Patent ID: 7016974

Claim:
Image data processing apparatus, comprising a plurality of image processing systems in which each of said image processing systems has direct access to a respective frame storage means; and a network connecting said image processing systems together so as to allow each connected image processing system to indirectly access the frame storage means of other connected image processing systems, wherein each connected image processing system comprises: (a) a local configuration file specifying details of said image processing system's respective locally connected storage means; (b) a network configuration data structure; and (c) network communication means, wherein, said network communication means is arranged to: (i) transmit details of said image processing system's associated local configuration file to said other connected networked image systems; and (ii) automatically add local configuration details, from said other networked image systems, to said image processing system's associated network configuration data structure in response to receiving the details of local configuration files from said other connected networked image processing systems; wherein the local configuration details comprise framestore information for the respectively locally connected storage means and interface information for the image processing system; and the network configuration data structure comprises framestore information for each frame storage means connected to image processing system on the network and interface information for one interface for each image processing system on the network.