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:
Sep. 09, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 30, 1998
ATI International Srl, Barbados, BB;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for controlling multiple displays from a drawing surface begins by obtaining a drawing surface setting that includes at least one of a refresh rate, resolution, and pixel depth. A user may select the drawing surface settings or are default parameters of the computer system. The processing continues by determining whether each of the multiple displays includes a display mode that substantially matches the drawing surface setting. If each of the multiple displays includes a display mode that matches the drawing surface setting, the images stored in the drawing surface are provided to the multiple displays based on the drawing surface setting. As such, the images will be displayed in full, without virtual desktop operation, unless selected by the user. If, however, at least one of the multiple displays does not include a display mode that matches the drawing surface setting, an alternate drawing surface setting is generated, which may be done by modifying the refresh rate, the resolution, and/or the pixel depth of the drawing surface settings. Having generated the alternate surface settings, another determination is made as to whether each of the multiple displays includes a display mode that substantially matches the alternate drawing surface setting. If not, another alternate drawing surface setting is generated until a match is found or until exhausted. If exhausted, one of the displays is dropped from the process, i.e., it operates in a virtual desktop mode, and the process repeats for the remaining displays.