Floating point processor for a three-dimensional graphics accelerator which includes floating point, lighting and set-up cores for improved performance
US5745125A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 2, 1996 |
| Grant date | Apr 28, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 2, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T1/20
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A floating point processor for a 3-D graphics accelerator which includes improved performance over prior art designs. The floating point processor includes three specialized engines or function units which streamline floating point operations and which provide improved performance over prior systems. In the preferred embodiment, the floating point processor comprises a floating point core (F-core), a lighting core (L-Core), and a set-up core (S-core). Computations for triangles and vectors are split over the three function units for improved efficiency. The F-core processor receives geometry primitive data and performs floating point operations on the received geometry data. The L-Core processor comprises a fixed point computational unit for performing lighting computations. The set-up core comprises a fixed point computational unit for performing set-up calculations for geometric primitives. Therefore, the present invention comprises an improved floating point processor for a three-dimensional graphics accelerator which includes three separate processing units for improved performance.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.