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:
Oct. 30, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1999
Won-Il Bae, Seoul, KR;
Abstract
Refreshing of a portion of a DRAM device is bypassed when carrying out a refreshing operation on the DRAM device. By bypassing the refreshing of a portion of the DRAM device when carrying out a refreshing operation, the operational speed of the DRAM device and of systems that use the DRAM device can be increased, and/or the power consumption thereof can be decreased. More specifically, graphic memory apparatus include a DRAM device that is divided into a frame buffer zone that supplies pixel data for a display and at least one other zone, such as a z buffer and/or a texture storing zone. Refreshing of the frame buffer zone is bypassed when carrying out a refreshing operation on the DRAM device. In a preferred embodiment, indications of a starting DRAM address and an ending DRAM address for the frame buffer may be stored. A refreshing operation is performed only on those DRAM addresses that fall outside the starting address and the ending address.