics RAM)

SGRAM is an enhanced form of SDRAM, used only onvideo adapters, that supports write-per-bit and blockwrites, both of which improve performance over SDRAMwhen used with graphics accelerators that explicitly

support SGRAM SGRAM video memory is single-ported,operates at 6 to 10 ns access times, is typically 64 bitswide, and yields overall bandwidth of 800 MB/s SGRAMwas formerly used on midrange and high-end video

SDRAM, described next

adapters, but has now largely been replaced by DDR-DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate SDRAM)

DDR-SDRAM differs from standard Single Data RateSDRAM (SDR-SDRAM) in that it transfers data on boththe rising and falling edge of the clock cycle, doublingtransfer rate on a 64-bit bus to 1600 MB/s at 100 MHz

or 2100+ MB/s at 133 MHz As of July 2003, the fastestvideo DDR modules readily available run at 500 MHzand transfer 8000 MB/s on a 64-bit bus, 16,000 MB/s

on a 128-bit bus, or 32,000 MB/s on a 256-bit bus

DDR-SDRAM was first used only in expensive video

adapters, but by early 2003 even many inexpensive

differentiated by the amount and speed of their onboardmemory, as well as by the width of their memory

SDRAM operating at 500 MHz on a 64-bit interface Amidrange adapter may have 128 MB of DDR-SDRAMoperating at 750 MHz on a 128-bit interface A high-endadapter may have 256 MB of DDR-SDRAM operating at1,000 MHz on a 256-bit interface Each jump in memoryspeed or interface width increases the bandwidth

interfaces A low-end adapter may have 64 MB of DDR-available for video operations

GDDR-II and GDDR-III SDRAM (Graphics DDR-SDRAM)

As standard DDR-SDRAM approaches its performancelimits, video adapter makers are designing chipsets forenhanced forms of DDR-SDRAM called Graphics DDR-SDRAM (GDDR-SDRAM) GDDR-II is a variant of thenext-generation DDR-II memory, with point-to-pointsignaling support added for improved graphics

performance nVIDIA backs GDDR-II, which is regarded

III, which is a graphics-specific variant of DDR-III, thefollow-on to DDR-II The price, performance, and

by many as a transitional standard ATI favors GDDR-scalability of GDDR-II and GDDR-III are uncertain, somost makers are trying to hedge their bets Either

standard might prevail, and it is quite possible that thetwo will coexist

nVIDIA uses GDDR-II in the GeForce FX, and seems

determined to force acceptance of that standard

Unfortunately, as of July 2003 JEDEC had not yet

established a GDDR-II standard Three slightly differentand incompatible types of GDDR-II exist, which meanschipset makers must design interfaces that are

compatible with all three versions ATI, on the otherhand, is taking a wait-and-see approach ATI has