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1. History: from 3D graphics cards to graphics processors
The first graphics cards to address an individual point on the display appeared in the early 1980s: CGA (Color Graphic Adapter) cards with a resolution of 320 columns by 200 lines in 4 colors.
To understand the evolution from the mid-1990s onwards, we need to briefly recall the stages in the graphics pipeline, which notably enabled 3D rendering.
1.1 Graphics pipeline
The graphics pipeline breaks down into several stages, which can be summarized as follows:
scene description: vertices, triangles, colors, lighting;
transformations that present the scene from the camera's point of view;
effects: texture, shading, lighting...
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History: from 3D graphics cards to graphics processors
General GPU operation
Bibliography
Norms and standards
- Floating Point Converter - IEEE754 - 2008
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