3DLABS Oxygen RPM - Manual (Page 27)

Terms and Definitions
Chapter 4 - Glossary 19
Dithering: The process of converting an image with a certain bit depth to one
with a lower bit depth. Dithering enables the application to convert an image’s col-
ors that it cannot display into two or more colors that closely resemble the original.
Dithering works because the mind is tricked by the pattern of colors into thinking
it’s a different color.
DMA Sub Buffers: Direct Memory Access Sub Buffers partition the data sent to
the graphics card from the host processor in order to optimize performance.
Double Buffering: With double buffering, images are rendered in the back buffer
and then displayed on the screen once the drawing is completed. This results in the
smooth, flicker-free rotation and animation of 3D models and scenes.
Driver: A driver is a special interface program that is developed to perform the
communication between the application program, the device (i.e., graphics periph-
eral) and the operating system.
ESD: ElectroStatic Discharge. Sparks that move from an electrically-charged
object to an approaching conductive object.
EVGA: Extended Video Graphics Array. EVGA runs at a screen resolution of
1024 x 768.
Flat Shading: The simplest method of shading. Each triangle is assigned one sin-
gle color, resulting in a faceted appearance of the surface.
Floating Point: Refers to the data type that allows numbers to be represented in
Scientific Notation for greater range. Floating point operations can be imple-
mented in hardware or software.
Floating Point Processor: An arithmetic unit designed to execute floating point
operations. It may be implemented in a variety of ways such as a co-processor chip
or a CPU with built-in floating point capabilities.
Frame Buffer: An area of memory used to hold a frame of data containing the dis-
playable color buffers (front, back, left, right, overlay, underlay), their (optional)
associated alpha components, and any associated (optional) window control infor-
mation. This memory is typically separate from the local buffer.
Geometry: The intermediate stage of the 3D pipeline, geometry determines the
location of the object and the frame of reference of the viewer in relation to the
object.
Geometry accelerator: A high performance graphics engine that performs geom-
etry calculations.