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Solve : Computers without IGP in their motherboards? |
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Answer» Hello! Could you please tell me who is responsible of building the images that will be displayed in the remaining almost 10% PCs when video cards are not connected to the motherboard by means of an expansion slot ? I was almost convinced that one of the 10% systems built with a modern non IGP motherboard, a modern CPU, big and modern volatile and non volatile memories and a modern screen but without a video card connected to an expansion slot would have (very, very limited, but would have) graphic capabilities. I was also convinced that those extremely limited graphic capabilities would be provided by all the mentioned components but specially by the modern CPU. And I was expecting you would confirm my ideas. After reading your posts and looking for replies in the web I'm not so sure about that, and I would like to pose the following question: Does a system, like the one I have described in this post, have no graphic capabilities? Post Scriptum: I was about to post what I wrote above when I discovered Geek-9pm's edit with its very interesting piece of news. Thank you very much Geek-9pm!!. I will follow your advice and make some enquiries at the Ubuntu forum/chats. But, in the mean time, I will leave some more questions regarding your edit, just in case somebody already knows the answers. a) Why do you think the video card has to be installed for the installation and setup? b)Do you think that after removing it the system looses all its graphic capabilities or do you think that some of it remains? In case you think that some of the graphic capabilities remain after the video card is removed c) which are the major hardware components that are responsible for these leftover graphic capabilities? Thank you all for your time A system with no IGP and no Video card will have no Video capabilities. Not only will it not have any video related circuitry, but it also won't have a port to plug a monitor into anyway. Most systems require a video card to boot. If they don't find one during post, they complain using a complex language of beeps which even the most learned language professors require a manual to look up. One of my systems will emit a long beep followed by three SHORT beeps when it has no video card installed or there is a problem with it. My others have different beep codes; my Dell machine issues the same beep code for most problems, and you refer to the coloured lights on the back of the system for more diagnostics. (I've been tempted on at least one occasion to PRANK call tech support just so I could say "there are four lights"). Servers do not require a video card to boot, most servers are headless servers, in that hey don't typically have a video card or monitor connected to them. Usually these are controlled via remote access such as SSH or something. Quote a) Why do you think the video card has to be installed for the installation and setup?Because you won't be able to see what you are doing otherwise. Note that a prerequisite for the Ubuntu Server would be that the system will let the system boot at all without a video card. Most consumer systems complain loudly, while others have a BIOS setting. Setup consists of a wizard like interface, choosing partition sizes, etcetera which obviously requires some sort of way for you to monitor what the system is doing. (this the term monitor). Windows server can be installed without a display adapter using an unattended installation, I imagine Linux servers are the same. Most do not require a video card at all, and are dealt with exclusively via a remote terminal. Quote b)Do you think that after removing it the system looses all its graphic capabilities or do you think that some of it remains?How will any remain? I'm not sure I follow your reasoning here. If you remove a CD player from a car, does it keep any CD-playing capabilities? Of course not! you won't even have a place to put CDs to try to get it to play, UNLESS you shove them in cracks or something. CPU's do not have graphics capabilities. Some newer Processors implement rudimentary Graphics on the die. However, that graphics capability is useless without some circuitry on the motherboard; you can't plug the monitor directly into the processor, the chip needs supporting circuitry for things like HDMI, VGA, DVI, etc. as well as the external connectors.OK A bit of PC history. When IBM made the first IBM PC back in the early 80s, the system required a graphics card of some type in the expansion slot. There was no built in graphics display. That came much later. The Apple ][ PC had a built in rudimentary graphics display that would provide output to a basic analog monitor. Around that time, or a little after, Kaypro had a computer that was almost portable and had a built-in CRT driven by a simple video chip. Both preceded the IBM PC by a few years. My memory is a little weak, but before that Sinclair made a tiny PC that used a Z80 with no graphics chip. Yet it could produce a legible text display on a TV set. I remember that one because an editor asked me to do a review on it and when I told him it did not use the standard ASCII set he wouldn't believe me. As for Unix and Linux, theses systems use a graphic system called X. Both can run very well without X running, if need be. Traditionally Unix ran on a console using a serial port. So when Unix or Linux is used as a server over Ethernet, the standard output device can be just a simple serial port. No graphics. To my knowledge all current Desktop motherboards need a video display chip of some kind to show the start up screen for making changes to the BIOS CMOS and for installation of a Linux or Unix repeating system. Or Windows. Once are rte settings are done, the technician shuts off the computer, removes the video display card, secures the cover and powers the computer on again. It will ignore the lack of a video card and proceed to log into the local Ethernet and take a place in the local work-group. Any system errors will be sent to either a log FILE or to the system printer. There is no display. And no keyboard either. Nor even a mouse. It is a network server, not a personal computer. In general, specific kinds of motherboards are made for this service. I don't know if the statement of 90% have IGP is very accurate or has much meaning here. The quotation may simply meant that few motherboards are not built with nIGP. Perhaps it did not mean they perform with no video display. Also, perhaps the quote was not limited to Desktop motherboards. Server motherboards do not need a video display. The following article provide a brief summary of how a Windows server using a Desktop PC can run without the conventional Input and Output devices, such as a Video display, Keyboard or mouse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server Bear in mind the article is simplified for the rest of us. Greater detail is found in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Edit: A simple IGP is now so cheap it soon may be built-in on all new motherboards. Gentlemen: Thank you very much for your posts! The information submitted has exceeded largely my expectations!! Though they contain some sentences over which I would like to come back at some other moment, if you agree with the following statements and if you allow me to slightly shift the subject, I'll take advantage of your knowledge and generosity and push my questions a bit further: If we all agree that roughly, a non-server computer hardware system (NSCHS) without an integrated graphic processor (IGP) and without a video card (VC) has zero graphic capabilities and we express it with the following equation NSCHS - ICP - VC = 0 and we agree that the same NSCHS (without an IGP) but with a VC has A video capabilities and we express it with the following equation NSCHS - ICP + VC = A and we agree that the same NSCHS with an IGP (but without a VC) has B video capabilities and we express it with the following equation NSCHS + ICP - VC = B ... What happens with the video capabilities when we have the NSCHS with the IGP plus a VC ?? I believe we could agree in expressing it like this NSCHS + ICP + VC = But what is the ballpark mathematical expression that stands for ? Is it A + B? Is it only A ? Or is it something else? Thank you for your time and opinions. Homework...as i suspected. |
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