Graphics chip

Early graphics chips were simple video adapters for generating text and computer graphics on a video computer display found in early computers and graphics cards. It was sometimes connected to a simple radio frequency adapter for interfacing with a common television receiver.

The more advanced graphics chips available today, capable of independent computation and graphics processing are nowadays generally called graphics processing units, in analogy with central processing units.

Famous graphics chips

• Motorola 6845 (basis of the CGA and EGA boards)
• Atari Stella, ANTIC (actually a GPU), CTIA/GTIA
• Texas Instruments TMS9918 and TMS9928 (used in the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Coleco Adam, and MSX)
• MOS Technology VIC and VIC-II
• Amiga's Fat Agnus and Denise in the Original Amiga chipset
• IBM Video Graphics Array and its clones