The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 29, 1991
Filed:
May. 14, 1990
Pierre A Radochonski, Lake Oswego, OR (US);
Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR (US);
Abstract
Stages of a graphics data processing pipeline are interconnected by a common bus for conveying data and arbitration signals to and from each stage. Each data transmitting stage arbitrates for and acquires control of the bus when it has output data to transmit to an addressable storage location within a next stage. Each pipeline stage other than a first stage generates a BUSY bit indicating whether it is processing data or awaiting new input data from its preceding stage. When one pipeline stage has output data to transmit to a next pipeline stage, the transmitting stage periodically polls the receiving stage by acquiring control of the bus and placing on the bus a particular address associated with the next stage. Whenever the next stage detects the presence of the particular address on the bus, it places its BUSY bit on the data lines of the bus. When the sending stage determines from the state of the BUSY bit that the next stage is ready to receive input data, the sending stage acquires control of the bus and sends the input data thereon to the next stage.