Patent
1992-11-30
1995-02-28
Powell, Mark R.
G06F 314
Patent
active
053945247
ABSTRACT:
In a graphics subsystem, a highly interactive two-dimensional (2D) data stream and a computationally intensive three-dimensional (3D) data stream are processed concurrently in such a manner that processing of the 2D data stream is not held up by processing of the 3D data stream. A 3D geometry subsystem having a parallel pipeline architecture is used to process the 3D data stream, while a 2D subsystem concurrently processed the 2D data stream in parallel with the 3D subsystem. A reordering device couples the processed 2D and 3D data streams to a common raster subsystem. The reordering device, which contains an internal buffer, reorders any order-dependent elements of the 3D data stream appearing at the output of the 3D geometry subsystem in an order different from the order in which they were supplied to the input end. The reordering device prioritizes the 2D data stream relative to the 3D data stream so that elements of the 2D data stream arriving from the 2D subsystem are passed to the raster subsystem almost immediately, without having to wait for elements of the 3D data stream.
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DiNicola Paul D.
Kantz Joseph C.
Rahim Omar M.
Rice David A.
Ruddick Edward M.
Dillon Andrew J.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Kinnaman William A.
Powell Mark R.
Tung Kee M.
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