Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

George Easton Scott, Iii

William Chambers Powell, Iii

James E Veres

John G Torborg, Jr

Michael A Toelle

Susan Elizabeth Carrie

Joseph W Chauvin

Steven A Gabriel

Kent E Griffin

Howard Good

Ravi Shankar Kolli

Zahid S Hussain

Mark L Kenworthy

Shankar S Narayan

Om Kumar Sharma

The generation of symbol-encoded data from digital data, as part of the compression of the digital data into a compressed digital data, can be performed with reference to multiple alternative alphabets. A selection of a specific alphabet is made based on the digital data being compressed, the compression parameters, or combinations thereof. Information indicative of the selected alphabet is encoded into one or more headers of the resulting compressed digital data. A single alphabet can be selected for all of a set of digital data being compressed, or multiple different alphabets can be selected, with different ones of the multiple different alphabets being utilized to compress different portions of the digital data. Additionally, rather than explicitly specifying a specific selected alphabet, the header information can comprise information from which a same alphabet can be independently selected heuristically by both the compressor and the corresponding decompressor.

Computer data compression utilizing multiple symbol alphabets and dynamic binding of symbol alphabets

The present disclosure relates to methods and devices for operation of a removable storage device. In some aspects, the device can initialize the operation of a removable storage device, such as with a host device. The device can also identify an environment around the device as a thermally enhanced environment or a thermally non-enhanced environment in response to the initialization of operation of the device. Additionally, the device can select a thermal control loop algorithm of the removable storage device based on the identified environment. The device can also adjust a thermal control loop algorithm of the device based on the identified environment. Moreover, the device can control processing operations of a processor in response to the adjusted thermal control loop algorithm.

Method and apparatus for improving removable storage performance

A system for increasing data retention time can include a processor to execute code to detect or predict a write event associated with a flash memory. The processor can also control a device to cause a temperature at the flash memory to increase via waste heat in response to the write event. Additionally, the processor can write data to the flash memory at the increased temperature to increase the retention time of the data stored in the flash memory.

Increasing flash memory retention time using waste heat

Various embodiments relating to selecting a motion vector in a hardware encoder are disclosed. In one example, a plurality of candidate predicted motion vectors are selected, and a plurality of motion searches are performed in an image region surrounding each candidate predicted motion vector to produce a plurality of resulting motion vectors, wherein each resulting motion vector has an initial cost score determined using a corresponding candidate predicted motion vector. After an actual predicted motion vector becomes available, the initial cost score of each resulting motion vector is re-scored using the actual predicted motion vector to produce an updated cost score, and video data is encoded using a motion vector selected from the plurality of resulting motion vectors based on the updated cost score of that motion vector.

Motion vector selection for video encoding

Embodiments for validating an optical disc storing protected content are provided. In one example, a method comprises receiving the optical disc in an optical disc drive, detecting with a signal detector a signal while the optical disc is at rest, spinning the optical disc, determining, with the signal detector, one or more of an electrical and magnetic effect on the signal resulting from the spinning of the optical disc, and validating the optical disc if the one or more of the electrical and magnetic effect meets a predetermined condition.

Accessing protected content on an optical disc

A gsprite engine circuit reads a display list identifying gsprite image layers to be composited for display, retrieves gsprite image data from an external memory, and transforms the gsprite data to display device coordinates. The gsprite image layers represent independently rendered graphical objects in a graphics scene. The gsprite engine can simulate the motion of the graphical objects in a sequence of display images by performing affine transformations on the gsprite image layers. The interface to the gsprite engine circuit includes the display list and gsprite header blocks. The display list enumerates the gsprites to be composited as a display image. The header blocks describe a gsprite transform, which can be an affine transform, used to transform gsprites to display device coordinates. The header blocks also provide an array of references to image blocks or 'chunks' comprising the gsprite.

Processor for controlling the display of rendered image layers and

A display controller, implemented in software or hardware, maintains the primary display image visible on a computer monitor in compressed subregions or chunks. The controller emulates a conventional frame buffer by making the compressed image appear as if it has a linear address space. Most of the image is compressed and the remainder is selectively decompressed and cached to satisfy read and write requests. To display the image, the controller decompresses the display image's constituent subregions and buffers the decompressed data so that it can be scanned out to a display monitor.

Method and system for accessing and displaying a compressed display

A graphics rendering chip serially renders a stream of geometric primitives to image regions called chunks. A set-up processor in the chip parses rendering commands and the stream of geometric primitives and computes edge equation parameters. A scan-convert processor receives the edge equation parameters from the set-up processor and scan converts the geometric primitives to produce pixel records and fragment records. An internal, double-buffered pixel buffer stores pixel records for fully covered pixel addresses and also stores references to fragment lists stored in a fragment buffer. A pixel engine performs hidden surface removal and controls storage of pixel and fragment records to the pixel and fragment buffers, respectively. An anti-aliasing engine resolves pixel data for one pixel buffer while the pixel engine fills the other pixel buffer with pixel data for the next chunk.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

George Easton Scott, Iii