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Glossary of Technical Terms
Here are some technical terms commonly used
on our website and along with our products.
BNC connector
Bayonet Neill Concelman
A type of connector commonly used
To connect workstation monitors to terminals.
A very sturdy, high quality and reliable connector
Cathode Ray Tube(CRT)
Technology used by many monitors that scans an electron beam
Across blobs of phosphor to create an image on your screen.
The beam scans many times faster than your eye
Can perceive creating a "still" image to you. However, you may be
Able to notice a "flicker" out of the corner of your eye on some monitors
Because the refresh rate, or times the beam moves across the monitor, is slow
Enough to be perceived by the more sensitive photoreceptors at the edges of your
Eye. A monitor should refresh faster than 72hz in order to have this flicker go
Away.
CGA
Abbreviation of color/graphics adapter, an old
graphics system for PCs. Introduced in 1981 by
IBM, CGA was the first color graphics system for
IBM PCs. Designed primarily for computer games,
CGA does not produce sharp enough characters for
extended editing sessions. CGA's highest-resolution
mode is 2 colors at a resolution of 640 by 200.
Colordepth
The number of distinct colors that can be represented
by a piece of hardware or software, related to the number of bits used for each
pixel. A 24-bit color depth gives you 16 million colors
Degauss
The electron "guns" used by a Cathode Ray Tube to create images
On the screen, build up electromagnetic charges, and this can cause
Image distortion over time. Degaussing your monitor realigns the
Guns inside the screen to compensate for any magnetic interference.
Display Date Channel(DDC)
a VESA standard so your monitor can receive information from a video
card and vice versa
Dot pitch or DPI
A measurement that indicates the diagonal distance in millimeters, between
Pixels. It is used to assess the quality of a monitor with higher end monitors having
A lower DPI and thus a crisper image.
EGA
Abbreviation of enhanced graphics adapter, a
graphics display system for PCs introduced by IBM
in 1984. EGA supports 16 colors from a palette of
64 and provides a resolution of 640 by 350. This is
better than CGA but not as good as VGA. EGA is
now obsolete.
EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory):
An EPROM is a special type of PROM that can be erased by exposing it
to ultraviolet light.
EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory):
An EEPROM is a special type of PROM that can be
erased by exposing it to an electrical charge.
Fixed frequency monitor
A monitor that accepts only a very narrow frequency range.
Interlacing
The process by which a monitor draws only the even or odd horizontal lines
With each vertical refresh. This allows the monitor to draw twice as many
Lines per refresh. However, if you are using an application that requires
Fast refreshes, like streaming video or animations,
this can create flickering and a chunky feel.
Pixel
a single point in a graphics display that is a triad of colored dots: red, blue, green,
placed close together so that your eye sees it as one image.
RAMDAC
Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter, it converts
digitally encoded images into analog signals that can
be displayed by a monitor.
Resolution
is the number of pixels your monitor is currently displaying. For example,
if you are in 1024 X 768 that's 1024 pixels by 768 pixels on your screen.
The larger the resolution, the more visible area you can see on your monitor.
SGRAM
Synchronous Graphic Random Access Memory
Used notably by video cards, very fast, 100mhz bus compatible RAM
Shadowmask
The thin sheet of metal that filters the electron beams so they only
Strike their proper phosphor dots.
SVGA
Graphical Standards predecessor to VGA, it allows greater resolution
And higher color depth.
Trinitron
An alternative to the Shadowmask invented by Sony in which the thin sheet
Of metal is instead a grid of fine vertical wires
A trinitron is noticeable by the several faint horizontal lines evident
If you look closely at the screen. These are the stabilizing wires for
The aperture grill.
True color
Refers to the use of 24-bit color depth. Because humans
Cannot distinguish 16 million colors, all images
Can be represented as "true" as we see them.
VGA
video standard supported by most monitors, that allows
640 X 480 and 16 colors
Video RAM Required for Different Resolutions
Resolution 256 colors 65,000 colors 16.7 mil colors
(8-bit) (16-bit) (true color)
640x480 512K 1 MB 1 MB
800x600 512K 1 MB 2 MB
1,024x768 1 MB 2 MB 4 MB
1,152x1,024 2 MB 2 MB 4 MB
1,280x1,024 2 MB 4 MB 4 MB
1,600x1,200 2 MB 4 MB 6 MB
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