VGA

The VGA in unabbreviated terms is the Video Graphics Array. It is a standard resolution size adapted by modern computer monitors. The resolution of a VGA standard is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall. If converted to portrait mode, it goes the other way around.

When a computer boots into the Microsoft Windows Operating System, the first screen that opens with the display of the Windows logo is shown in a VGA standard mode. The VGA mode is characterized by 32 colors. When the system is fully loaded, the computer or device moves to a mode that has a higher resolution.

The VGA resolution is larger than the resolutions of CIF, QVGA, and QCIF. It is smaller than 1 megapixel. The actual conversion in megapixels is 0.3.

During the early days of computer inventions, the monitors had a monochrome or two-color displays. When the IBM came up with the color graphics adapter in year 1981, it increased to a 4-bit palette of 8 colors with a maximum resolution of 640 by 280.

In 1984, the IBM came up with the Enhanced Graphics Adapter or EGA which multiplied the initial 8 colors into 2 making it 16 colors with a resolution of 640 by 350.

Finally, in 1987, IBM introduced the VGA. It was accepted widely by manufacturers and made the VGA standard a base display for video hardware. Contemporary graphics adapter cards can provide displays in the VGA mode. Usually, when the appropriate driver cannot be found, the hardware switches to the VGA display. The VGA mode is also the alternative standard when the driver has been intentionally disabled or if the operating system cannot locate a better driver.

If a user that operating under the Windows OS, the computer will display the VGA when switched to Safe Mode.

IBM came up with another standard in 1990 calling it the XGA or extended Graphics Array. But within this time, many standards have been released resulting to a division of choices among hardware display manufacturers.