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:
Dec. 14, 1999
Filed:
May. 30, 1997
James A Schinnerer, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A sorting fifo for use in a memory controller of a graphics system is provided to rearrange the order of an incoming stream of pixels such that groups of pixels to the same page are grouped together. By rearranging the order of pixels before they are forwarded to a frame buffer memory, the repaging delays at the frame buffer memory may be minimized, and the overall performance of the graphics system is increased. The sorting fifo may include, for example, a pair of fifos coupled to a common controller. The controller is also coupled to the input address bus. The controller compares the page addresses of data received on the input address bus against page addresses of data references stored in the fifos. When there is a match, the data reference is forwarded to the appropriate fifo. The controller also controls the reading of data out of the fifo, to ensure that the rearranged order is preserved.