Super VGA (SVGA) is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards that extended IBM's VGA specification. When used as shorthand for a resolution, as VGA and XGA often are, SVGA refers to a resolution of 800 × 600.

History

In the late 1980s, after the release of IBM's VGA, third-party manufacturers began making graphics cards based on its specifications with extended capabilities. As these cards grew in popularity, they began to be referred to as "Super VGA". This term was not an official standard, but a shorthand for enhanced VGA cards which had become common by 1988. The first cards that explicitly used the term were Genoa Systems's SuperVGA and SuperVGA HiRes in 1987. Super VGA cards broke compatibility with the IBM VGA standard, requiring software developers to provide specific display drivers and implementations for each card their software could operate on. Initially, the heavy restrictions this placed on software developers slowed the uptake of Super VGA cards, which motivated VESA to produce a unifying standard, the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE), first introduced in 1989, to provide a common software interface to all cards implementing the VBE specification. Eventually, Super VGA graphics adapters supported innumerable modes.

Specifications

The Super VGA standardized the following resolutions: SVGA uses the same DE-15 VGA connector as the original standard, and otherwise operates over the same cabling and interfaces as VGA.

Early manufacturers

Some early Super VGA manufacturers and some of their models, where available:

Gallery

<Gallery> File:ALiCat MV3147V.JPG|ALiCat M3147V SVGA video card File:[Cirrus Logic](https://bliptext.com/articles/cirrus-logic) GD5429 VLB.jpg|[Cirrus Logic](https://bliptext.com/articles/cirrus-logic) GD5429 VLB SVGA video card File:Igs1682.jpg|Early 1996 IGS IGA1682_A PCI SVGA video card File:[S3](https://bliptext.com/articles/s3-graphics) 805 VLB.jpg|[S3](https://bliptext.com/articles/s3-graphics) 805 VLB SVGA video card File:[WDC](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-digital) Video ISA.jpg|[WDC](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-digital) ISA SVGA video card