State-of-the art SGRAM For mainstream business and consumer PC applications requiring acceleration at mid-range resolutions and color depths, new single-ported memory types like SGRAM (Synchronous Graphics RAM) provide the most cost effective solution.
Most mainstream 2D, 3D and even video applications require support for 8 or 16-bit color at high resolutions. Support for 24-bit color at resolutions above 1152 x 882 are needed mostly for professional applications like graphics design and CAD. These high-end applications require dual-ported memories like WRAM to enhance performance. For mainstream users, there is little or no incentive to pay for high resolution 24-bit color when it will never be taken advantage of.
However, today's new graphics, digital video and 3D games are still computationally intensive and require the aid of powerful memory types to accelerate performance. New single-ported memory technologies have emerged to attempt this difficult task but none have been able to beat the price/performance offered by SGRAM.
In the case of all single-ported memories, the bandwidth available for graphics operations will drop continually as resolutions, color depths and refresh rates rise. This is because the drawing engine has to wait for the screen to be refreshed before it can write to the frame buffer, and the more time taken to redraw the screen, the longer the engine has to wait.
Even though SGRAM is a single-ported memory, it is less effected by declining bandwidth than other single-ported memories such as (EDO DRAM), Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), MoSys DRAM (MDRAM) and Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM). SGRAM is a new memory type capable of being clocked at considerably higher speeds than
traditional single-ported memories. For example, this difference is illustrated by the following chart:
Available Graphics Engine Bandwidth after Display Refresh as measured in MBytes/second*
Resolution
|
EDO DRAM |
SGRAM
|
1024x768@8bpp |
312 |
340 |
1024x768@16bpp |
220 |
280 |
1024x768@24bpp |
152 |
236 |
1280x1024@24bpp |
NS |
124 |
Matrox Mystique Matrox Mystique uses SGRAM memory to provide high bandwidth and accelerated graphics-specific features to accommodate the demands of today's new graphics, 3D and video applications.
Among all single-ported memory types, SGRAM best combines the raw bandwidth (speed) and graphics-specific features, such as block writes and dual bank support, for the highest overall graphics performance.
The dual bank feature opens two pages of memory at the same time, which accelerates operations such as screen to screen blts (copying), double-buffering, 3D rendering and video playback.
In addition, SGRAM's single-color-block write feature accelerates screen fills and clears at up to 8 times the speed of EDO DRAM. The block write feature can be used for fast patterning and text draw. This accelerates Windows applications, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and more. Also, these screen fills are extremely important elements in accelerating the 3D pipeline as 3D intensity and Z buffers must be cleared 30-40 times each per second.
Dual bank and single color block write are unique features of SGRAM that are fully exploited by Matrox Mystique's graphics engine.
The Mystique also integrates a 170 MHz RAMDAC within its graphics chip. This eliminates the need for an external RAMDAC, thus substantially lowering the cost and space required for the graphics sub-system.
MGA-1064SG chip technology
At the core of Matrox Mystique is the MGA-1064SG graphics chip. This fifth generation 64-bit chip combines acceleration for 2D, 3D, video, and a 32-bit VGA core. When combined with SGRAM memory and a superior PCI bus interface, MGA-1064SG delivers outstanding performance in an all-in-one low cost solution. Matrox Mystique meets the demanding needs of mainstream business and consumer applications with acceleration for general Windows, 3D texture mapped games, smooth digital video playback, accelerated 3D Web browsing, and DOS games.
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