Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) !

Super Video Graphics Array or Ultra Video Graphics Array, almost always abbreviated to Super VGA, Ultra VGA or just SVGA or UVGA is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards.

Originally, it was an extension to the VGA standard first released by IBM in 1987. Unlike VGA—a purely IBM-defined standard—Super VGA was defined by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), an open consortium set up to promote interoperability and define standards. When used as a resolution specification, in contrast to VGA or XGA for example, the term SVGA normally refers to a resolution of 800 × 600 pixels.

Though Super VGA cards appeared in the same year as VGA, it wasn't until 1989 that Super VGA was defined by VESA. In that first version, it called for a resolution of 800 × 600 4-bit pixels. Each pixel could therefore be any of 16 different colours. It was quickly extended to 1024 × 768 8-bit pixels, and well beyond that in the following years.

Although the number of colours was defined in the original specification, this soon became irrelevant as (in contrast to the old CGA and EGA standards) the interface between the video card and the VGA or Super VGA monitor uses simple analog voltages to indicate the desired colour depth. In consequence, so far as the monitor is concerned, there is no theoretical limit to the number of different colours that can be displayed. Note that this applies to any VGA or Super VGA monitor.

While the output of a VGA or Super VGA video card is analog, the internal calculations the card performs in order to arrive at these output voltages 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 numbers and may well need to be redesigned from scratch. Even so, the leading graphics chip vendors were producing parts for high-colour video cards within just a few months of Super VGA's introduction.

On paper, the original Super VGA was to be succeeded by Super XGA, but in practice the industry soon abandoned the attempt to provide a unique name for each higher display standard, and almost all display systems made between the late 1990s and the early 2000s are classed as Super VGA.bn