a) A block of digital memory capable of buffering a frame of video. The amount of memory required for a frame buffer is based on the video being stored. For example to store a 640 X 480 image using the RGB color space with eight bits per color, the amount of memory required would be: 640 x 480 x 3 = 921,600 bytes. b) A frame buffer is a digital frame store, containing a large chunk of memory dedicated to pixel memory, at least one complete frame’s worth. All the pixels in the buffer have the same depth. Each bit of depth is called a bit plane. Frame buffers can use the bit planes in a variety of ways. First, a pixel’s bits can store the RGB values of colors. This simple method is called full-color mode. In full-color mode, it is common to refer to the red plane, or the blue or green plane, meaning the bits reserved for specifying the RGB components of the pixel.

Full-color systems may also have an alpha channel, which encodes the transparency of each bit. The alpha channel is like a matte or key of the image. Alternately, the bits can store a color number, which selects the final color from a color map. Finally, some bit planes may be reserved for use as overlay planes.