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:
Feb. 09, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 10, 1997
Dale Gulick, Austin, TX (US);
Andy Lambrecht, Austin, TX (US);
Mike Webb, Austin, TX (US);
Larry Hewitt, Austin, TX (US);
Brian Barnes, Round Rock, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A computer system and method for transferring multimedia commands and data to a dedicated multimedia engine and/or multimedia memory, wherein the multimedia engine provides increased performance for real-time applications over current computer architectures. The system includes a dedicated multimedia engine coupled directly to the main memory which performs real-time operations, including audio and video function, as well as others. The multimedia engine includes multimedia memory and one or more DSP engines. The CPU writes video and/or audio commands and data to the main memory. The CPU also preferably writes data structure information to the DMA engine which includes the main memory address where the commands and data reside. The DMA engine uses this information to retrieve the commands and data from main memory into the multimedia memory. The DMA engine preferably operates concurrently with the multimedia engine, thus allowing for improved performance. In an alternate embodiment, the CPU writes the main memory address space information to the multimedia engine, and the multimedia engine retrieves the commands and data from main memory into the multimedia memory prior to performing operations using the data.