TMS34010

While specialized graphics hardware existed earlier, such as blitters, the TMS34010 chip is a microprocessor which includes graphics-oriented instructions, making it a combination of a CPU and what would later be called a GPU.

First silicon was working in Houston in December 1985, with shipment of development boards to IBM's workstation facility in Kingston, New York, in January 1986.

TI developed the Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture (TIGA) specification for professional-level video accelerator cards for IBM PC compatibles, of which the TMS34010 was central.

[3] In a 1991 article on graphics adapters, PC Magazine reported that the fastest boards for regenerating AutoCAD test images were based on the TMS34010.

In 1987, TI demonstrated real-time 3D games with stereo sound effects on a personal computer, using a small TMS34010 adapter card called "The Flippy".

Texas Instruments engineer Michael Denio wrote The Adventures of Captain Pixel as a demo for the system.

[citation needed] The successor to the TMS34010, the TMS34020[16] (1988), provides several enhancements including an interface for a special graphics floating point coprocessor, the TMS34082 (1989).

[17] The Rambrandt Amiga extension card from Progressive Peripherals & Software supported up to four TMS34020, for use in virtual reality simulations.