A/n Inc.

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Nintendo of America Inc.

Jeremy E San

Carl Norman Graham

Peter R Warnes

Ben Cheese

Carl N Graham

A video game system is described for use with a television type display device including a host video game system housing a game program processor and a programmable special purpose hardware graphics processor. The programmable graphics processor communicates with the host game processor and incorporates an embedded RAM cache memory. The programmable graphics processor has hardware circuitry for performing 3D geometry transformations such as a 3&#xd7;3 matrix transformation of x, y and z graphics data to provide 3D rotated and/or scaled polygon-based 3D graphic objects and also includes dedicated hardware for plotting individual pixels. The graphics coprocessor utilizes an instruction set that is designed to efficiently implement 3D matrix rotation and scaling operations associated with 3D graphics and also includes special instructions for plotting character-mapped pixels.

External memory system having programmable graphics processor for use in a video game system or the like

A fully programmable, graphics microprocessor is disclosed which is designed to be embodied in a removable external memory unit for connection with a host information processing system. In an exemplary embodiment, a video game system is described including a host video game system and a pluggable video game cartridge housing the graphics microprocessor. The game cartridge also includes a read-only program memory (ROM) and a random-access memory (RAM). The graphics coprocessor operates in conjunction with a three bus architecture embodied on the game cartridge. The graphics processor using this bus architecture may execute programs from either the program ROM, external RAM or its own internal cache RAM. The fully user programmable graphics coprocessor has an instruction set which is designed to efficiently implement arithmetic operations associated with 3-D graphics and, for example, includes special instructions executed by dedicated hardware for plotting individual pixels in the host video game system's character mapped display which, from the programmer's point of view, creates a 'virtual' bit map by permitting the addressing of individual pixels&#x2014;even though the host system is character based. The graphics coprocessor interacts with the host coprocessor such that the graphics coprocessor's 16 general registers are accessible to the host processor at all times.

External memory system having programmable graphics processor for use in a video game system of the like

A fully programmable, graphics microprocessor is disclosed which is designed to be embodied in a removable external memory unit for connection with a host information processing system. In an exemplary embodiment, a video game system is described including a host video game system and a pluggable video game cartridge housing the graphics microprocessor. The game cartridge also includes a read-only program memory (ROM) and a random-access memory (RAM). The graphics coprocessor operates in conjunction with a three bus architecture embodied on the game cartridge. The graphics processor using this bus architecture may execute programs from either the program ROM, external RAM or its own internal cache RAM. The fully user programmable graphics coprocessor has an instruction set which is designed to efficiently implement arithmetic operations associated with 3-D graphics and, for example, includes special instructions executed by dedicated hardware for plotting individual pixels in the host video game system's character mapped display which, from the programmer's point of view, creates a &ldquo;virtual&rdquo; bit map by permitting the addressing of individual pixels&mdash;even though the host system is character based. The graphics coprocessor interacts with the host coprocessor such that the graphics coprocessor's general registers are accessible to the host processor at all times.

Programmable graphics processor for use in a video game system or the like

A fully programmable, graphics microprocessor is embodied in a removable external memory unit for connection with a host information processing system. In an exemplary embodiment, a video game system is described including a host video game system and a pluggable video game cartridge housing the graphics microprocessor. The game cartridge also includes a read-only program memory (ROM) and a random-access memory (RAM). The graphics coprocessor operates in conjunction with a three bus architecture embodied on the game cartridge. The graphics processor using this bus architecture may execute programs from either the program ROM, external RAM or its own internal cache RAM. The fully user programmable graphics coprocessor has an instruction set which is designed to efficiently implement arithmetic operations associated with 3-D graphics and, for example, includes special instructions executed by dedicated hardware for plotting individual pixels in the host video game system's character mapped display which, from the programmer's point of view, creates a 'virtual' bit map by permitting the addressing of individual pixels--even though the host system is character based. The graphics coprocessor interacts with the host coprocessor such that the graphics coprocessor's 16 general registers are accessible to the host processor at all times.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Jeremy E San