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Glossary

ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X²

33

쮿

Multifrequency/Multisync monitor  – 

A

monitor that can be operated at various hori-
zontal scan frequencies, or that automatically
adapts itself to different video signals (resolu-
tions).

쮿

OpenGL  – 

3D software interface (3D API).

E.g.  implemented in Windows NT and avail-
able for Windows 95.  Based on Iris GL from Sil-
icon Graphics and licensed from Microsoft. 

쮿

Page Flipping – 

The image generated in the

back buffer is displayed

쮿

PCI bus  – 

Abbreviation of Peripheral Compo-

nent Interconnect Bus.  An advanced bus sys-
tem, i.e.  a system of parallel data lines to
transfer information between individual system
components, especially to expansion boards. 

쮿

Phong shading  – 

 'Shading'. 

쮿

Pixel  – 

Picture element.  Dot in the image. 

쮿

Pixel frequency – 

Pixel clock frequency

(number of pixels drawn per second in MHz). 

쮿

Primitive – 

Simple, polygonal geometrical

object, such as a triangle.  3D landscapes are
generally broken down into triangles.

쮿

RAM  – 

Abbreviation of Random Access Mem-

ory.  Chip memory of a computer or expansion
board that can be read from and written to
(unlike ROM = Read Only Memory). 

쮿

RAMDAC  – 

The RAMDAC converts the digital

signals to analog signals on a graphics board.
VGA monitors are only capable of processing
analog signals. 

쮿

RealColor  – 

RealColor normally designates a

15-bpp or 16-bpp (bits per pixel) graphics mode,
i.e.  32,768 or 65,536 colors).

쮿

Refresh rate  – 

 or image refresh frequency (in

Hz) indicates how many times per second an
image on the monitor is refreshed. 

쮿

Rendering – 

Process for calculating the repre-

sentation of a 3D scene, in which the position
and color of each point in space is determined.
The depth information is held in the 

Z buffer,

the color and size information is held in the

frame buffer.

쮿

Resolution  – 

The number of pixels in horizon-

tal and vertical direction on the screen, for
example 640 horizontal by 480 vertical pixels
(640 x 480). 

쮿

RGB  – 

Color information is saved in the Red/

Green/Blue color format. 

쮿

ROM – 

Abbreviation of Read Only Memory.

Semiconductor memory that can only be read
and not written to. 

쮿

S-Video

  – 

or S-VHS.  Signal transmission of

video information, where the signals for

chrominance and 

luminance are sepa-

rated.  This results in a higher picture quality.

쮿

Shading  – 

Shading or rendering is a way to

define the colors on curved surfaces in order to
give an object a natural appearance.  To
achieve this, the surfaces are subdivided into
many small triangles.  The three most impor-
tant 3D shading methods differ in the algorithm
used to apply colors to these triangles: 
Flat shading: the triangles are uniformly col-
ored.
Gouraud shading: The color shades on a trian-
gle are calculated by interpolating the vertex
colors, resulting in a smooth appearance of the
surface.
Phong shading: the color shades on a triangle
are calculated by interpolating the normal vec-
tor.

쮿

Shutter glasses – 

Goggles which use stereo-

scopic LCD projection of 3D scenery to give the
observer a strong impression of space. 

Содержание ERAZOR X

Страница 1: ...ELSA ERAZORTM X ELSA ERAZORTM X Manual ...

Страница 2: ...ction technology that is protected by method claims of certain U S patents and other intellectual property rights owned by Macrovision Corporation and other right owners Use of this copyright protection technology must be authorized by Macrovision Corporation and is intended for home and other limited viewing uses only unless otherwise authorized by Macrovision Corporation Reverse engineering or d...

Страница 3: ... of your ELSA graphics board For instance which resolution is best for which monitor or how is the board upgraded The accompanying ELSA utility programs are described and you will find detailed information about 3D acceleration ELSA products are subject to continual further development It is therefore possible that the information printed in this manual is not current in all respects In the README...

Страница 4: ...of the ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X hardware and software drivers is described in full in the Installation Guide which accompanies this manual You should refer to that document before attempting to install your board and before reading this ...

Страница 5: ...Windows 95 and Windows 98 7 Windows NT 4 0 9 Useful stuff and more 11 The Multimedia Player 11 Fine tuning for performance freaks 12 ELSA ChipGuard 13 Overclocking 13 ELSAinfo 14 Video out with the ELSA ERAZOR X 14 Connecting to the Video Outputs 14 Settings under Windows 9x 15 All about graphics 17 3D graphics representation 17 The 3D pipeline 17 3D interfaces 19 What APIs are available 20 Direct...

Страница 6: ...cteristics of the graphics board 25 ELSA graphics board addresses 25 Ports on the graphics board 26 The VGA D shell socket 26 The S Video connector 26 Appendix 27 Declarations of conformity 27 Warranty conditions 28 Glossary 31 Index 35 ...

Страница 7: ...games using DirectX7 use up to 4 times more poly gons at full speed 쮿 Witness nearly true life player skins and objects 쮿 High definition picture high performance with up to 1900 x 1440 pixels over 16 million colors and refresh rates of 200Hz provide an astounding picture ideal for 19 to 24 monitors 쮿 32 MB graphics memory give you scope for image processing and huge textures 쮿 ELSA SmartRefresh a...

Страница 8: ...Computer Minimum requirements are a Celeron 300 Pentium II 300 or AMD K6 300 processor 쮿 Bus The ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X is available as an AGP version Your com puter must have an AGP bus 쮿 Monitor The ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X works with the standard IBM VGA compatible horizontal scan frequency of 31 5 kHz while booting and in DOS opera tion CE conformity and FCC radiation standard CE This eq...

Страница 9: ...by turning this equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the follow ing measures 쮿 Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna 쮿 Increase the distance between this equipment and the receiver 쮿 Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit other than that to which the receiver is connected 쮿 Consult your dealer or an experienced radio TV tech...

Страница 10: ...Introduction ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X 4 ...

Страница 11: ...off the setup program on the Product CD will not start automatically It can be found and started manually from the root directory of the CD and is called SETUP EXE ELSA Setup recognizes the operating system and the ELSA graphics board s First of all select the language for the installation and then the components you wish to install The right settings Our tip is Invest a little time at this stage ...

Страница 12: ... with 65 536 colors More Pixels more fun This is an opinion which is widespread but which is not entirely true under all circum stances The general rule is that a refresh rate of 73Hz meets the minimum ergonomic requirements The resolution to be selected also depends on the capabilities of your mon itor The table below is a guide to the resolutions you might select Max Refresh Rate Hz Color depth ...

Страница 13: ...t ically detect which settings are possible and which are not This means for instance that it is impossible for you to select an incorrect refresh rate which might damage your monitor 햲 Click on Start then select Settings 왘 Control Panel 햳 You will find the Display icon in the Control Panel When you start this program you are shown a dialog box where you can modified the display settings 햴 Here yo...

Страница 14: ...e Monitor type database window In addition to the information regard ing the monitor manufacturer and the model designation you will have to enter the fre quency ranges for the horizontal and vertical scan frequencies and specify the diagonal size of your monitor Check your entries for the image frequencies carefully as otherwise you might damage your monitor Look these up in your monitor manual o...

Страница 15: ...le click on this symbol to open the window with its various tabs Click on the Settings tab You can select the possible settings for Color palette Font size Resolution and Dis play frequency from this dialog box The available selection is determined by the ELSA driver you have installed You should always check the configuration you have selected by clicking on the Test button You will find further ...

Страница 16: ...After installing the drivers ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X 10 ...

Страница 17: ... com mon multimedia formats all under one common user interface regardless of whether the data is coming from the Internet or the local hard disk The Multimedia Player is responsible for the playback of RealAudio and RealVideo as well as WAV AVI and Quicktime files After the installation the file extensions of media files are permanently associated with the Multimedia Player You can thus double cl...

Страница 18: ...t the driver settings The settings which are optimal for any game can saved under an identifiable name and quickly recalled without having to restart your system Experimentation pays Give your combatant a little extra zip and optimize his chances against the competition If the descriptions here are too cryptic just take a look at the glossary in this manual or use the comprehensive help system Sim...

Страница 19: ...e drivers It is started whenever Windows ist started ChipGuard functions fully automatically Despite its important role ELSA s ChipGuard remains in the background When the hard ware is functioning a green dot is displayed in the start menu The dot becomes red as soon as the hardware reaches a critical condition If the fan is not working properly when checked at startup a window opens to notify the...

Страница 20: ...corders equipped with an S Video input or with a Cinch socket composite input You can use the supplied adapter for this Be sure to check the Connector settings for the Video Out Connection to a TV Set You can connect any normal TV set to the graphics board Refer to the operating manual for your television to find out which video standards it supports or ask your TV dealer You can connect PAL or NT...

Страница 21: ...t is active 햴 Now check the video standard Depending on the standard you require activate either PAL or NTSC 햵 Under Connector select the video input type be it composite or S Video Should a black and white image appear on your TV call the Video Out dialog and click on Color Tuning In the Color Tuning window move the slider left or right to adjust the color carrier frequency until a colorful and s...

Страница 22: ...Useful stuff and more ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X 16 ...

Страница 23: ...k required here is known only to the processor but we will describe it in detail to you below The 3D pipeline What actually happens when a monitor displays a 3D object The data describing the 3D object are passed through what is known as the 3D pipeline in which the mathematical calculations for its representation in space and perspective on the monitor are carried out What happens in detail Start...

Страница 24: ...A pixel by pixel comparison is made between the texture template and the surface to be filled This method leads to a very coarse representation especially when enlarged In linear mapping a new color value is interpolated from the adjacent pixels or telexes of a texture This gives better results than point sampling as the hard boundary between the coarse pixels is blurred The MIP mapping method sto...

Страница 25: ...ons and mirror images Certain applications use ray tracing methods This is a very computer intensive and time consuming process in which each individual pixel and its reflection in 3D space is calculated 쮿 The frame buffer The finished image will not be written to the frame buffer until this complex se quence of steps is completed The frame buffer is made up of front and back buffer The back buffe...

Страница 26: ...s Direct 3D As a development of Mode X and DirectDraw under Windows 3 1x Direct 3D is a branch of the DirectX multimedia family which was developed directly for Windows 95 to accel erate the slow 3D display characteristics of the operating system Direct 3D is based on Microsoft s Common Object Model COM which is also used as the foundation to OLE technology Object Linking and Embedding Direct 3D c...

Страница 27: ...olor and gray scales Common graphics modes are listed in the following table Not all graphics modes are available on the ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X boards VGA In VGA graphics adapters the digital color information stored in the video memory 4 bits for 16 colors or 8 bits for 256 colors is converted into a digital 18 bit value in the graphics adapter in a CLUT ColorLookUpTable The 3 x 6 bits are co...

Страница 28: ...es are organized differently Most common are R G B 5 6 5 e g XGA and 6 6 4 e g i860 5 6 5 means that 5 bits are used for each of red and blue and 6 bits are used for green In the case of 6 6 4 6 bits are used for red and green and 4 bits for blue Both ways of assigning the bits correspond to the color sensitivity of the human eye this is highest for green and lowest for blue 65 536 different color...

Страница 29: ...5 formerly used as monitor ID bit 3 is used as transmission clock SCL The graphics board can request the short EDID information see DDC1 as well as the more comprehensive VDIF information VESA Display Identification File DDC2AB With DDC2AB additional to DDC2B the computer can send commands for controlling the monitor e g for adjusting the screen position or the brightness similar to ACCESS bus Mod...

Страница 30: ...All about graphics ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X 24 ...

Страница 31: ...he conflict The addresses of the ELSA graphics boards cannot be changed The ERAZOR X also requires an interrupt IRQ which is free This may have to be reserved in the computer s BIOS For help with this theme refer to the manual for your mainboard ERAZOR X Graphics processor GeForce by nVidia RAMDAC pixel timing 350MHz On board memory 32MB DDR RAM BIOS Flash BIOS with VBE 3 0 support Bus system AGP ...

Страница 32: ... shell socket Pin assignment The ELSA ERAZOR X and ERAZOR X issues analog signals in accordance with the requirements of directive RS 170 The synchronization information is sent separately The S Video connector Pin assignment Connection Signal Connection Signal 1 Red 9 5 V 2 Green 10 Sync ground 3 Blue 11 Monitor ID2 4 Monitor ID0 12 Bidirectional data SDA DDC1 2B 5 DDC ground 13 Horizontal synchr...

Страница 33: ...quipment Graphics Board Model Name ERAZOR X This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules Operation is subject to the following two conditions 1 this device may not cause harmful interference and 2 this device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation See user manual instructions if interference to radio reception is suspected On behalf of...

Страница 34: ...rd Model Name Erazor X This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules Operation is subject to the following two conditions 1 this device may not cause harmful interference and 2 this device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation See user manual instructions if interference to radio reception is suspected On behalf of the manufacturer imp...

Страница 35: ...riod The warranty period for ELSA products is six years Excepted from this warranty period are ELSA color monitors and ELSA videoconferencing systems with a warranty period of 3 years This period begins at the day of delivery from the ELSA dealer Warranty services do not result in an extension of the warranty period nor do they initiate a new warranty period The warranty period for installed repla...

Страница 36: ...es no entitlement to additional claims such as any refund in full or in part Com pensation claims regardless of the legal basis are excluded This does not apply if e g injury to persons or damage to private property are specifically covered by the product liability law or in cas es of intentional act or culpable negligence c Claims for compensation of lost profits indirect or consequential detrime...

Страница 37: ...which textures are assigned depth information which allows the display of relief or raised structures 쮿 Bus system A system of parallel data lines for the transfer of information between indi vidual system components especially to expansion boards e g PCI bus 쮿 Chrominance Color information in the video signal 쮿 Clipping parts of polygons invisible to the representation are determined in clipping ...

Страница 38: ...uffer 쮿 Front buffer is the name for the visible image page in double buffering 쮿 Geometrical transformation The position of the object in space is determined from the observer s point of view 쮿 Gouraud shading Shading 쮿 Graphics accelerator refers to a graphics accelerator board i e a board particularly suited for graphics intensive user environ ments 쮿 HighColor designates a 15 bpp or 16 bpp bit...

Страница 39: ...esh rate or image refresh frequency in Hz indicates how many times per second an image on the monitor is refreshed 쮿 Rendering Process for calculating the repre sentation of a 3D scene in which the position and color of each point in space is determined The depth information is held in the Z buffer the color and size information is held in the frame buffer 쮿 Resolution The number of pixels in hori...

Страница 40: ...nsparency values are determined for the tri angles 쮿 Textures Wrapping a bitmap around an object including perspective correction for example wallpaper on a wall or a wood texture on furniture Even a video can be used as a tex ture map 쮿 TrueColor Graphics mode with 16 7 million colors 24 or 32 bits per pixel In this mode the color information saved in the display memory is not translated by a loo...

Страница 41: ...3D 21 DirectColor 22 31 DirectDraw 20 DirectX 14 DMA 25 Double buffer 31 DPMS 32 DRAM 32 Driver versions 14 쮿 E EDO RAM 32 쮿 F FCC 2 32 Filtering 18 Flat shading 19 32 33 Flipping 19 32 Frame buffer 19 32 Front buffer 19 32 쮿 G Geometrical transformation 17 32 Gouraud shading 19 33 Grey scales 21 쮿 H Hardware description 25 HighColor 22 32 Horizontal frequency 32 쮿 I I O address 25 Immediate mode ...

Страница 42: ...AC 25 33 Ray tracing 19 RealColor 22 33 Refresh rate 33 Rendering 18 33 Resolution 33 Retained mode 20 쮿 S Scan frequency 32 Shading 19 33 Shutter glasses 33 Single buffer 34 S Video 33 쮿 T Tearing 34 Tesselation 34 Texture 34 Texture mapping 18 Transformation 18 TrueColor 21 22 34 쮿 V VESA 34 VESA DDC 25 VGA 21 VRAM 34 쮿 Z Z buffer 34 ...

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