This article is part of theElectronics Historyseries:The Graphics Chip Chronicles.
The term "GPU" has been in use since at least the 1980s. Nvidia popularized it in 1999 by marketing the GeForce 256 add-in board (AIB) as the world’s first fully integrated graphics processing unit. It offered integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines in a single-chip processor.
Very-large-scale integrated circuits, or VLSI, started taking hold of the semiconductor industry in the early 1990s. As the number of transistors engineers could cram on a single chip increased almost exponentially, the number of functions in the CPU and the graphics processor increased.
CPU上最大的菌株之一是图形转换计算元素到图形处理器。来自各种图形芯片公司的建筑师决定转换和光线（T＆L）是图形处理器中应具有的功能。该操作在当时被称为变换和照明（T＆L）。T＆L引擎是顶点着色器和几何翻译器。
In 1997, 3Dlabs developed its Glint Gamma processor, the first programmable transform and lighting engine as part of its Glint workstation graphics chips, and it introduced the term GPU—geometry processor unit. The GPU was a separate chip named Delta (also known as the DMX). 3Dlabs’ GMX was a co-processor to the Glint rasterizer.
Then, in October 1999, Nvidia introduced the NV10 GPU with an integrated T&L engine for a new consumer graphics card. ATI quickly followed with their Radeon graphics chip and called it a visual processing unit—VPU. But Nvidia came out ahead in the terminology wars and has since been associated with the GPU and credited with inventing it.
基于TSMC的220 nm工艺，120 MHz NV10在139mm²的模具中具有1700万个晶体管，并使用了DirectX 7.0。GEFORCE 256 AIB使用SDR内存使用了NV10。
在Nvidia开始提供NVIDIA品牌的AIBS之前，该公司依靠合作伙伴来建造和出售董事会。但是，NVIDIA向其OEM合作伙伴提供了参考设计。
The first AIB to use the 64 MB SDR was ELSA’s ERAZOR X which used its own design to create a NLX form factor board.
The GPU had a large 128-bit memory interface, and it could use DDR or SGRAM memory, a choice made by OEM board partners and usually done as a price-performance trade-off. The AIB shown in the above image has four 8 MB SGRAM chips. Since it was a 1999 AIB, it used the AGP 4X interface with sustained DMA, and supported the Direct3D 7.0 API and OpenGL 1.2.1 with transform & lighting.
The chip had many advanced features, including four independent pipelined engines that ran at 120 MHz. That allowed the GPU to produce a 480 Mpix/sec fill rate. The video output was VGA. The chip also came with hardware alpha-blending and was HDTV compliant.
除了高级图形功能外，芯片还具有强大的视频处理能力。它具有电视功能和集成的NTSC/PAL编码器。它支持S-VHS和复合视频输入，以及立体声3D。
Integrating transform and lighting capability into the GPU was a significant differentiator for the GeForce 256. Before the stand-alone T&L processor from 3Dlabs, previous 3D accelerators used the CPU to run these functions. Incorporating the T&L capability reduced costs for consumer AIBs while at the same time improving performance.
Prior to the GF256, only professional AIBs designed for CAD had a T&L co-processor engine. It also expanded Nvidia’s market by allowing the company to professional graphics market. Nvidia marketed those AIBs as Quadro. The Quadro AIB used the same NV10 as the GeForce AIBs and used certified drivers for various professional graphics applications.
This article is part of theElectronics Historyseries:The Graphics Chip Chronicles.
