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.

Date of Patent:
Nov. 23, 2004

Filed:

Jan. 03, 2001
Applicant:
Inventor:

Tom C. Martyn, Seattle, WA (US);

Assignee:

ATI Technologies Inc., Ontario, CA;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 9/00 ; G06F 9/46 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 9/00 ; G06F 9/46 ;
Abstract

A direct access driver solves limitations of DirectX operation under the Microsoft architecture when using multiple monitors. The direct access driver allows applications employing DirectX application program interfaces to use hardware acceleration without display errors on the monitors. Display errors can occur if multiple frame buffer addresses are returned in response to “GetFrameBufferAddress” DirectX calls. This invention returns a single address for two or more frame buffers on a display driver card by performing, without the DirectX application's knowledge, background operations that track hardware acceleration demands from two or more graphic user interfaces and frame buffers. The background operations entail constantly changing the frame buffer pointers relative to the location of offscreen DirectX application data, while one or more DirectX applications are moved in the display space from monitor to monitor. This is analogous to accurately tracking one of many moving objects in a fast-moving shell game.


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