3 ms·

Is there a good book on the history of development of graphics hardware, including the PC-era cards also?

christkv 4y ago
Closest thing I have found is https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/chasing-pixels https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/chasing-pixe...
deaddodo 4y ago
There's no good book, necessarily. However, it's easy enough to piece together the information from Wikipedia[1] and a few articles[2]. In addition, there are a few great youtube channels that offer some great commentary on specific cards/generations and comparisons: PixelPipes[3], PCRetroTech[4], LGR[5] and the various other obscure channels recommended once you go down that rabbit hole. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit#Histo... 2 - https://www.techspot.com/article/650-history-of-the-gpu/#part-one https://www.techspot.com/article/650-history-of-the-gpu/#par... 3 - https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelPipes https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelPipes 4 - https://www.youtube.com/c/PCRetroTech https://www.youtube.com/c/PCRetroTech 5 - https://www.youtube.com/c/Lazygamereviews https://www.youtube.com/c/Lazygamereviews
phire 4y ago
Not quite what you want, but Michael Abrash’s Graphics Programming Black Book is available for free online, and covers the software rendering side of computer graphics in the early-mid 90s, ending at Quake, just before 3d accelerators hit the scene. There are a few anecdotes from hardware designers of 2d graphics cards mixed in, but the bulk of the book is about writing optimised x86 assembly (don't follow the any of it's advice these days) and writing fast polygon rasterisers.
pizza234 4y ago
I'm not aware of any book, either. If you want an architectural overview, an alternative approach is to read chronologically the websites coverage starting from the late 90s; it may be relatively superficial, but there's a decent amount of information: - https://vintage3d.org/index.php https://vintage3d.org/index.php: dedicated to vintage GPUs; very interesting, but I would have liked it to be more in-depth - https://www.anandtech.com/tag/gpus/106 https://www.anandtech.com/tag/gpus/106: start of GPU coverage for Anandtech; probably middle ground between Vintage3d and Tom's Hardware - https://www.tomshardware.com/archive/1998/2 https://www.tomshardware.com/archive/1998/2: start of (more dedicated) GPU coverage for Tom's Hardware, but it's more awkward to navigate, and I think more superficial, than Anandtech
- ogurechny 4y ago
  Psst, thg.ru has copies of old articles with non-dead images and non-broken design. http://www.thg.ru/graphic/19980227/onepage.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/19980227/onepage.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1997.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1997.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1998.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1998.html etc. It's pretty sad that modern generation has no idea that back in the days tech was cool, and “enthusiasts” were those who discussed chip architecture and texture sampling, not some video personalities discussing the color of old plastic. Well, consumerist approach have always beaten the specialist dedication. https://www.anandtech.com/print/854/ https://www.anandtech.com/print/854/ http://web.archive.org/web/20071213131847/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/r600-architecture.html http://web.archive.org/web/20071213131847/http://www.xbitlab... http://web.archive.org/web/20040804115729/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/nv40.html http://web.archive.org/web/20040804115729/http://www.xbitlab... http://web.archive.org/web/20080104000403/http://www.ixbt.com/video/s3tc-fxt1-comparision.html http://web.archive.org/web/20080104000403/http://www.ixbt.co... http://web.archive.org/web/20071229163953/http://www.ixbt.com/video2/dx-current.shtml http://web.archive.org/web/20071229163953/http://www.ixbt.co...
Keyframe 4y ago
(campfire crackling sounds): It all started back with E&S...
bpye 4y ago
I had some fun digging through the PowerVR Series 1 source code [0] that was released earlier in the year. It includes a simulator that you can use to piece together how the hardware itself worked, some of it certainly looks like a rough translation from the RTL... [0] - https://github.com/powervr-graphics/PowerVR-Series1 https://github.com/powervr-graphics/PowerVR-Series1

Closest thing I have found is https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/chasing-pixels https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/chasing-pixe...

deaddodo 4y ago

There's no good book, necessarily. However, it's easy enough to piece together the information from Wikipedia[1] and a few articles[2]. In addition, there are a few great youtube channels that offer some great commentary on specific cards/generations and comparisons: PixelPipes[3], PCRetroTech[4], LGR[5] and the various other obscure channels recommended once you go down that rabbit hole. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit#Histo... 2 - https://www.techspot.com/article/650-history-of-the-gpu/#part-one https://www.techspot.com/article/650-history-of-the-gpu/#par... 3 - https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelPipes https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelPipes 4 - https://www.youtube.com/c/PCRetroTech https://www.youtube.com/c/PCRetroTech 5 - https://www.youtube.com/c/Lazygamereviews https://www.youtube.com/c/Lazygamereviews

phire 4y ago

Not quite what you want, but Michael Abrash’s Graphics Programming Black Book is available for free online, and covers the software rendering side of computer graphics in the early-mid 90s, ending at Quake, just before 3d accelerators hit the scene. There are a few anecdotes from hardware designers of 2d graphics cards mixed in, but the bulk of the book is about writing optimised x86 assembly (don't follow the any of it's advice these days) and writing fast polygon rasterisers.

pizza234 4y ago

I'm not aware of any book, either. If you want an architectural overview, an alternative approach is to read chronologically the websites coverage starting from the late 90s; it may be relatively superficial, but there's a decent amount of information: - https://vintage3d.org/index.php https://vintage3d.org/index.php: dedicated to vintage GPUs; very interesting, but I would have liked it to be more in-depth - https://www.anandtech.com/tag/gpus/106 https://www.anandtech.com/tag/gpus/106: start of GPU coverage for Anandtech; probably middle ground between Vintage3d and Tom's Hardware - https://www.tomshardware.com/archive/1998/2 https://www.tomshardware.com/archive/1998/2: start of (more dedicated) GPU coverage for Tom's Hardware, but it's more awkward to navigate, and I think more superficial, than Anandtech

ogurechny 4y ago
Psst, thg.ru has copies of old articles with non-dead images and non-broken design. http://www.thg.ru/graphic/19980227/onepage.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/19980227/onepage.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1997.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1997.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1998.html http://www.thg.ru/graphic/1998.html etc. It's pretty sad that modern generation has no idea that back in the days tech was cool, and “enthusiasts” were those who discussed chip architecture and texture sampling, not some video personalities discussing the color of old plastic. Well, consumerist approach have always beaten the specialist dedication. https://www.anandtech.com/print/854/ https://www.anandtech.com/print/854/ http://web.archive.org/web/20071213131847/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/r600-architecture.html http://web.archive.org/web/20071213131847/http://www.xbitlab... http://web.archive.org/web/20040804115729/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/print/nv40.html http://web.archive.org/web/20040804115729/http://www.xbitlab... http://web.archive.org/web/20080104000403/http://www.ixbt.com/video/s3tc-fxt1-comparision.html http://web.archive.org/web/20080104000403/http://www.ixbt.co... http://web.archive.org/web/20071229163953/http://www.ixbt.com/video2/dx-current.shtml http://web.archive.org/web/20071229163953/http://www.ixbt.co...

Keyframe 4y ago

(campfire crackling sounds): It all started back with E&S...

bpye 4y ago

I had some fun digging through the PowerVR Series 1 source code [0] that was released earlier in the year. It includes a simulator that you can use to piece together how the hardware itself worked, some of it certainly looks like a rough translation from the RTL... [0] - https://github.com/powervr-graphics/PowerVR-Series1 https://github.com/powervr-graphics/PowerVR-Series1