> The evolution of the modern graphics processor begins with the introduction of the first 3D add-in cards in 1995, followed by the widespread adoption of the 32-bit operating systems and the affordable personal computer.<p>What? No.<p>The evolution of the modern graphics processor begins with the development of commercial 3D systems in the 1980's. Jim Clark founded SGI in 1982 based on his work into hardware acceleration of geometry computations for 3D at Stanford. By the mid-1980's, SGI workstations were able to handle 3D modeling and animation locally: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics#IRIS_2000_and_3000_series" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics#IRIS_2000_and_...</a>.<p>You can find some of Clark's papers on the hardware here: <a href="http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/1980/07/01653711.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/1980/07/01653711.pdf</a> (1980); <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.359.8519" rel="nofollow">http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.359....</a> (1982). I can't find a good reference describing the rasterization side of the pipeline, though the second paper describes it very briefly on page 132.<p>There's a really neat website going into details of early 3D consumer chips: <a href="http://vintage3d.org" rel="nofollow">http://vintage3d.org</a>. It's very interesting, though again it should be noted that these products came out in the 1990's, well after hardware acceleration of 3D was well-established in the workstation market.