CRT Display Technology

• Cathode Ray Tube

  • Electron gun fires electrons at the screen
  • Electric field steers the electron (X field and Y field)
  • Screen phosphor emits light when electron hits

• Electron beams scans the screen, left-to-right, top-to-bottom

  • As the beam moves, we can set the brightness of each color
  • We turn on each pixel for the right about of time

• We set the horizontal and vertical scan rate using SYNC signals

  • HSYNC - horizontal scan frequency
  • VSYNC - vertical scan frequency

• VGA - Video Graphics Adapter

  • Ancient PC CRT interface standard
  • But still used, just like the 8086 ISA

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