VT8601 Via, VT8601 Datasheet - Page 16

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

, 4-, or 8-bit) for memory and bandwidth reduction, and anti-aliasing to reduce or eliminate jaggies resulted from alias rendering.
The 3D engine also works with the APM system, conserving power while 3D operations are suspended.
Video Processor
Video processor features include: on-chip hardware Color Space Conversion (CSC) for faster data conversion on the fly,
Horizontal/Vertical (H/V) scaling with interpolation, edge recovery algorithm logic, gamma correction, and overlay control with
different color depths from graphics. The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller also includes a fully integrated GUI accelerator,
read cache, and command FIFO that optimize memory bandwidth and maximize graphics performance.
The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller, with an integrated Video Display and a Capture Engine, supports dual apertures on the
PCI bus which enables independent graphic and video data to be transported simultaneously to and from different memory areas
and greatly accelerates the performance of both DirectDraw
provide dual video windows that display different images from different video sources (from the PCI bus and from the capture
port) on the same screen. The video image is stored in off-screen memory and is retrieved by the Video Display Processing block
for video processing. With the help of DirectDraw™ acceleration for sprites, page flipping, double buffering, and color keying,
video processing is performed by utilizing a proprietary edge recovery algorithm for sharper line visibility, de-interlacing, anti-
tearing, multitap horizontal filtering, dithering, and scaling operations with bilinear interpolation in both horizontal and vertical
directions. Linear scaling permits zoom in/out to any size without any restrictions. In addition, the on-chip hardware Color Space
Conversion (CSC) accelerates conversion for 16 bit YUV pixels into linear true color 32 bit RGB pixels on the fly. The additional
X and Y minifiers are capable of shrinking video images to any linear fractions, which saves bus bandwidth and memory space.
The YUV planar logic of the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller supports a YUV 420 format that can eliminate redundant
video stream decoding procedures. The load of the CPU is reduced while performing software MPEG or software video
conferencing. The color and luminance control provided by the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller offers color compensations
to prevent color distortion for display devices such as a CRT or TV with Gamma correction and hue adjustment control.
The Video Conferencing feature allows remote and local video images to be displayed simultaneously on the same screen.
Video Capture and DVD
The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller has a Video Module Interface (VMI) and advanced hardware interface logic allowing it
to be directly connected to many MPEG and video decoders such as the C-Cube CL450/480, SGS 3400/3500, Philips 7110/1 and
Brooktree BT819/817/827/829.
The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller, integrated with a DVD video hardware block for motion compensation, gives existing
PCs the ability to play DVD video in MPEG-2 format at high bandwidths with very good video quality.
A new industry standard is being set for transmission of non-video data over a TV broadcast signal during vertical blanking dead
time. This technology is referred to as Intercast. The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller has the ability to take the entire video
stream over the video port, sending the visible video stream to the display memory for display in a window, stripping the VBI data
from the stream, and then sending this data to the CPU for processing using PCI Bus Mastering.
Versatile Frame Buffer Interface
The Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller features a versatile frame buffer interface apperature into main system memory.
Optimized performance can be achieved with the single cycle memory bus interface using programmable DRAM timing. The
display queue has been increased to reduce the frequency of memory bus requests, optimizing memory bus efficiency for the
graphic controller.
With the support of the internal AGP apperature, the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller has access to system memory through
the GART. In the execute mode, the Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller is able to use both the dedicated graphics portion and
the general portion of system memory for graphics operations. As a result, DVD and 3D rendering performance and quality are
greatly enhanced.
Hi-Res and Hi-Ref Display Support
Apollo ProMedia Graphics Controller display enhancements dramatically improve CRT resolution. These enhancements include
support of non-interlaced 1280x1024x64K, 1024x768x16M, 800x600x16M, and 640x480x16M colors for “full spectrum” color.
Extended text modes of 80 or 132 columns by 25, 30, 43, or 60 rows provide an extended graphics area frequently used in many
spreadsheet and database applications. Extended graphics and text modes are supported by software drivers that provide a “ready-
to-go” solution, minimizing the need for additional driver development.
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VT8601 Apollo ProMedia
System Overview