Super Video Graphics Array, abbreviated to Super VGA or SVGA, also known as Ultra Video Graphics Array, abbreviated to Ultra VGA or UVGA, is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards.
Originally, it was an extension to the VGA standard first released by IBM in 1987. Unlike VGA – a purely IBM-defined standard – Super VGA was defined by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), an open consortium set up to promote interoperability and define standards. When used as a resolution specification, in contrast to VGA or XGA for example, the term SVGA normally refers to a resolution of 800 × 600 pixels.
The marginally higher resolution 832 × 624 is the highest 4:3 resolution not greater than 219 pixels, with its horizontal dimension a multiple of 32 pixels. This enables it to fit within a framebuffer of 512 KB (512 × 210 bytes), and the common multiple of 32 pixels constraint is related to alignment. For these reasons, this resolution was available on the Macintosh LC III and other systems.
