Legacy PC Display Standards
IBM defined MDA (monochrome), CGA, EGA, the MCGA used in their first PS/2 computers. In 1987 two new standards were introduced, 8514/A and VGA. VGA was a major breakthrough for the PC community, making DOS based graphics easier to cope with for software and game developers. VGA introduced a new mode, 640x480 with 16 colors while being backwards compatible with all the previous standards, even the 320x200, 256 color MCGA mode. Computer monitors of the day that supported VGA and MCGA were advertised as such, demonstrating capabilities beyond the EVGA standard.
Besides VGA, a special card offered by IBM was the 8514/A which was primarily used for Computer Aided Drafting. This card was capable of 1024x768 (interlaced) with 256 colors. Then there were many card makers in the industry also releasing cards with their own proprietary capabilities. Basically these all can be considered non-standards, a trend started by IBM and making life difficult for us software developers of the time. The manufacturers usually provided drivers for a handful of popular software such as CAD programs. Everyone else was left in the dark. These were not open standards. If a computer programmer wanted to use one of the high resolution display modes, he would have to pay for the information.
Computer programmers and hardware manufacturers wanted something more uniform. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) was formed and a new video standard was created, the magnificent SuperVGA video standard. This was the first widely accepted VESA standard later leading to Generic VESA video driver standards still used today. The VESA SuperVGA standard is also known as the VESA VBE standard. With SuperVGA we now have 1024x768 at 256 color and higher.
- MDA - Monochrome Display Adapter
- CGA - Color Graphics Adapter
- EGA - Enhanced Graphics Adapter
- MCGA - Multi Color Graphics Array
- VGA - Video Graphics Array
- SuperVGA - Super Video Graphics Array
Related Terminology:
CGA, EGA ,MDA, RGB, RGBSOG, RBGHV ,RGBS ,YPbPr to x-VGA
