System and Method for Image-Based Rendering with Object Proxies
Granted: September 11, 2008
Application Number:
20080218526
A system and method for rendering with an object proxy. In one embodiment, a method includes forming a set of view textures corresponding to a set of viewing directions; selecting a viewing direction for rendering; selecting at least two view textures from the formed set based on the selected viewing direction; and rendering the object proxy at the selected viewing direction. The rendering step includes applying texture from the selected view textures onto the selected object proxy. The…
Method and System for Minimizing an Amount of Data Needed to Test Data Against Subarea Boundaries in Spatially Composited Digital Video
Granted: September 4, 2008
Application Number:
20080211805
A method and system for minimizing an amount of data needed to test data against subarea boundaries in spatially composited digital video. Spatial compositing uses a graphics unit or pipeline to render a portion (subarea) of each overall frame of digital video images. This reduces the amount of data that each processor must act on and increases the rate at which an overall frame is rendered. Optimization of spatial compositing depends on balancing the processing load among the different…
System and Method of Synchronizing Real Time Clock Values in Arbitrary Distributed Systems
Granted: July 10, 2008
Application Number:
20080168182
A system and method of determining a master node in a computer system having a plurality of nodes includes establishing a hierarchy of master nodes from the plurality of nodes, wherein the master node synchronizes the plurality of nodes in the computer system with a clock value and determining the master node from the hierarchy of master nodes. A system and method of synchronizing a plurality of nodes in a computer system includes determining a master node from the plurality of nodes,…
Method of and Apparatus for Compressing and Uncompressing Image Data
Granted: June 5, 2008
Application Number:
20080131008
The present invention provides for a method of and apparatus for compressing and uncompressing image data. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the method of compressing a color cell comprises the steps of: defining at least four luminance levels of the color cell; generating a bitmask for the color cell, the bitmask having a plurality of entries each corresponding to a respective one of the pixels, each of the entries for storing data identifying one of the luminance…
System, method, and computer program product for remote graphics processing
Granted: February 28, 2008
Application Number:
20080049030
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for remote rendering of computer graphics. The system includes a graphics application program resident at a remote server. The graphics application is invoked by a user or process located at a client. The invoked graphics application proceeds to issue graphics instructions. The graphics instructions are received by a remote rendering control system. Given that the client and server differ with respect to graphics context and…
Techniques for pointing to locations within a volumetric display
Granted: February 14, 2008
Application Number:
20080040689
The present invention is a system that creates a volumetric display and a user controllable volumetric pointer within the volumetric display. The user can point by aiming a beam which is vector, planar or tangent based, positioning a device in three-dimensions in association with the display, touching a digitizing surface of the display enclosure or otherwise inputting position coordinates. The cursor can take a number of different forms including a ray, a point, a volume and a plane.…
Snapshot copy of data volume during data access
Granted: January 10, 2008
Application Number:
20080010284
A cluster of computer system nodes share direct read/write access to storage devices via a storage area network using a cluster filesystem. Access to files on the storage devices is arbitrated by the cluster filesystem using tokens. Upon detection of a change in location of the metadata server, client nodes waiting for a token are interrupted to check on the status of at least one of data and node availability.
Clustered filesystem with membership version support
Granted: January 3, 2008
Application Number:
20080005196
A cluster of computer system nodes share direct read/write access to storage devices via a storage area network using a cluster filesystem. Version information about subsystems is acquired by a leader node when forming a cluster membership and distributed to all nodes in the cluster to enable proper messaging during operation.
Flexible landscape display system for information display and control
Granted: September 13, 2007
Application Number:
20070211053
The present invention is a system that grids original data, maps the data at the grid locations to height values at corresponding landscape image pixel locations and renders the landscape pixels into a three-dimensional (3D) landscape image. The landscape pixels can have arbitrary shapes and can be augmented with additional 3D information from the original data, such as an offset providing additional information, or generated from processing of the original data, such as to alert when a…
Integration of graphical application content into the graphical scene of another application
Granted: September 13, 2007
Application Number:
20070211065
This application describes a system that captures 3D geometry commands from a first 3D graphics process and stores them in a shared memory. A second 3D environment process creates a 3D display environment using a display and display hardware. A third process obtains the 3D commands and supplies them to the hardware to place 3D objects in the 3D environment. The result is a fused display environment where 3D objects are displayed along with other display elements. Input events in the…
System and method for graphics culling
Granted: August 23, 2007
Application Number:
20070195085
A method is disclosed for culling an object database in a graphics processing system. In one embodiment, the method comprises encoding per-object parameters and culling parameters. The per-object parameters are encoded in texture format thereby creating at least one per-object texture containing the encoded per-object parameters. Next, a fragment program used in a fragment processor of the GPU is optionally updated. The updated fragment program embodies a culling operation. A polygon is…
Translation lookaside buffer checkpoint system
Granted: August 2, 2007
Application Number:
20070180217
A system that, at a process checkpoint, pauses the process to copy the system state for the process and then copies pages of the process in memory to disk storage while the process continues to run. When a write to a page by the process is to occur that requires a translation from a virtual address to a physical address the write is intercepted. The page that is being modified is duplicated and then the process is allowed to modify the page and continue. The duplicate page is then stored…
Failsoft system for multiple CPU system
Granted: July 19, 2007
Application Number:
20070168716
A cpu-set type multiprocessor system allows a cpu of a cpu-set that has a hardware exception to disable itself and notify the system. The system assigns processes of the cpu-set that include the problem cpu to another cpu-set. The disabling of the problem cpu and transfer of the related processes to another cpu-set allows the system to failsoft so that other cpu-sets the multiprocessor system can continue to run and a recovery of the processes being run on the problem cpu-set occurs.
Media fusion remote access system
Granted: May 31, 2007
Application Number:
20070124382
The present invention is a system that receives data in different formats from different devices/applications in the format native to the devices/applications and fuses the data into a common shared audio/video collaborative environment including a composite display showing the data from the different sources in different areas of the display and composite audio. The common environment is presented to users who can be at remote locations. The users are allowed to supply a control input…
Data coherence method and apparatus for multi-node computer system
Granted: May 10, 2007
Application Number:
20070106850
A method and apparatus for maintaining data coherency in a computer system having a plurality of nodes forms a directory by grouping the nodes into a plurality of hierarchical groups of two or more levels. The method and apparatus also 1) set the directory to have data relating to a first set of groups within a first level, and 2) determine if a requesting node requesting data is a member of one of the first set of groups. The directory then is set to have data relating to a second group…
System and Method for Providing a Wide Aspect Ratio Flat Panel Display Monitor Independent White-Balance Adjustment and Gamma Correction Capabilities
Granted: April 19, 2007
Application Number:
20070085816
A system and method are described herein for controlling the white balance and providing gamma correction without compromising gray-scale dynamic range in a flat panel liquid crystal display (LCD). According to one embodiment of the present invention, the flat panel LCD includes electronic circuitry for coupling to a host computer to receive a white-balance adjustment control signal, and electronic circuitry for receiving image data to be rendered on the flat panel LCD. Further, the flat…
Hot plug control apparatus and method
Granted: April 12, 2007
Application Number:
20070080716
An apparatus for controlling a hot plug bus slot on a bus has an input for receiving a set of float signals (i.e., the set may have one or more float signals), and a driver having an output electrically couplable with the bus. The apparatus also has float logic operatively coupled with the input. The float logic is responsive to the set of float signals to cause the output to float at a high impedance in response to receipt of the set of float signals.
Color computation of pixels using a plurality of vertex or fragment shader programs
Granted: January 25, 2007
Application Number:
20070018990
A plurality of vertex or fragment processors on a graphics processor perform computations. Each vertex or fragment processor is capable of executing a separate program to compute a specific result. A combiner manages the combination of the results from the respective processors, and produces a final transformed vertex or pixel value. The vertex or fragment processors and the combiner can be programmable to modify their operations. As such, the vertex or fragment processors can operate in…
Liquid DIMM Cooler
Granted: November 9, 2006
Application Number:
20060250772
A liquid cooled heat sink for electronic circuit boards is described. A heat sink base includes a liquid cooling arrangement to remove heat from the base. An arrangement of cooling fins extends from the base, and at least one surface of each fin includes a thermal interface layer. The arrangement is adapted so that the fins fit between parallel electronic circuit boards such that for each circuit board, a thermal contact layer of a fin contacts multiple components on the circuit board so…
System and method for synchronizing multiple media devices
Granted: October 12, 2006
Application Number:
20060227245
Multiple media devices are synchronized in a multi-media system having a computer system, a plurality of media devices, and a display system. Each media device to be synchronized receives a front-end synchronization signal that periodically increments a front-end counter. The front-end counter represents an unadjusted system time (UST). The media device obtains a frame of data to be displayed from a computer system. The media device also receives a back-end synchronization signal that…
