VT8601 Via, VT8601 Datasheet - Page 15

• Manufacturer Part Number: VT8601
• Description: Slot-1 / Socket-370 PCI North Bridge
• Manufacturer: Via

System Capabilities
The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller’s main system features include:
High Performance 64-bit 2D GUI
The 64-bit graphics engine of the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller significantly improves graphics performance through
specialized hardware that accelerates the most frequently used GUI operations and matches the high-speed requirements of CPUs.
Functions directly supported in hardware include: BitBLTs, image and text transfer, line draw, short stroke vector draw, rectangle
fills, and clipping. The graphics engine supports 256 Raster Operations (ROPs) for up to 32-bit packed pixel graphic modes. The
ROP3 Processor in the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller is able to perform Boolean functions which allow many additional
operations, including transparency, pattern masking, color expansion alignment, and pattern enhancement. Additionally, the
graphics engine features linear display memory addressing (up to 4GB memory space), accelerated color expansion modes for
graphics text procession, and memory-mapped I/O registers on the graphics engine for faster access time.
Graphic functions are optimized by a 64-bit internal data bus and a four-color hardware cursor/pop-up icon, operating up to a
128x128x2 pixel image, which offloads the CPU. The hardware cursor mechanism can also be used to display patterns stored in
the system memory. This pop-up icon is very useful to display user friendly information instantly through simple hot key
operations. This advanced function combination allows significant performance increases over standard Super VGA designs and
provides outstanding graphics acceleration on GUIs, such as Microsoft Windows 98 .
Highly Integrated RAMDAC
The highly integrated design of the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller offers a “no TTL” solution for cost-effective, high-
performance multimedia subsystem designs for the PC and compatible notebooks. The 64-bit memory data bus supporting
SDRAM and SGRAM memory provides faster data transfer rates for improved system throughput. The Apollo ProMedia
Graphics Controller has a built-in, high speed RAMDAC
lookup table and a triple loop frequency synthesizer, providing the read/write timing control for the Frame Buffer Memory and the
refresh of the TV/CRT display.
The integrated frequency synthesizer provides a 125MHz memory clock for high speed DRAM access and a 230MHz video clock
which supports various refresh rates up to 85Hz at 1280x1024.
Full Feature High Performance 3D Engine
The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller is equipped with an advanced Graphics Drawing, Single Cycle 3D Graphics Engine
that performs premium 3D functions at a high level of more than 1M triangles per second. The 3D engine supports Microsoft
Direct3D. The 3D Engine is set up to off-load the CPU from major 3D tasks including slope calculation, sub-pixel positioning,
and Tri-striping. By balancing the 3D pipeline and reducing parameter passing, the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller
provides very high levels of performance. The 3D engine is integrated with a triangle set-up engine that sets up triangles
according to vertex input data and accomplishes various functions for 3D rendering. Gouraud shading provides smooth shading
for colors across surfaces, perspective correction texture mapping to correct texture data based on the perspective, bi-linear texture
filtering for interpolating, alpha blending to compensate colors for the opacity of two colors blended, Z-buffering (16-bit/24-bit),
video texturing to overlay 2D video play-back onto 3D images, fogging to simulate weather effects, palletized texture mapping (1-
Revision 1.3 September 8, 1999
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High Performance single cycle GUI
Highly Integrated RAMDAC™ and Triple Clock Synthesizer
Full Feature High Performance 3D Graphics Engine
High speed internal AGP Bus Mastering data bus supporting DVD video playback & 3D
Hardware implementation of motion compensation
Dual Video Windows for Videoconferencing
TrueVideo Processor
DirectDraw
Versatile Motion Video Capture/Overlay/Playback Support
Flexible Frame Buffer Memory Interface
Advanced Mobile Power Management
CRT Power Management (VESA™ DPMS)
PC99 Hardware Support
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and DirectVideo
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& Clock Synthesizer
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Hardware Support
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. The RAMDAC
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is composed of one 256x24 and one 256x18 color
VT8601 Apollo ProMedia
System Overview