Computer system having a dedicated multimedia engine and multimedia memory having arbitration logic which grants main memory access to either the CPU or multimedia engine
US5748983A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 7, 1995 |
| Grant date | May 5, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 7, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/1605
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A computer system optimized for real-time applications which provides increased performance for real-time applications over current computer architectures. The system includes a dedicated multimedia engine coupled directly to the main memory which performs real-time operations, including audio and video functions, as well as others. The multimedia engine includes one or more DSP engines which couple through one or more I/O channels to respective video, audio and communication ports. The multimedia engine includes video ports for coupling to a video monitor, audio ports for coupling to speakers and one or more communication ports. Multimedia memory is coupled to the local memory bus and stores data for the multimedia engine. The multimedia memory in the multimedia engine comprises a portion of the main memory address space. Thus the multimedia is used for real-time or multimedia data and is also used by the CPU as overflow memory space.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.