Specifications

CHAPTER 1

Overview of the AppleVision 1710AV and 1710 Displays

14 New Display Connections Speciﬁcations

Figure 1-7 Contrast and brightness panel

Hardware Opportunities 1

Using the guidelines outlined in “New Display Connections Speciﬁcations,” third-party

graphics device developers can develop plug-in video cards that offer compatibility with

this new generation of displays.

New Display Connections Speciﬁcations 1

This section details important new standards for Apple Macintosh display connections,

and you should refer to it if you are planning and designing new Macintosh video

hardware and software products.

The AppleVision 1710AV and 1710 Displays are the ﬁrst Apple displays to combine

smart-display technology and Multiple Scan technology. Because of innovations in the

AppleVision 1710 displays, Apple is making some important revisions to its standards

for communication between CPUs and displays. These revisions, outlined in the

following sections, are important to third parties who produce displays, video output

devices, and video drivers.

Note

In the context of this developer note, a smart display is one that can be

controlled by the Macintosh computer and that, in the case of the

AppleVision displays, communicates with computer by means of the

ADB cable. ◆

Background Information 1

In the past, graphics drivers sensed the type of display attached to the video card by

means of three sense lines on the video cable. These lines were encoded to produce a

hardware sense code algorithm. With three sense lines, the number of displays that

could be identiﬁed was limited to seven, plus the instance where no displays were

connected.