Video display controller

Block diagram of a NEC µPD7220 graphics display controller

A video display controller or VDC is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computing or game system. Some VDCs also generate an audio signal, but that is not their main function.

VDCs were used in the home computers of the 1980s and also in some early video game systems.

The VDC is the main component of the video signal generator logic, responsible for generating the timing of video signals such as the horizontal and vertical synchronisation signals and the blanking interval signal. Sometimes other supporting chips were necessary to build a complete system, such as RAM to hold pixel data, ROM to hold character fonts, or some discrete logic such as shift registers.

Most often the VDC chip is completely integrated in the logic of the main computer system, (its video RAM appears in the memory map of the main CPU), but sometimes it functions as a coprocessor that can manipulate the video RAM contents independently

Video display controllers vs. video display processors and graphics processing units

The difference between a VDC and the more modern video display processor (VDP) is not that the VDCs could not generate graphics, but they did not have the special hardware accelerators to create 2D and 3D images, while a typical 1990s VDP does have at least some form of hardware graphics acceleration. Also VDCs often had special hardware for the creation of "sprites", a function that in more modern VDP chips is done with the "Bit Blitter" using the "Bit blit" function.

One example of a typical video display processor is the "VDP2 32-bit background and scroll plane video display processor" of the Sega Saturn. Another example is the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) chip that was used for the improved graphics of the later generation Amiga computers.

This said, it is not completely clear when a "video chip" is a "video display controller" and when it is a "video display processor". For example, the TMS9918 is sometimes called a "video display controller" and sometimes a "video display processor". In general however a "video display processor" has some power to "process" the contents of the video RAM (filling an area of RAM for example), while a "video display controller" only controls the timing of the video synchronisation signals and the access to the video RAM.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) goes one step further than the VDP and normally also supports 3D functionality. It is the chip that is now used in modern personal computers.

Types

Video Display controllers can be (arbitrarily) divided in several different types (here listed from simple to complex);

List of example VDCs

Examples of video display controllers are:

Video shifters

CRT Controllers

Video interface controllers

Video coprocessors

Alternatives to a VDC chip

Note that many older home-computer did not use a VDP chip, but built the whole video display controller from a lot of discrete logic chips, (examples are the Apple II, PET, and TRS-80). Because these methods are very flexible the video display generators could be very capable, (or extremely primitive, depending of the quality of the design) but also needed a lot of components.

Many early systems used some form of an early programmable logic array to create a video system, examples include the ZX Spectrum and ZX-81 systems and Elektronika BK-0010 but there were many others. Early implementations are often very primitive, but later implementations could result in fairly advanced video systems like the one in the SAM Coupé.

These systems could thus build a very capable system with relatively few components, but the low transistor count of early programmable logic meant that the capabilities of early PLA based systems often were less impressive than those using the video interface controllers or video coprocessors that were available at the same time. Later PLA solutions, like those using CPLDs or FPGAs could result in much more advanced video systems, surpassing those built using off the shelf components.

An often used hybrid solution was to use a video interface controller (often the Motorola 6845) as a basis and expand its capabilities with programmable logic or an ASIC. An example of such a hybrid solution is the original VGA card, that used an 6845 in combination with an ASIC, that is the reason why all current VGA based video systems still use the hardware registers that were provided by the 6845.

Modern solutions

ATi R300 chip block diagram; the display controller is called "display interface"

With the advancements made in semiconductor device fabrication, more and more functionality is implemented as integrated circuit, often licensable as SIP core. Display controller SIP blocks are either found on the die of GPUs, APUs and SoCs.

They support a variety interfaces: VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, VHDCI, DMS-59 and more. The PHY includes LVDS, TMDS and Flat Panel Display Link, OpenLDI and CML.

For example, a VGA-signal, which is created by the display controller, is being transported over a VGA-cable to the display. Both ends of the cable end in a VGA connector. Laptops and other mobile computers use different interfaces between the display controller and the display. A display controller usually supports multiple computer display standards.

KMS driver is an example of a device driver for display controllers and AMD Eyefinity is a special brand of display controller with multi-monitor support.

See also

External links