Digital Video Interactive (DVI) was the first multimedia desktop video standard for IBM-compatible personal computers, developed around 1984 by Sarnoff Research Labs (a division of RCA at the time, later a division of General Electric after their purchase of RCA in 1986, and then sold by GE to Intel in 1988). Multimedia is the use of several different media to convey information (text, audio, graphics, animation, video, and interactivity). ... RCA, formerly an initialism for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark used by two companies for products descended from that common ancestor: Thomson SA, which manufactures consumer electronics like RCA-branded televisions, DVD players, video cassette recorders, direct broadcast satellite decoders, camcorders, audio equipment, telephones, and related... The General Electric Company, or GE (NYSE: GE) is a multinational technology and services company. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, HKEx: 4335), founded 1968, is a U.S.-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ...

It allowed full-screen, full motion video, as well as stereo audio, still images, and graphics to be presented on a Windows/DOS-based desktop computer. DVI content was usually distributed on CD-ROM discs, which in turn was decoded and displayed via specialized hardware installed in the computer. Audio and video files for DVI were the first to use data compression, with audio content using ADPCM. DVI was the first technology of its kind for the desktop PC, and ushered in the multimedia revolution for PCs. Stereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound, using two independent audio channels, through a pair of widely separated speaker systems, in such a way as to create a pleasant and natural impression of sound heard from various directions as in natural hearing. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... In computer science, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than a more obvious representation would use, through use of specific encoding schemes. ... Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a modulation technique. ...

The first implementation of DVI developed in the mid-80s relied on three 16-bit ISA cards installed inside the computer, one for audio processing, another for video, and the last as an interface to a CD-ROM drive. The DVI video card used a custom chipset for decompression & display called the VDP (video display processor). Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) is a computer bus standard for IBM compatibles. ...

Later DVI implementations only used one card, such as Intel's ActionMedia series (omitting the CD-ROM interface). The ActionMedia (and the later ActionMedia II) were available in both ISA and MCA-bus cards, the latter for use in MCA-bus PCs like IBM's PS/2 series. Graphics Card IBM XGA-2. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... PS/2 can refer to: IBM Personal System/2, a series of post-PC computers sold by IBM starting in 1987. ...

Intel now owns the DVI standard as of today.

External links

• Information on the .DVI file extension, as well as a background on DVI itself
• A paper titled "The Implication of Digital Video Interaction (DVI) Technology in Multimedia Post-Production Techniques"
• Press release from 1988 on Intel acquiring DVI from General Electric