SciTech SNAP (System Neutral Access Protocol) is an operating system portable, dynamically loadable, native-size 32-bit/64-bit device driver architecture. SciTech SNAP defines the architecture for loading an operating system neutral binary

device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and o ...

for any type of hardware device, be it a graphics controller, audio controller,

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

controller or network controller. SciTech SNAP drivers are source code portable between different microprocessor platforms, and the binary drivers are operating system portable within a particular microprocessor family. SNAP drivers were originally developed for Intel 386+ CPU with any 32-bit operating system or environment supported on that CPU. With the introduction of SNAP 3.0, native binary SNAP drivers are available for 32-bit

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple– IBM ...

CPUs and 64-bit x86-64 CPUs. On 27 August 2002,

SciTech Software, Inc. SciTech Software, Inc. was a privately held software company based in Chico, California. Founded by Kendall Bennett in 1996, SciTech Software, Inc. developed many popular graphics device driver programs for the PC, ranging from UniVESA (late ...

announced the intention to release the Scitech SNAP driver development kit. On 16 November 2006, SciTech Software, Inc. announced that it has ceased further development of its SNAP device driver technology in favor of a new line of web and business logic technologies. SciTech also announced that it would begin looking for a buyer for SciTech SNAP. In December 2008 Alt Richmond Inc. closed the acquisition of SciTech Software's SNAP technology. The plans of SciTech Software in 2008 to create OpenSNAP, an open source version of the driver technology, are therefore no longer an option unless Alt Richmond decides to pick this up. In May 2015, Arca Noae, LLC announced that they have reached an agreement with Alt Richmond, Inc. to license the source code for SNAP Graphics for OS/2.

Relationship with Scitech Display Doctor

SciTech Display Doctor 6.5 included a replacement video driver for

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufactu ...

or higher, which works with any hardware supported by SDD. In SDD 7, the driver was renamed to Scitech Nucleus Graphics driver. The Nucleus Graphics driver was later incorporated into SciTech SNAP Graphics. In SNAP 3, Nucleus was renamed to SNAP. SciTech SNAP Graphics version 2 also included VBETest/Lite -

VESA BIOS Extensions VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) is a VESA standard, currently at version 3, that defines the interface that can be used by software to access compliant video boards at high resolutions and bit depths. This is opposed to the "traditional" int 10h BI ...

(VBE) Compliance Test version 8.00. It was later removed in SciTech SNAP Graphics 3. In SciTech SNAP 3 for DOS, most of the

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve ha ...

tests from SciTech Display Doctor 7 beta can be found in GACtrl Driver Control Center. The Windows version of Scitech SNAP Graphics maintained the user interface found in SDD 7 beta.

SciTech SNAP Graphics

It is the first product for the SciTech SNAP line, which provides accelerated graphics. SciTech SNAP Graphics has been ported to DOS,

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

, Microsoft Windows (CE, NT, 2000, XP), QNX, SMX (the SunOS/Solaris port of MINIX),

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

On Time RTOS-32 On, on, or ON may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * On (band), a solo project of Ken Andrews * ''On'' (EP), a 1993 EP by Aphex Twin * ''On'' (Echobelly album), 1995 * ''On'' (Gary Glitter album), 2001 * ''On'' (Imperial Teen album), 200 ...

Unununium OS Roentgenium is a chemical element with the symbol Rg and atomic number 111. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature. The most stable known isotope, roentgenium-282, has a h ...

operating systems. Supported hardware included video processors from 3dfx, 3Dlabs, Alliance Semiconductor, AMD (Geode GX2), ARK Logic, ATI, Chips & Technologies, Cirrus Logic, Cyrix, IBM, InteGraphics, Intel, Matrox, NeoMagic, Number Nine, NVIDIA, Oak, Philips, Rendition, S3, Sigma Designs, Silicon Motion, SiS, Tseng Labs, Trident, VIA, Weitek, as well as any video card supporting VBE 1.2 or higher. Although SciTech SNAP Graphics does not offer standalone VBE driver, SNAP driver accelerates applications using VBE calls via SciTech SNAP Graphics driver. SNAP Graphics for Windows can also accelerate VBE 3 calls, if DOS programs is run in Windows DOS box.

Spin-off products

* SciTech SNAP Graphics ENT * SciTech SNAP Graphics ENT/BC with DPVL support (SciTech SNAP Graphics VESA DPVL) * SciTech SNAP Graphics IES

Personal Edition

SciTech also offer SciTech SNAP Graphics "PE" (Personal Edition) under the My SciTech site, which allows registered users to download a SNAP driver of hardware and operating system specified by users. Each user account can download two drivers per week. The driver generated by the service can be run for six months. In Scitech SNAP Graphics PE, tools GACtrl, GAMode, GAOption, GAPerf DOS tools are included. The GLDirect tests are not included in Windows driver.

SciTech SNAP Audio

Similar to Scitech SNAP Graphics, it provides OS-independent audio drivers. It has been ported to Windows NT 4.0. Supported hardware include

AC'97 AC'97 (''Audio Codec '97;'' also MC'97 for ''Modem Codec '97'') is an audio codec standard developed by Intel Architecture Labs in 1997. The standard was used in motherboards, modems, and sound cards. The specification covers two types of comp ...

and

Intel HDA Intel High Definition Audio (IHDA) (also called HD Audio or development codename Azalia) is a specification for the audio sub-system of personal computers. It was released by Intel in 2004 as the successor to their AC'97 PC audio standard. Featur ...

, but HDA does not support modem function.

SciTech SNAP DDC

It is designed to provide easy access to an attached display in order to program it directly via

I²C I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit, ), alternatively known as I2C or IIC, is a synchronous, multi-controller/multi-target (master/slave), packet switched, single-ended, serial communication bus invented in 1982 by Philips Semiconductors. It is w ...

or simply to read the monitor's EDID record.

References

{{Reflist, refs= Alt Richmond Inc. closed the acquisition of SciTech Software’s SNAP technology
/ref> Arca Noae licenses source code for SNAP Graphics for OS/2
/ref>

External links

* ttp://www.altrichmond.ca/ Alt Richmond Inc., the new owner of the SciTech SNAP technology Device drivers