Patent · US Expired

System, method and computer program product for programmable fragment processing

US7286133B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
43References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 10, 2005
Grant dateOct 23, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 29, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T1/20
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product are provided for programmable processing of fragment data in a computer hardware graphics pipeline. Initially, fragment data is received in a hardware graphics pipeline. It is then determined whether the hardware graphics pipeline is operating in a programmable mode. If it is determined that the hardware graphics pipeline is operating in the programmable mode, programmable operations are performed on the fragment data in order to generate output. The programmable operations are performed in a manner/sequence specified in a graphics application program interface. If it is determined that the hardware graphics pipeline is not operating in the programmable mode, standard graphics application program interface (API) operations are performed on the fragment data in order to generate output.

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