there is provided an apparatus and method for transmitting , over a general purpose data network , graphical data to a display device having a memory . the apparatus has a graphics component for generating graphical data in an appropriate format for direct transmission to corresponding addresses in the display device memory . graphical data transmitted from the network interface specifies an address in the memory of that display device upon which an action is required . the apparatus is thus more efficient than conventional remote graphics systems . direct transmission of graphical data to a memory address uses less network capacity as a single address value can generally be packed more tightly than a pair of coordinates . the invention simplifies the requirements placed on display devices : since the data is not transmitted as geometric coordinates there is no need for the display device to perform complicated arithmetic operations to convert incoming geometries to memory addresses . the network is preferably a general purpose data network and may be wireless .