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:
Nov. 11, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 19, 2001
Edward C. Greene, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Douglas A. Voorhies, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Paolo Sabella, Pleasanton, CA (US);
John M. Danskin, Cranston, RI (US);
James M. Van Dyke, Austin, TX (US);
NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A system, method and computer program product are provided for avoiding reading z-values in a graphics pipeline. Initially, near z-values are stored which are each representative of a near z-value on an object in a region. Such region is defined by a tile and a coverage mask therein. Thereafter, the stored near z-values are compared with far z-values computed for other objects in the region. Such comparison indicates whether an object is visible in the region. Based on the comparison, z-values previously stored for image samples in the region are conditionally read from memory.
Data source: USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) public patent records. Weekly synchronization. How IDiyas builds this profile