Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for varying command length in a computer graphics system

US5315698A · kind A · utility

68Cited by
3References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 21, 1991
Grant dateMay 24, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 21, 2011

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG09G2360/127
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a computer graphics system, an address generator processes physical and virtual addresses using a common command set. A separate translator provides conversion from generated virtual addresses to physical addresses. The address generator formulates addresses as a function of distance from the origin of desired destination area in destination memory to the requested position in the destination area. A plurality of drawing graphics commands specify different raster drawing operations. A plurality of context graphics commands is used to define a desired context in which drawing graphics commands operate. The defined context includes destination location for resulting data, type and plane depth of graphics operations, foreground and/or background color of resulting data. Different parts of the context are changeable/redefinable independently of the other parts. The graphics commands have a format of multiple fields. Different fields specify different parameters. For each graphics command, the fields are arranged in order of common use of the corresponding parameter such that fields of less commonly used parameters are at an omittable end of the format. Thus, length of each graphics …

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.