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:
Jan. 18, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Wayne Morse, Fremont, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A lighting unit for improved processing of multiple light sources. The lighting unit includes an input buffer for receiving one or more attributes corresponding to a given polygon. The lighting unit further includes a first light parameter storage location for storing a first set of light parameters for a first light source illuminating the given polygon, and a second light parameter storage location for storing a second set of light parameters for a second light source illuminating the given polygon. Still further, the lighting unit includes a first light type storage location which stores a lighting routine index for the first light source, and a second light type storage location which stores a lighting routine index for the second light source. The first light type storage location is initialized to be a current light type storage location. The lighting routine indices point to a particular lighting routine to be performed for a given type of light source. The lighting unit finally includes a control unit configured to execute a next light instruction. The next light instruction comprises accessing the current light type storage location to obtain the first lighting routine index. The next light instruction further comprises updating the current light type storage location to be the second light type storage location in preparation for a subsequent execution of the next light instruction. The control unit is further configured to effectuate performing a first lighting routine specified by the first lighting routine index.