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. 07, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 20, 2000
Chien-Chung Hsiao, Peng-Hu Hsien, TW;
Tsung-Feng Lee, Tainan Hsien, TW;
Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation, Hsinchu, TW;
Abstract
The present invention discloses a method and system, which discards invalid pixels by using cache memories storing depth values of all pixels having inputted which satisfy a Z Test Mode. The present invention is applied in a three-dimensional graphic system, and uses a plurality of pre-test units to process input pixels in a parallel manner to avoid system performance degeneration due to sequential execution used in prior art. The plurality of pre-test units read the depth values stored in a pre-test Z cache in the system and compare them with the depth values of input pixels being processed according to the Z Test Mode. If the answer is yes, the input pixels are discarded. Otherwise, the content of the pre-test Z cache is updated.