Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7184059?dq=7493558
Timestamp: 2016-02-08 10:49:27
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Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60']

Patent US7184059 - Graphics system with copy out conversions between embedded frame buffer and ... - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsA graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. The graphics processor includes an embedded frame buffer...http://www.google.com/patents/US7184059?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7184059 - Graphics system with copy out conversions between embedded frame buffer and main memoryAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7184059 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/722,663Publication dateFeb 27, 2007Filing dateNov 28, 2000Priority dateAug 23, 2000Fee statusPaidAlso published asUS7317459, US20070070083Publication number09722663, 722663, US 7184059 B1, US 7184059B1, US-B1-7184059, US7184059 B1, US7184059B1InventorsFarhad Fouladi, Mark M. Leather, Robert Moore, Howard Cheng, Timothy J. Van HookOriginal AssigneeNintendo Co., Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (109), Non-Patent Citations (99), Referenced by (96), Classifications (25), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetGraphics system with copy out conversions between embedded frame buffer and main memory
This application is filed in accordance with 35 U.S.C. �119(e)(1) and claims the benefit of the provisional application Ser. No. 60/227,030 filed on Aug. 23, 2000, entitled “Graphics System With Copy Out Conversions Between Embedded Frame Buffer And Main Memory.”
provisional Application No. 60/161,915, filed Oct. 28, 1999 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/465,754, filed Dec. 17, 1999, both entitled “Vertex Cache For 3D Computer Graphics”, provisional Application No. 60/226,912, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,215, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method and Apparatus for Buffering Graphics Data in a Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,889, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,419, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Graphics Pipeline Token Synchronization”, provisional Application No. 60/226,891, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,382, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Direct and Indirect Texture Processing In A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,888, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,367, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Recirculating Shade Tree Blender For A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,892, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,218, filed Nov. 28, 2000), both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Efficient Generation Of Texture Coordinate Displacements For Implementing Emboss-Style Bump Mapping In A Graphics Rendering System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,893, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,381 filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Environment-Mapped Bump-Mapping In A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/227,007, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,216, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Achromatic Lighting in a Graphics System and Method”, provisional Application No. 60/226,900, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,226, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Anti-Aliasing In A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,910, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,380, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Graphics System With Embedded Frame Buffer Having Reconfigurable Pixel Formats”, utility application Ser. No. 09/585,329, filed Jun. 2, 2000, entitled “Variable Bit Field Color Encoding”, provisional Application No. 60/226,890, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,227, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Dynamically Reconfiguring The Order Of Hidden Surface Processing Based On Rendering Mode”, provisional Application No. 60/226,915, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,212 filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Providing Non-Photorealistic Cartoon Outlining Within A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/227,032, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,225, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Providing Improved Fog Effects In A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,885, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,664, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Controller Interface For A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/227,033, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,221, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Texture Tiling In A Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,899, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,667, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method And Apparatus For Pre-Caching Data In Audio Memory”, provisional Application No. 60/226,913, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,378, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Z-Texturing”, provisional Application No. 60/227,031, filed Aug. 23, 2000 entitled “Application Program Interface for a Graphics System”, provisional Application No. 60/226,886, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,665, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Method and Apparatus for Accessing Shared Resources”, provisional Application No. 60/226,894, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,220, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Graphics Processing System With Enhanced Memory Controller”, provisional Application No. 60/226,914, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,390, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Low Cost Graphics System With Stitching Hardware Support For Skeletal Animation”, and provisional Application No. 60/227,006, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,421, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled “Shadow Mapping In A Low Cost Graphics System”. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses this problem by providing techniques and arrangements for use in connection with copying out data from an embedded frame buffer to main memory in a graphics system. The invention provides a copy out pipeline which advantageously enables further processing of data and/or data format conversions to be performed “on the fly” during the transfer of the data from the embedded frame buffer to an external destination, such as main memory. The invention further provides a copy pipeline that enables various pixel data formats to be advantageously used in the copy out operation. In addition, the copy pipeline of the invention enables data from the embedded frame buffer to be copied to main memory in a specific format for display or in a variety of texture formats for subsequent use as a texture in a graphics pipeline operation. The copy pipeline of the instant invention is particularly advantageous when used in systems designed for playing interactive 3D video games. In accordance with the instant invention, the embedded frame buffer can be reconfigured to and efficiently used in a variety of modes, including an anti-aliasing mode, a deflicker mode and a YUV (i.e. luma/chroma) mode, thereby increasing the flexibility of the system to support a variety of applications. The desired pixel format for each mode can be selected using, for example, a command to the graphics hardware on which the embedded frame buffer is provided. The copy pipeline can process and selectively further convert data in any of the formats supported by the embedded frame buffer.
24-bit color (either 8/8/8 with no alpha, or 6/6/6/6 with 6 bits of alpha) 24-bit Z. In this non-anti-aliasing mode, the 48-bit format can, in this example, support a maximum resolution of 640�528. Thus, the width must be between 0–640 and the EFB stride is fixed at 640 pixels. This non-antaliasing mode is based on a single point sample within each pixel. As indicated above, the point sample of each pixel is given a 24-bit color value and a 24-bit Z value. The color value may have 8 bits each for red, green and blue values when no alpha is used, or it may have 6 bits each for red, green, blue and alpha.
3 samples of 16-bit color (5 bits of Red, 6 bits of Green, 5 bits of Blue, no alpha) 3 samples of 16-bit Z (depth). This 96-bit format can support a maximum resolution of 640�264. The width is preferably between 0–640 and the stride is fixed at 640.
An exemplary interface between the pixel engine 700 and the embedded frame buffer 702 is shown in FIG. 8. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 8, there are 4 copies of the embedded frame buffer (702 a, 702 b, 702 c and 702 d)—2 for color and 2 for Z. In this example, a read or write access to the embedded frame buffer from the pixel engine transfers 96 bits of data or 4 quads of color and Z. There are 4 address/control and read buses to the core of each of the buffers. The Z channels A and B preferably share a write port 703 a, and the color channels A and B preferably share a separate write port 703 b. The embedded frame buffer preferably has enough bandwidth to blend 4 pixels per clock for peak filtrate of 800M pixels per second. The maximum size of the embedded frame buffer is 640�528�24b color and 24b Z. The embedded frame buffer is single-buffered and expected to transfer a finished image to the external frame buffer for display. Double buffered display is achieved in this manner. The address/control, read and write buses shown in FIG. 8 are defined in the following table:
This function copies the contents of the embedded frame buffer (EFB) to the display buffer 113 in main memory. By the term “copy out” we don't mean simply a transfer of all the information; rather, we mean that the contents of the embedded frame buffer are read out, further processed (e.g., filtered, resampled, scaled, etc.) and that the resulting data is then sent elsewhere (e.g., to an external point sample type frame buffer). The origin of the rectangle is defined by SrcLeft(X) and SrcTop(Y). The Clear flag enables clearing of the color and z buffer to the current clear color and z values. The clearing of the embedded frame buffer preferably occurs simultaneously with the copy operation.
System 1201 further includes various drives and associated computer-readable media. A hard disk drive 1209 reads from and writes to a (typically fixed) magnetic hard disk 1211. An additional (possible optional) magnetic disk drive 1213 reads from and writes to a removable “floppy” or other magnetic disk 1215. An optical disk drive 1217 reads from and, in some configurations, writes to a removable optical disk 1219 such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Hard disk drive 1209 and optical disk drive 1217 are connected to system bus 1207 by a hard disk drive interface 1221 and an optical drive interface 1225, respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, game programs and other data for personal computer system 1201. In other configurations, other types of computer-readable media that can store data that is accessible by a computer (e.g., magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs) and the like) may also be used.
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calculation apparatus and inclination calculation program, and game apparatus and game program* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification345/604, 345/546, 345/506International ClassificationG06T15/00, G09G5/391, G06T1/60, G09G5/397, G06T1/20, G09G5/02, G09G5/00Cooperative ClassificationG09G5/02, G09G2360/127, G09G2340/0407, G09G5/391, G09G5/363, G09G2320/0276, G09G2320/0247, G06T15/005, G09G5/393, G09G5/399European ClassificationG09G5/393, G09G5/391, G09G5/36C, G09G5/02, G06T15/00ALegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMay 4, 2001ASAssignmentOwner name: NINTENDO CO., LTD., JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:FOULADI, FARHAD;LEATHER, MARK M.;VAN HOOK, TIMOTHY J.;REEL/FRAME:011776/0316;SIGNING DATES FROM 20010213 TO 20010216Owner name: NINTENDO CO., LTD., JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:MOORE, ROBERT;CHENG, HOWARD;REEL/FRAME:011776/0325;SIGNING DATES FROM 20010301 TO 20010310Jul 2, 2010FPAYFee paymentYear of fee 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