| What is a home computer? Part 3 |
 The next computer part we will discuss is the video card.
The video card is the hardware device that enables you to view graphics, movies, internet, Word … it converts data coming from the processor of the computer into data that can be read by the screen. This conversion is done by pipes. Another part of the video card is memory. This memory is used to store temporary information; today's video card memory can go up to 256 megabyte RAM.
The video card was not so powerful in the early pc-age. As software programs and games became more and more powerful, computer hardware had to follow the same path and also the video card. Going from 2 to 4 megabyte a couple of years ago, today's video card can go to 256 megabyte. Along with the more powerful video card, the communication between processor and video card had to change in time. The communication between components goes by buses. Not so long time ago PCI buses were still used in a computer. PCI stands for
Peripheral Component Interconnect. The problem with PCI is that it transports information from multiple hardware components to the processor. Once the information arrives at the processor, every bit of information goes one by one to the processor. This slows down information from the processor to the video card. That's why a modern computer uses an: AGP, which stands for Accelerated Graphics Port. With AGP the communication between the processor and the video card is direct and thus much faster.
More computer hardware will be explained in the next articles. See part 4 for …
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