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:
Mar. 29, 2011
Filed:
Dec. 02, 2005
Robert C. Keller, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Michael C. Shebanow, Saratoga, CA (US);
Makarand M. Dharmapurikar, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Robert C. Keller, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Michael C. Shebanow, Saratoga, CA (US);
Makarand M. Dharmapurikar, Santa Clara, CA (US);
NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
In a processing pipeline having a plurality of units, an interface unit is provided between a first, upstream pipeline unit that needs to be drained prior to a context switch and a second, downstream pipeline unit that might halt prior to a context switch. The interface unit redirects data that are drained from the first pipeline unit and to be received by the second pipeline unit, to a buffer memory provided in the front end of the processing pipeline. The contents of the buffer memory are subsequently dumped into memory reserved for the context that is being stored. When the processing pipeline is restored with this context, the data that were dumped into memory are retrieved back into the buffer memory and provided to the interface unit. The interface unit receives these commands and directs them to the second pipeline unit.