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:
Apr. 14, 1998
Clayton Chadez, Nampa, ID (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A configurable data processing pipeline for processing data, such as print data, provides configuration flexibility, thereby allowing the data processing operations to be optimized for the data, while achieving improved data processing speed. In the preferred embodiment, the configurable data processing pipeline is implemented in an ASIC. The configurable data processing pipeline includes compression/decompression modules, a page strip manager, a color space conversion module, a merge module and a halftone module. A method for controlling the pipeline accepts raster image data after it has been processed by image rendering firmware and prepares the raster image data for transfer to the pipeline. Page rendering firmware performs this function. Next, pipeline control firmware takes control and thereafter operates the pipeline ASIC, independently of the page rendering firmware.