This article series is in the Electronic History and System Design topics within our Series Library
Jon Peddie has put together short overviews of graphics chips that have made a major impact over the years. It is a fun look back at how we got to where GPGPUs are the norm.
Volume 1 (Download the eBook)
- NEC µPD7220 Graphics Display Controller: The first graphics processor chip
- EGA to VGA: The initiation of bit-mapped graphics and the chip clone wars
- Intel’s 82786 Intel’s First Discrete Graphics Coprocessor
- Texas Instruments TMS34010 and VRAM
- IBM's PGC and 8514/A
- IBM's VGA
Volume 2 (Download the eBook)
Volume 3 (Download the eBook)
- Microsoft's Talisman: The Graphics Chip That Never Was
- Artist Graphics GPX: Too Little Too Late
- Matrox MGA: The Longest-Produced Graphics Chip Ever
- AT&T Truevision’s Targa Set Standards Still Used Today
Volume 4 (Download the eBook)
- Intel i740: Big Investments, Major Embarrassments
- HP’s Artist Chip: Highly-Integrated With The System in Mind
- The History of the Integrated Graphics Controller
- Nintendo 64: Breakthrough Design, Genuine Disruption
Volume 5 (Download the eBook)
- Multi GPUs: A Story of Promise and Potential Failure
- S3 ViRGE: Trying for Virtual Reality Too Early
- ATI 3D Rage: One of the First "Free-D" Chips
- Geometry Engine: The Legendary Chip That Launched SGI
Volume 6 (Download the eBook)
- 3DLabs: From Glint to Permedia
- Yamaha's YGY611: A Pioneer in 3D Graphics
- Nvidia’s Quadratic Processor: The NV1
- Nvidia's GeForce 256: The First Fully-Integrated GPU
Volume 7 (Download the eBook)
- ATI’s Radeon 8500: First GPU With Hardware Tessellation
- Stellar's Short-Lived Run in 3D Graphics Processors
- Alphamosaic to Pi to Doom via Broadcom
- Tseng ET4000: Early Winner Falls Short on 3D