video memory
<storage> The memory in a computer's graphics adaptor, used to store the
image displayed on a bitmap display. Often this is built using VRAM chips. There
is normally a simple correspondence between groups of bits in video memory and
the dots or "pixels" on the screen, such that writing to a given group of bits
will alter the appearance of a single dot. If each pixel corresponds to eight
bits then it can have any of 256 colours (or shades of grey on a monochrome
display).
The video display electronics is responsible for reading the data from video
memory and converting it into the necessary signals to drive the display. Often
this includes a colour palette which converts pixel values into RGB triplets.
(1996-11-01)
Nearby terms:
Video Graphics Adapter « Video Graphics Adaptor «
Video Graphics Array « video memory » Video
on Demand » video RAM » video random access memory
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