User`s guide

21
Pixel, Pel Picture element. Smallest addressable area of the
computer screen. Pixels on computer displays are
square; pixels on NTSC televisions have a 4:3 aspect
ratio.
PIXEL
TAPESTRY
™
II
A 3D rendering engine which uses four rendering
pipelines to process 2 gigatexels per second for high fill
rates in 32-bit color at high resolutions.
Refresh Rate Also referred to as “vertical refresh rate”. The rate at
which a monitor or television can redraw the screen
from top to bottom. NTSC television systems have a
refresh rate of approximately 60 Hz (but only draw one-
half of the video frame in one pass); computer displays
typically have refresh rates of 75 Hz or more. At a
refresh rate of 70 Hz and lower, screen flicker is often
noticeable.
SMARTSHADER
™
II
An advanced programmable pixel and vertex shader
technology which delivers complex and realistic
textures and lighting without slowing performance.
SMOOTHVISION
™
II
Full Screen Anti-Aliasing technology designed to
minimize jagged edges resulting in smooth images.
Specular Highlight The bright, usually small, intense light reflected from a
3-D surface with a high refraction value.
Texture Mapping Mapping, or placing, an image onto an object. Images of
realistic surfaces are placed on 3D models to create a
richer and more complex visual effect.
Trilinear Filtering Sampling method used to produce the most realistic
looking 3D objects. Trilinear filtering averages one of
the bilinear filter MIP Map levels along with the
standard MIP Map samples.
VIDEO
IMMERSION
™
II
Enables integration of DVD, video playback, and
advanced de-interlacing algorithms.
z-buffer A z-buffer is an area of off-screen memory used to hold
“depth” information. For each dot, or pixel, in the
display buffer, there is a corresponding dot in the
z-buffer which holds the depth (z) value for the display
pixel. The depth data helps the ATI accelerator card
decide what 3D objects are in front of other 3D objects.
The larger the 3D window, the larger the z-buffer is in
memory.