The
framebuffer is a part of
RAM in a
computer allocated to hold the graphics information for one frame or picture. This information typically consists of color values for every
pixel (point that can be displayed) on the screen. A framebuffer can either be off-screen, meaning that writes to that memory don't appear on the visible screen, or on-screen meaning the memory is directly coupled to the visible display.
The linux framebuffer driver was added to Linux to support the Macintosh display, which does not have a text mode. It was ported to x86 and is used to display a logo (often Tux) above a screen of text.