Patent ID: 7075539

Claim:
A method of transferring data in a computing system, comprising: generating floating-point data of a first fixed size in a computing system configured to process floating-point data of said first fixed size; converting said floating-point data to graphics floating-point data of a second fixed size smaller than said first fixed size by truncating least significant bits of said floating-point data, wherein converting includes converting said floating-point data to said graphics floating-point data in a central processing unit; transmitting said graphics floating-point data between sub-systems of said computing system, wherein transmitting includes transmitting said graphics floating-point data from said central processing unit, to a bridge circuit, and to main memory; wherein transmitting includes transmitting said graphics floating-point data from said main memory to said bridge circuit and to a graphics processor; wherein transmitting includes transmitting said graphics floating-point data in response to a direct memory access command from said graphics processor; and processing said graphics floating-point data in said graphics processor.