Graphics address remapping table: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 14:13, 6 June 2014

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The '''graphics address remapping table''' ('''GART'''), sometimes known as the '''graphics translation table''' ('''GTT'''),<ref>{{cite web|author=freedesktop.org|url=http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/GART|title=GART|accessdate=2010-03-05}}</ref> is an [[IOMMU|I/O memory management unit]] (IOMMU) used by [[Accelerated Graphics Port]] (AGP) and [[PCI Express]] (PCIe) [[graphics card]]s. The GART allows the graphics card [[direct memory access]] (DMA) to the host system memory, through which buffers of [[texture mapping|textures]], [[polygon mesh]]es and other data are loaded.

GART is used as a means of data transfer between the [[primary storage|main memory]] and [[video memory]], but can also be used to expand the amount of video memory available for graphics cards &mdash; particularly for cards with no dedicated video memory, such as [[Intel]]'s [[integrated graphics]] solutions.

==Operating system support==

=== Linux ===

Jeff Hartmann served as the primary maintainer of the [[Linux kernel]] agpgart driver, which began as part of [[Brian Paul]]'s [[Utah-glx GLX]] accelerated [[Mesa (computer graphics)|Mesa 3D]] driver project. The developers primarily targeted Linux 2.4.x kernels, but made patches available against older 2.2.x kernels. Dave Jones heavily reworked agpgart for the Linux 2.6.x kernels, along with more contributions from Jeff Hartmann.<ref>[{{cite web |url=http://www.linuxsymposium.org/archives/OLS/Reprints-2003/Reprint-Jones-OLS2003.pdf |title=Ugly Ducklings: Resurrecting unmaintained code] -– agpgart adapted for Linux 2.6 kernel |format=pdf |date=2003-07-24 |accessdate=2014-06-05}}</ref>

=== FreeBSD ===

In [[FreeBSD]], the agpgart driver appeared in FreeBSD 4.1.<ref>[http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?agpgart agpgart(4)] - manpage.</ref> appeared in FreeBSD 4.1.

=== Solaris ===

AGPgart support was introduced into [[Solaris (operating system)#Development release|Solaris Express Developer Edition]] as of its 7/05 release.<ref>{{cite web

|url = http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2254/agpgart-io-7i