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:
Jun. 30, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 07, 1993
John Walter Neave, Los Altos, CA (US);
Neil F Trevett, Kingston-upon-Thames, GB;
Jonathan David Salkild, deceased, late of Worcester Park, GB;
David Joseph Salkild, heir, Weybridge, GB;
Iain Stuart MacNaughton, Sutton, GB;
3Dlabs Ltd., Egham Surrey, GB;
Abstract
A computer system having a pixel processing unit with multiple subprocessors receives positional data defining graphical objects from the CPU and writes pixel data into the image memory, and a display driver produces an image which partially includes the rendered pixels. The pixel processor is used to access patches of multiple contiguous pixels at a time, and process them in parallel. The patches used are defined, within the overall geometry of the image, to have aligned corners. The unit is also connected to receive synchronization signals from the display driver, conditioned on whether the current line being accessed by the driver is within a specified range of lines in the image space. The unit is operable to command the pixel processing unit to write pixel data corresponding to all pixels covered by a polygon, and in response traverses portions of the image space by scanning portions of one row of patches of pixels at a time, and for some of the patches, testing only the pixels at the leading edge of the patch in the direction of scanning.