Patent ID: 7212211

Claim:
A data processing system, comprising: a plurality of processing units each operable to initiate processing assigned thereto in response to reception of an execution enable signal and to produce a processing result and an execution end signal after completion of said processing; a respective processing table for each of a plurality of applications, each of said processing tables storing, in a predetermined order, identification information on one or more of said processing units to which said execution enable signal is to be sent, and identification information on one or more of said processing units from which said processing result and said execution end signal are to be received; and a control unit operable to control said processing units such that, in response to receipt of a processing request from a given application, said execution enable signal is sent to said one or more processing units identified by said respective processing table, and said processing result and said execution end signal are received from said one or more processing units identified by said respective processing table, in said order determined by said respective processing table wherein: each of said processing units includes drawing processing means for drawing a predetermined image, a plurality of geometry processing means for performing geometry processing based on predetermined image display instructions, and an image interface which intervenes between said drawing processing means and said geometry processing means; said drawing processing means includes a buffer for storing, together with identification information, different drawing contexts for each of said geometry processing means, and means for reading a specific drawing context from said buffer in response to a drawing instruction from said image interface and for drawing an image based on said drawing context; each of said geometry processing means is operable to perform geometry processing independently based on said image display instructions and to send to said image interface an image transfer request containing said identification information for said drawing context resulting from said geometry processing together with information indicative of an order of priority given thereto; said image interface is operable to receive said image transfer requests from said geometry processing means in said order of priority to sequentially input said drawing instructions to said drawing processing means; and said processing result includes a result of drawing said image by said drawing processing means.