Overlay counter for accelerated graphics port

Details Overlay counter for accelerated graphics port Overlay counter for accelerated graphics port

1998-01-30

2001-03-06

Nguyen, Hiep T. (Department: 2759)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory

Storage accessing and control

Access timing

C711S151000, C711S152000, C713S502000, C345S501000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06199149

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of memory access; more specifically, the present invention is related to a method and apparatus for an overlay counter for an accelerated graphics port.
(2) Related Art
A typical graphics device in a computer system has expedited priority in accessing a system memory over other system devices. In currently available systems, lower priority devices must wait their turn to access the system memory. Because a graphics device is assigned expedited priority, a graphics device may indirectly cause other devices vying for access to the system memory to fail by depriving them of access time. However, in order to output graphics information to a user in a timely fashion, it is imperative for the graphics device to maintain its expedited priority status.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method and an apparatus to allow system memory access requests by other devices to be honored without jeopardizing expedited priority status of a graphics device.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method and apparatus for controlling processing of overlay requests is disclosed. One embodiment of the method comprises the step of disabling an overlay request to a memory. The overlay request to system memory has expedited processing priority over requests to a system memory by other devices. The overlay request is disabled for a predetermined time period and enabled after the predetermined time period has elapsed.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5319388 (1994-06-01), Mattison et al.
patent: 5664161 (1997-09-01), Fukushima et al.
patent: 5812789 (1998-09-01), Diaz et al.
patent: 5818464 (1998-10-01), Wade
patent: 5941968 (1999-08-01), Mergard et al.

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