SVGA is one of the newer computer graphics standards that is designed to offer an increased resolution compared with previous standards like VGA(Video Graphics Array).It is developed by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association),a consortium of graphics and monitor manufacturers whose goal is to standardize display standards.SVGA-compatible monitors are capable of displaying as many as 16.7 million colors with resolutions up to 800 x 600 pixels and more.
The number of colors that can actually be displayed simultaneously, however is limited to the amount of video memory available in a system. For instance, one SVGA system might only be able to display 256 colors simultaneously while another can display the entire palette depending upon the amount of the video memory supported by the video card.
Since it provides better resolution, SVGA is considered to be much better for multimedia applications like games, and other graphics-intensive applications than VGA (Video Graphics Array), the previously dominant graphics standard IBM introduced in 1987.
In fact, because IBM’s pre-VGA graphics standards such as EGA (Enhanced graphics adapter) and CGA (color/Graphics adapter) use digital signals. Monitors that were designed under the older standards won’t support either VGA or SVGA, which use analog signals.
Most of the newer computer systems manufactured today support the SVGA standard. Newer graphics standards such as XGA (extended graphics array), SXGA (Super XGA), and UXGA (Ultra XGA) have been developed in recent years to provide even higher resolutions then SVGA.
Super VGA was first defined in 1989.In that first version, it called for a resolution of 800 ?— 600 pixels with 4 bits per pixels which means each pixel could therefore have 2 raise to 4 different possible combinations which would give 16 different colours.
It was then extended to a resolution of 1024 ?— 768 pixels with 8-bits per pixel which gives 2 raise to 8 different possible combinations amouting to 256 differnet colours or gradients of same colour and well beyond that
in the following years.
Although the number of colours defined in the original specification changed gradually due to the later developments in the standard.The interface between the video card and the VGA or Super VGA monitor uses simple analogue voltages to indicate the desired colour depth for each pixel.
While the output of a VGA or Super VGA video card is analogue, the internal calculations the video card performs in order to arrive at the output voltages so as to specify the accurate colour depth are entirely digital. To increase the number of colours a Super VGA display system can reproduce, no change at all is needed for the monitor,but the video card needs to handle much larger calculations.