 TripleHead2Go technology brief
Innovative Matrox product divides 1 monitor output into 3
Matrox TripleHead2Go
provides a completely new way to add multi-display support to a laptop or
desktop computer. This external box connects to the standard monitor connector
of a computer and uniquely allows the user to add three external monitors with
a combined resolution of up to 3840x1024 to many workstations, gaming systems
and laptops. How does this innovative product work? Read on.
Think outside the box
The TripleHead2Go
Graphics eXpansion Module (GXM) comes with a 2' VGA to VGA adaptor as well as a
2' DVI-I to VGA adaptor allowing it to be plugged into either an analog VGA
output or a DVI-I output from the graphics solution already in the computer
system. It connects to the PC just like a regular external monitor, and for all
intents and purposes, it appears to the PC as if it were a single external
monitor. Just like a normal display, the TripleHead2Go uses the industry
standard EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) structure to communicate
its special, native resolution capabilities to the system. EDID is a standard
data format used by computer monitors to inform a system of the monitor's
capabilities. Included in this data is information on supported display
resolutions. Resolution is measured in the number of horizontal by vertical
pixels (the smallest display units) displayed at a time. What makes
TripleHead2Go different from a regular monitor is that it reports
ultra-ultra-wide monitor resolutions to the system and then actually takes this
ultra-ultra-wide signal and splits it up into three standard outputs to be sent
to three off-the-shelf monitors. TripleHead2Go is capable of supporting
four ultra-ultra-wide aspect resolutions which are:
|
| Supported resolution |
Equivalent to |
| 3840 x 1024 |
3 x 1280 x 1024 |
| 3072 x 768 |
3 x 1024 x 768 |
| 2400 x 600 |
3 x 800 x 600 |
| 1920 x 480 |
3 x 640 x 480 |
|
Additionally, the TripleHead2Go returns support
for regular, VESA-standard single screen resolutions such as (640 x 480, 800 x
600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024 and 1600 x 1200). Notice that a resolution of
3840x1024 is the equivalent to putting three 1280x1024 native monitors
side-by-side horizontally and adding up the total resolution.
 1280
+
1280
+
1280
=
3840 pixels wide
When you first restart a computer after
connecting TripleHead2Go to it, the Windows operating system
automatically detects the new TripleHead2Go "monitor" and simply adds
the TripleHead2Go's reported ultra-ultra-wide resolution settings to
Windows display properties.
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 |
|
Using Matrox's bundled software suite, the user will be
automatically prompted to choose one of the four supported
ultra-ultra-widescreen resolutions, or they can simply navigate to Windows
Display Properties -> Settings and use the resolution slider bar to select
for themselves. This Windows XP settings dialog box shows an example
configuration with TripleHead2Go. In this case, display "1" is connected
to TripleHead2Go and is treated by Windows like a single display three
times as wide as a typical display. TripleHead2Go automatically divides
display "1" into 3 separate displays. |
|
Inside the black box
With the resolution set to a
single ultra-wide TripleHead2Go monitor of 3840x1024 resolution, the
existing graphics hardware and OS in the computer does nothing different other
than providing a monitor signal with a resolution that's three times as wide as
a standard resolution. The computer continues to use its own graphics processor
to render a single display to its graphics memory. The real "magic" of making 1
display into 3 occurs inside the TripleHead2Go box. |
A.
B.
C.
D. |
 |
|
A. The GPU in the system responds to the
ultra-ultra-wide Windows display resolution selected (in this case 3840x1024).
The existing GPU and GPU driver simply allocate a single unified frame buffer
in memory to correspond to this 3840x1024 resolution and then proceed to render
to that buffer as it normally would to any other supported single-screen
resolution.
B. Once the 3840x1024 image has finished being
rendered, the CRTC and RamDACs of the GPU will scan out the image to send to
the TripleHead2Go 'monitor' as it normally would to any other monitor.
Remember that as far as the GPU and Windows is concerned, this is a single
3840x1024 desktop and so each line sent out to the monitor will be 3840 pixels
wide. Supporting this high a resolution at 60hz requires RamDACs capable of
just under 300Mhz of bandwidth, but most graphics adaptors ship with 400Mhz
capable RamDACs so scanning out at this frequency is widely
possible.
C. The TripleHead2Go box receives the
single 3840x1024 signal and this is where the magic begins. Using Matrox
patent-pending technology the TripleHead2Go takes that single 3840x1024
image and turns it into three separate images of 1280x1024 resolution each.
Inside the TripleHead2Go, the monitor signal from the computer is first
converted to digital data using various techniques to ensure the best possible
conversion. These techniques include gain compensation to normalize the signal
and phase adjustment to properly interpret the analog input signal. After the
input is converted to digital data, TripleHead2Go divides the display
information into 3 display outputs. The first third of the image is prepared to
be sent to a left monitor, the middle third of the image is prepared to be sent
to a middle monitor and the rightmost third of the image is prepared to be sent
to a right monitor. Three separate CRTCs inside the TripleHead2Go are
used to generate the three timings and then each one of these three separate
images are converted into a separate analog output using Matrox's signature
high quality analog output technology.
D. The signals exit
from the TripleHead2Go as three standard analog VGA outputs of 1280x1024
resolution each. The three signals generated by the TripleHead2Go can
then be fed to standard monitors and used to display a standard 1280x1024 image
on each. Any size monitor can be used, the only restriction is that the monitor
needs to support 1280x1024 resolution.
The net effect of all of this is
that the user will see a desktop of up to 3840x1024 pixels drawn across three
monitors using a single analog output from the PC. Throughout the process, no
pixels are added, dropped, scaled, or otherwise changed. TripleHead2Go
preserves all the on-screen information provided by the original monitor
signal.
You can use the multi-display support provided by
TripleHead2Go without replacing any system software. However, to improve
multi-display support, TripleHead2Go includes Matrox PowerDesk software
suite. This software provides the key benefit of allowing a user to maximize
different applications under Windows to different displays. In that way, it
feels to the user as if the three monitors attached to the TripleHead2Go
are independent.
Because the TripleHead2Go appears to the PC as
a single ultra-ultra-widescreen monitor, it has the benefit that fullscreen
DirectX applications will be able to run at the very wide resolutions and
gaming across three screens is uniquely enabled.
Conclusion
The TripleHead2Go upgrade
provides a unique and easy way to add multi-display capability to a system.
This product simply connects to the external monitor connector of a computer -
there are no parts to insert in a computer and no hardware or software is
replaced. This product adds support for three extra displays while leveraging
the performance of your existing graphics hardware. |
