Patent ID: 6753867
Filing Date: 2004-06-22
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
A throttled pipeline within a host, the host being coupled to at least one general purpose computer workstation having an originator process and to an output device having a recipient process, the throttled pipeline being adapted to throttle a transfer-rate of data from the at least one general purpose computer workstation to the output device, to thereby conserve system resources of the host computer, wherein the originator process involves a transfer of data from the general purpose computer workstation to the output device; and wherein the recipient process receives the data from the originator process; the throttled pipeline comprising:a data storage and retrieval unit operatively coupled between the at least one general purpose computer workstation and the output device, the data storage and retrieval unit being adapted to enable a selective transfer of data from the at least one general purpose computer workstation to the output device using face buffers, wherein each face buffer corresponds to a memory space that is adapted to hold a single data set therein, each data set having a predetermined size according to the type of face buffer, wherein the face buffer is selected from any available memory space that will receive that type of face buffer, and wherein data can only be transferred from the at least one general purpose computer workstation to the output device in data sets using face buffers supplied by the data storage and retrieval unit.