ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that graphics hardware is evolving at a rapid pace, there are some general concepts and architectures that are commonly used in its design. Our goal in this chapter is to give an understanding of the various hardware elements of a graphics system and how they relate to one another. Other parts of the book discuss these in terms of their use with particular algorithms. Here, we discuss hardware on its own terms. We begin by discussing how the contents of the color buffer get displayed on the monitor. The various different buffers that can be a part of a real-time rendering system are then discussed. After that, perspective-correct interpolation is described. We continue with an overview of graphics architecture concepts, followed by three case studies of specific graphics systems.
