thumb|IBM 8514/A 1024 × 768 x 256 color image

The IBM 8514/A is a graphics card manufactured by IBM and introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of personal computers in 1987. It supports a display resolution of pixels with 256 colors at 43.5 Hz (interlaced), or at 60 Hz (non-interlaced). IBM sold the companion CRT monitor (for use with the 8514/A) which carries the designation, 8514.

The 8514/A uses a standardised API called the "Adapter Interface" or AI. This interface is also used by XGA, IBM Image Adapter/A, and clones of the 8514/A and XGA such as the ATI Technologies Mach series and IIT AGX. The interface allows computer software to offload common 2D-drawing operations (line-draw, color-fill, and block copies via a blitter) onto the 8514/A hardware. This frees the host CPU for other tasks, and greatly improves the speed of redrawing a graphics visual (such as a pie-chart or CAD-illustration).

The 8514/A initially sold for $1290 for the adapter and $270 for the 512KB memory expansion (equivalent to $ and $, respectively, in ). The 8514/A required a Micro Channel architecture bus at a time when ISA systems were standard.

History

The 8514/A was introduced with the IBM PS/2 computers in April 1987. It was an optional upgrade to the Micro Channel architecture based PS/2's Video Graphics Array (VGA), and was delivered within three months of PS/2's introduction.

Although not the first PC video card to support hardware acceleration, IBM's 8514/A is often credited as the first PC mass-market fixed-function accelerator. Up until the 8514/A's introduction, PC graphics acceleration was relegated to expensive workstation-class, graphics coprocessor boards. Coprocessor boards (such as the TARGA Truevision series) were designed around special CPU or digital signal processor chips which were programmable. Fixed-function accelerators, such as the 8514/A, sacrificed programmability for better cost/performance ratio.

The ATI Mach 8 and Mach 32 chips were popular clones, and several companies (notably S3) designed graphics accelerator chips which were not register compatible but were conceptually very similar to the 8514/A.

The 8514/A was superseded by IBM XGA.

The VESA Group introduced a common standardized way to access features like hardware cursors, Bit Block transfers (Bit Blit), off screen sprites, hardware panning, drawing and other functions with VBE/accelerator functions (VBE/AF) in August 1996.

Software support

Software that supported this graphic standard:

  • OS/2
  • Windows 2.1
  • Windows 3.x
  • Windows 95
  • SCO Open Desktop
  • XFree86 2.1.1
  • AutoCAD 10
  • QuikMenu
  • Any BGI software using IBM8514.BGI

Output capabilities

The 8514/A offered:

  • graphics with 256 colors out of 262,144 (18 bit RGB); text mode with 80×34 characters;
  • graphics with 256 colors out of 262,144 (18 bit RGB); text mode with 85×38 or 146×51 characters;

Latter clone boards offered additional resolutions: