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.

While 3D graphics turned a fairly dull PC industry into a light and magic show, they owe their existence to generations of innovative endeavour. Over the next few weeks we'll be taking an extensive look at the history of the GPU, going from the early days of 3D consumer graphics, to the 3Dfx Voodoo game-changer, the industry's consolidation at the turn of the century, and today's modern GPGPU.

As part of plans to celebrate Pong's 40th birthday, Atari and Microsoft have announced a partnership that will see the former's classic titles ported to HTML5 and showcase the latter's Internet Explorer 10 browser, set to ship with Windows 8. To start, eight titles will be featured...