Patent ID: 7619633

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, comprising: maintaining visual information in a cache data structure including containers and data; reserving an invalid container for storing graphics information, without having space allocated for the graphics information; and rendering the data structure into data for receipt by another entity at a fixed rate, wherein the rendering mechanism comprises a high-level component that executes at a first operating rate to provide the instruction stream to a low-level component, wherein the low-level component runs at a second operating rate to provide drawing commands based on the instructions to a graphics subsystem, and wherein the second operating rate is greater than the first operating rate and corresponds to a frame rate of the graphics subsystem, the rendering including determining whether the graphics information of the invalid container is needed, and if so: 1) allocating resources for the graphics information; 2) calling back to higher-level program code to provide the graphics information; 3) receiving the graphics information; 4) outputting the data for receipt by another entity including information corresponding to the graphics information received; and 5) displaying the outputted data on a display, such that the graphics information received from the higher-level program code is displayed.