<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
