IBM 8514

IBM 8514 is a graphics card manufactured by IBM and introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of personal computers in 1987. It supports a display resolution of pixels with 256 colors at 43.5 Hz (interlaced), or  at 60 Hz (non-interlaced). 8514 usually refers to the display controller hardware (such as the 8514/A display adapter). However, IBM sold the companion CRT monitor (for use with the 8514/A) which carries the same designation, 8514.

The 8514 uses a standardised API called the "Adapter Interface" or AI. This interface is also used by XGA, IBM Image Adapter/A, and clones of the 8514/A and XGA such as the ATI Technologies Mach series and IIT AGX. The interface allows computer software to offload common 2D-drawing operations (line-draw, color-fill, and block copies via a blitter) onto the 8514 hardware. This frees the host CPU for other tasks, and greatly improves the speed of redrawing a graphics visual (such as a pie-chart or CAD-illustration).

The 8514 initially sold for $1290 for the adapter and $270 for the 512KB memory expansion (equivalent to $ and $, respectively, in ). The 8514/A required a Micro Channel architecture bus at a time when ISA systems were standard.

History
The 8514 was introduced with the IBM PS/2 computers in April 1987. It was an optional upgrade to the Micro Channel architecture based PS/2's Video Graphics Array (VGA), and was delivered within three months of PS/2's introduction.

Although not the first PC video card to support hardware acceleration, IBM's 8514 is often credited as the first PC mass-market fixed-function accelerator. Up until the 8514's introduction, PC graphics acceleration was relegated to expensive workstation-class, graphics coprocessor boards. Coprocessor boards (such as the TARGA Truevision series) were designed around special CPU or digital signal processor chips which were programmable. Fixed-function accelerators, such as the 8514, sacrificed programmability for better cost/performance ratio.

Later compatible 8514 boards were based on the Texas Instruments TMS34010 chip.

Even though the 8514 was not a best-seller, it created a market for fixed-function PC graphics accelerators which grew exponentially in the early 1990s.

The ATI Mach 8 and Mach 32 chips were popular clones, and several companies (notably S3) designed graphics accelerator chips which were not register compatible but were conceptually very similar to the 8514/A.

The 8514 was superseded by IBM XGA.

The VESA Group introduced a common standardized way to access features like hardware cursors, Bit Block transfers (Bit Blt), off screen sprites, hardware panning, drawing and other functions with VBE/accelerator functions (VBE/AF) in August 1996.

Software support
Software that supported this graphic standard:


 * OS/2
 * Windows 2.1
 * Windows 3.x
 * Windows 95
 * XFree86 2.1.1
 * AutoCAD 10
 * QuikMenu
 * Any BGI software using IBM8514.BGI

Output capabilities
The 8514 offered:
 *  graphics with 256 colors out of 262,144 (18 bit RGB); text mode with 80×34 characters;
 *  graphics with 256 colors out of 262,144 (18 bit RGB); text mode with 85×38 or 146×51 characters;

Latter clone board offered additional resolutions:
 *  with 16-bit and 24-bit color depths
 *  with 16-bit and 24-bit color depths

Clones
In the late 1980s, several companies cloned the 8514/A often for the ISA bus. Notable among those was Western Digital Imaging's PWGA-1 (also known as the WD9500 chip set), the Chips & Technologies 82C480, and ATI's Mach8 and later Mach32 chips. In one way or another, the clones were all better than the original with more speed, enhanced drawing functionality and overall improved video mode selections. Clone support for non-interlaced modes at resolutions like 800×600 and 1280×1024 was typical, and all clones had longer command queues for increased performance.


 * ATI Technologies: the Mach8, Mach32, Graphics Vantage and 8514/Ultra
 * Chips and Technologies: F82C480 B EIZO - AA40 and F82C481 Miro Magic Plus
 * Matrox: MG-108
 * Paradise Systems: Plus-A, Renaissance Rendition II
 * Desktop Computing: AGA 1024 (also capable of emulating TIGA standards)
 * NEC: Multisync Graphics Engine
 * IIT AGX and Tseng Labs ET4000 are also referenced as being IBM 8514 compatible.