Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

James Van Loo

Susan Elizabeth Carrie

Jerald R Evans

Jesus David Rivas

Bartley H Calder

Jonathan D Courtney

Tao Ye

Stuart C Wells

Keith L Messer

Mukund Bhakta

Jack R McKeown

Jeffrey Spirn

Jack R Mckeown

Scalable transfer feedback is described. In embodiment(s), a remote management service can establish a client session with a client device and provide an address that redirects the client device to a firmware download service to download executable program code. The firmware download service can initiate a download of the executable program code to the client device when the client device initiates a request for the executable program code. The firmware download service can also communicate a download status indicator to the client device when the download of the executable program code is initiated, and receive the download status indicator back from the client device when the download of the executable program code is complete.

Scalable transfer feedback

Firmware cache coherence is described. In embodiment(s), a remote management service can establish a client session with a client device and provide an address that redirects the client device to a firmware download service when the client device initiates a session request with the remote management service. The firmware download service can cache the executable program code, and then initiate a download of the executable program code to the client device when the client device initiates a download request for the executable program code.

Firmware cache coherence

The invention relates to methods and apparatus for accessing data that is periodically transmitted by a broadcaster. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a receiver capable of reception of data is disclosed. The data is transmitted by a broadcaster in a broadcasting system. The receiver reduces the delay conventionally encountered in accessing periodically transmitted data in a broadcasting system.

Methods and apparatus for efficiently accessing periodically broadcast data

A cascadable state machine that observes the execution state machine of multiple client applications, aggregates the multiple execution states into a single execution state for the observation object, reports the aggregate execution state through the same execution state machine interface as the client applications, and cascades changes to the execution state machine of the observation object to the client applications.

Method and apparatus for application packages and delegate packages to adopt and export standard execution state machine interfaces

Methods and apparatus for creating and manipulating a video window on a display associated with a television are disclosed. A set of parameters identifying a source region and a destination location in a source coordinate system are obtained where the source coordinate system includes a source origin at a location of the source coordinate system. A destination origin is set at a location of a destination coordinate system. The source region is then translated to a location within the destination coordinate system equivalent to the destination location in the source coordinate system.

Methods and apparatus for providing video control for television applications

The disclosure presents an apparatus, system, and method for file access for difficult domains, such as data broadcast, where the time to access a file can be considerable. The invention interposes a file access object between the client and the platform that is both scalable and interoperable. The invention decomposes file access into four (application visible) interfaces that scale between a most basic access (such as, for example, a simple load function) to the most expressive access (such as, a retrieve function).

Methods and apparatus for efficiently accessing sequentially broadcast data

An adaptive shading method is utilized to generate shaded images in real time. The technique to shade the image is determined according to the curvature of the surface, the variation of the light vector across the surface, and the variation of the eye vector across the surface. The color or intensity is first computed at each of the vertices of the polygon. A series of tests are then performed to determine the order equation that is to be used to interpolate the color or intensity across the polygon between the vertices. Using this technique, polygons having a slight or no curvature and an infinite light source (thus being the simplest form of shading), will use an extremely fast, low order equation to interpolate across the polygon. Polygons, having a high degree of curvature and/or positional light source will utilize, as necessary, a higher order equation which requires additional computation time but produces desirable shading results.

Method and apparatus for adaptive Phong shading

The system of the present invention provides for the flow control of commands to devices connected through the system's memory management unit and is particularly useful in a multi-tasking computer system in which multiple processes access the same device. In the method and apparatus of the present invention, devices that are connected to the system through the MMU are controlled using the page fault mechanism of the MMU and the page fault handler in each segment. Addresses are allocated in the process address space for each process to provide for the addressing of the devices and device queues connected through the MMU, such that one device or one device queue is mapped into one segment of each process address space that will access the device. The 'valid bits' associated with each page in a segment are turned on/off by the process or operating system in order to control the device. If the valid bits are off or reset and an attempt is made to access at the address, a page fault occurs and the page fault mechanism invokes the page fault handler of the corresponding segment. The page fault mechanism of the MMU and the page fault handler of each segment are then utilized to determine the reason the page fault occurred with respect to a particular process and perform predetermining steps to control the flow of commands to the device.

Method and apparatus for the flow control of devices

The system of the present invention provides for the synchronization of access devices connected through the system's memory management unit and is particularly useful in a multi-tasking computer system in which multiple processes access the same device. In the method and apparatus of the present invention, devices that are connected to the system through the MMU are controlled using the page fault mechanism of the MMU and the page fault handler in each segment. Addresses are allocated in the process address space for each process to provide for the addressing of the devices and device queues connected through the MMU, such that one device or one device queue is mapped into one segment of each process address space that will access the device. The 'valid bits' associated with each page in a segment are turned on/off by the process or operating system in order to control the device. If the valid bits are off and an attempt is made to access at the address a page fault occurs and the page fault mechanism invokes the page fault handler of the corresponding segment. The page fault mechanism of the MMU and the page fault handler of each segment are then utilized to determine the reason the page fault occurred with respect to a particular process and to perform steps to synchronize access to the device.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

James Van Loo