Patent · US Expired

Using prioritized interrupt callback routines to process different types of multimedia information

US5940610A · kind A · utility

29Cited by
38References
1Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 3, 1996
Grant dateAug 17, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 3, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N21/426
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Multimedia information (e.g. graphics, video, sound, control information) passes through a system bus from a CPU main memory to a display memory in accordance with CPU commands. The information may be packetized with associated packet types identifying the different media. A media stream controller processes the information and passes the processed information to the display memory. Controllers in the media stream controller individually pass multimedia information to the display memory. A PACDAC controller in the media stream controller causes media (e.g. graphics, video) in the display memory to be transferred to a PACDAC for display. The format, sequence, and rate of this transfer may be flexibly controlled by software on a frame by frame basis. Arbitration logic establishes priorities for the different controllers in the media stream controller so they may share a single bus for accessing the display memory. A single interrupt controller coordinates interrupts (e.g. at a single level) to provide priorities based upon the type of interrupt cause or media. Each interrupt cause activates only the appropriate callback functions. Two different virtual machine sessions (e.g. Windows,…

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