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:
Aug. 11, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 12, 1996
William H Nale, Livermore, CA (US);
Chips and Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An address translator for use in a system having a central processing unit, a graphics controller for generating graphics addresses which index a graphics memory address map and for feeding data to a visual display, and a system memory converts a graphics address to a system address within the system memory. The invention initially partitions the system memory into a dedicated system memory for use by the graphics controller and a non-dedicated system memory for use by the central processing unit. The dedicated system memory corresponds to a base assigned memory within the graphics memory address map, and the non-dedicated system memory corresponds to a portion of the graphics memory address map excluding the base assigned memory. If the graphics address is within the base assigned memory, the graphics address is translated to a corresponding system address within the dedicated system memory. If the graphics address is within the portion of the graphics memory address map excluding the base assigned memory, the address translator converts the graphics address to a system address within the non-dedicated system memory, which designates a starting address of an available system memory block. Upon completion of the translation of the graphics address to the non-dedicated system memory, the boundary selector then selects a specific address within this allocated memory block corresponding to the graphics address.