Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

International Business Machines Corporation

Robin C Speed

Syon Bhattacharya

Mukund Sankaranarayan

Dale Alan Sather

Michael B Jones

Jai Srinivasan

William G Parry

Forrest Curtis Foltz

Jayachandran Raja

Terje Kristian Backman

Sean C McDowell

David S Bakin

Andy R Raffman

George H Shaw

John Michael Sheehan

Sermet Iskin

Glyn Normington

Scott B Graham

Graham Hugh Tuttle

Stan Dale Pennington

John A M Hazen

An application based hardware identifier is generated for an application on a device. The application based hardware identifier is generated based on both information describing the application and information describing one or more hardware components of the device. The application based hardware identifier can also optionally be based on an identifier of a user of the device. The application based hardware identifier can be provided by the application to a service provider, allowing the service provider to associate the application based hardware identifier with a particular user or user account. However, as the application based hardware identifier is based on the application information, different applications on the same device will have different application based hardware identifiers. The application based hardware identifier thus helps maintain privacy by preventing tracking of the device across different applications.

Application based hardware identifiers

A method to dynamically reconfigure multimedia streaming processing modules using interfaces that allow applications and modules to seamlessly change the configuration of streaming modules. Reconfigurations are initiated by a processing module in a stream or by an application by sending a notification packet through the processing modules in the portion of the stream being changed that informs that modules that a change is being made and the modules to complete processing of its data. Modules affected by the change are stopped once the notification packet is received by all processing modules in the stream being changed and modules are then added, removed, or replaced and the portion of the stream being changed resumes processing the data stream. The modules at the beginning of the portion being changed can resume operation as soon as they are reconnected to other modules.

Dynamic reconfiguration of multimedia stream processing modules

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers, e.g., using a priority-based policy. A resource consumer creates an 'activity' at the resource manager and builds one or more 'configurations' that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations, which may be ranked, for each activity. This allows the resource consumers to be dynamically changed from one configuration to another as operating conditions change.

Resource manager architecture

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. One policy is a priority-based policy that distinguishes among which applications and/or users have priority over others to use the resources. A resource consumer creates an 'activity' at the resource manager and builds one or more 'configurations' that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity. If multiple configurations are specified, the resource consumer can rank them according to preference. This allows the resource consumers to be dynamically changed from one configuration to another as operating conditions change.

Fonts for use in printing documents are dynamically generated as they are required for printing. Preferably only those characters from the font which have been used in the document are dynamically generated in bitmap form and sent to the printer prior to data for identifying and positioning the characters on the page. The dynamically generated bitmaps may be retained by the printer for use in printing subsequent pages and documents. Less data per page needs to be sent to the printer and the sending of full-page bitmaps may be avoided.

Printing in data processing systems

In a text display system facilitating the editing of text, smooth and flicker free updates to text displayed using proportionally spaced fonts are effected by interleaving the characters of an original and an updated text according to their associated cumulative character widths by sequentially storing each lesser cumulative character width and each character in buffers thereby establishing the order of display of the interleaved characters according to each original and updated cumulative character widths. The interleaved characters are then displayed according to the order of storage thereby incrementally displaying and deleting characters of the updated and original texts respectively such that an original character is deleted and replaced by an appropriate number of updated text characters resulting in a smooth text update.

Smooth text display system

A graphics display apparatus employs a general purpose or main microprocessor providing general control of the apparatus including receiving high-level graphic orders defining a desired graphic image from a host processor and dedicated graphics microprocessor connected to receive low-level graphic orders from the general microprocessor along a pipeline constituted by a shared buffer store. Pipeline control logic controls the pipeline by blocking the graphics processor which generally operates more quickly than the general processor until the latter has completed computation of all the low-level orders associated with a particular high-level order. The front-of-screen performance can be further improved by backing up the pipeline to repeat certain low-level orders rather than by obtaining these repeated orders by recomputation. Graphics hardware controlled by the graphics processor loads appropriate bit patterns into an all points addressable refresh buffer for subsequent display on a cathode ray tube monitor.

Pipeline display control apparatus with logic for blocking graphics

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Winchester, United Kingdom

Robin C Speed