Michael Abrash

Michael Abrash is an American programmer and technical writer. He has written dozens of magazine articles and multiple books on code optimization and software-rendered graphics for IBM PC compatibles. He worked at id Software in the mid-1990s on the rendering technology for ''Quake''. He later wrote the Pixomatic software renderer for RAD Game Tools. Since 2014, he has been the chief scientist of Oculus VR, a subsidiary of Meta Platforms.

Abrash started his career in 1982 writing action video games for the IBM PC, which eventually resulted in a 1990 book, ''Zen of Assembly Language Volume 1: Knowledge'', about optimization for the 16-bit 8086 and 8088 processors. He began writing about programming the EGA and VGA hardware of IBM PC compatibles for ''Programmer's Journal'' in the late 1980s, followed by a column for ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' in the early 1990s. In the latter, he introduced a method of adjusting VGA mode 13h to have a resolution of 320×240 with square pixels, which he called Mode X. He also used his ''Dr. Dobbs's'' column to write about the details of his work on ''Quake'' Provided by Wikipedia