The Feature connector was an internal connector found mostly in some older VESA Local Bus, ISA and PCI graphics cards, but also on some early AGP ones. An electrical connector is a device for joining electrical circuits together. ... The VESA Local Bus (usually shortened to VLB) is a local bus defined by the Video Electronics Standards Association, mostly used in personal computers based on the Intel 80486 CPU. VESA Local Bus worked alongside the ISA bus; it acted as a high-speed conduit for memory-mapped I/O... For other uses see ISA. Isa (عيسى `Īsā), often seen as Isa, son of Mary (`Īsā ibn Miryam) is the Islamic name for Jesus, who is considered to be one of the Prophets of Islam in the Quran. ... For other meanings of PCI, see PCI (disambiguation). ... A GeForce 4 4200-based graphics card A graphics card or video card is a component of a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an image stored in memory to a signal that can be used as input for a display medium, most often a monitor... The Accelerated Graphics Port (also called Advanced Graphics Port) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a single device (generally a graphics card) to a computers motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. ...

It was intended for use by devices who needed to exchange large amounts of data with the graphics card without hogging a computer system's CPU or data bus, such as TV tuner cards, video capture cards, MPEG video decoders, first generation 3D graphics accelerator cards and the such. Modern graphics cards are extremely complex, power-hungry, and heat dissipating as seen with this Nvidia OEM Geforce 7800-based graphics card that has its own massive cooling solution. ... CPU can stand for: in computing: Central processing unit in journalism: Commonwealth Press Union in law enforcement: Crime prevention unit in software: Critical patch update, a type of software patch distributed by Oracle Corporation in Macleans College is often known as Ash Lim. ... In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data or power between computer components inside a computer or between computers. ... tv-card A TV tuner card is a computer component that allows television signals to be received by a computer. ...

Several standard existed for feature connectors, depending on the bus and graphics card type. Most of them were simply 8, 16 or 32-[bit] wide internal connector, transferring data from and to the graphics card to another device, bypassing the system's CPU and memory completely.

Their speeds often far exceeded the speed of normal ISA or even early PCI buses, (e.g. 40 MBytes/sec for a standard ISA-based SVGA, up to 150 Mbytes/sec for a PCI or VESA-based one, while the ISA and VESA bus had much lower or barely as much bandwidth, with such figures being far beyond the capabilities of e.g. a 386, 486 or barely handled by an early Pentium. For other uses see ISA. Isa (عيسى `Īsā), often seen as Isa, son of Mary (`Īsā ibn Miryam) is the Islamic name for Jesus, who is considered to be one of the Prophets of Islam in the Quran. ... For other meanings of PCI, see PCI (disambiguation). ... Super Video Graphics Array, almost always abbreviated to Super VGA or just SVGA is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards. ... For the processor, see Intel 80386. ... For the processor, see Intel 80486. ... Pentium logo, with MMX enhancement The Pentium is a fifth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel which first shipped on March 22, 1993. ...

Depending on the implementation,it could be uni or bi-directional, and carry analog color information as well as data. Unlike analog overlay devices however, a feature connector carried mainly data and essentially allowed an expansion card to access the graphics card Video RAM directly, although directing this data stream to the system's CPU and RAM was not always possible, though limiting its usefulness mainly for displaying purposes. An analog or analogue signal is any continuously variable signal. ... A datum is a statement accepted at face value (a given). Data is the plural of datum. ... Fitting an expansion card into a motherboard An expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard to add additional functionality to a computer system. ... VRAM an acronym for Video RAM. Generally a term used in computers to describe RAM dedicated to the purpose of displaying bitmap graphics in raster graphics hardware. ...

Although its use rapidly declined after the introduction of the faster AGP internal bus, it was, at its time, the only feasible way to connect certain types of graphics-intensive devices to an average computing system without exceeding the avaiable CPU power and memory bandwidth, and without the disadvantages and limitations of a purely analog overlay. The Accelerated Graphics Port (also called Advanced Graphics Port) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a single device (generally a graphics card) to a computers motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. ...

The idea of accessing a video card's memory directly has recently resurfaced with the introduction of the Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology by NVidia, and less recently by 3dfx's equivalent Scalable Line Interleave, although those technologies are mostly aimed at connecting two equally powered and complete graphic cards in order to produce a single, increased performace visual output, and not e.g. directly interfacing TV tuner cards. Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is a method for linking two (or possibly more) video cards together to produce a single output. ... NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a major supplier of graphics processors (graphics processing units, GPUs), graphics cards, and media and communications devices for PCs and game consoles (Xbox). ... 3dfx Interactive was a company which specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics cards and graphics processing units. ...

External links

• Definition of VESA Advanced feature connection at thefreedictionary.com
• Definition of VGA feature connection at thefreedictionary.com