Graphic stuff?
My apologies in advance if this is old business.
I've been having more fun with the patent database (I know, I'm there WAY too much lately), and ran across these.
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ft00&S1=raycer.ASNM.&OS =AN/raycer&RS=AN/raycer" target="_blank"> raycer patent</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,288,730'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,288,730&RS=PN/6,288,730"; target="_blank">Method and apparatus for generating texture</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,268,875'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,268,875&RS=PN/6,268,875"; target="_blank">Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,229,553'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,229,553&RS=PN/6,229,553"; target="_blank">Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,229,917'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,229,917&RS=PN/6,229,917"; target="_blank">Digital image coding system</a>
I just don't know enough about this stuff to know if this is new or not. Can anyone make heads or tails of this and 'splain in words of 2 syllables or less (well, maybe 3...if the words aren't too complex
).
What struck me was that these all have application dates right around/just after Apple bought out Raycer and
[quote] In one aspect the invention provides structure and method for a deferred graphics pipeline processor. The pipeline processor advantageously includes one or more of a command fetch and decode unit, geometry unit, a mode extraction unit and a polygon memory, a sort unit and a sort memory, setup unit, a cull unit, a mode injection unit, a fragment unit, a texture unit, a Phong lighting unit, a pixel unit, and backend unit coupled to a frame buffer. Each of these units may also be used independently in connection with other processing schemes and/or for processing data other than graphical or image data <hr></blockquote>
My head hurts....... <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
I've been having more fun with the patent database (I know, I'm there WAY too much lately), and ran across these.
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ft00&S1=raycer.ASNM.&OS =AN/raycer&RS=AN/raycer" target="_blank"> raycer patent</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,288,730'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,288,730&RS=PN/6,288,730"; target="_blank">Method and apparatus for generating texture</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,268,875'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,268,875&RS=PN/6,268,875"; target="_blank">Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,229,553'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,229,553&RS=PN/6,229,553"; target="_blank">Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,229,917'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,229,917&RS=PN/6,229,917"; target="_blank">Digital image coding system</a>
I just don't know enough about this stuff to know if this is new or not. Can anyone make heads or tails of this and 'splain in words of 2 syllables or less (well, maybe 3...if the words aren't too complex
).What struck me was that these all have application dates right around/just after Apple bought out Raycer and
[quote] In one aspect the invention provides structure and method for a deferred graphics pipeline processor. The pipeline processor advantageously includes one or more of a command fetch and decode unit, geometry unit, a mode extraction unit and a polygon memory, a sort unit and a sort memory, setup unit, a cull unit, a mode injection unit, a fragment unit, a texture unit, a Phong lighting unit, a pixel unit, and backend unit coupled to a frame buffer. Each of these units may also be used independently in connection with other processing schemes and/or for processing data other than graphical or image data <hr></blockquote>
My head hurts....... <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
Comments
<hr></blockquote>
This I found particularly interesting.
Another interesting thing to note is the dates on these patents is 1999/2000, which means that products based on them and coming through a 2-3 year development cycle will be ready in the near future (0-6 months, perhaps?). I wonder if this ties in with the "DSP-like" things that Moki said was in the new chipsets which keep getting delayed? It goes quite a bit beyond what he hinted at though. This would make more sense to me than Apple going head-to-head with nVidia in graphics chip development. If there was a modular & generalized compute engine built into the chipset with full DDR speed memory access capability, and it was full programmable (like these patents imply), then it could be doing things at the same time as the nVidia/ATI GPUs were grinding away on the AGP card. Potentially all sorts of operations could be offloaded to something like this (OpenGL shaders, QuickTime operations, Quartz rasterizing, generalized compute engine like what I was talking about in the "Wolf" thread, etc). If Apple throws a powerful & general enough compute engine in there people might stop caring that the G4's bandwidth is only 1 GB/sec. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
<strong>My apologies in advance if this is old business.
I've been having more fun with the patent database (I know, I'm there WAY too much lately), and ran across these.
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ft00&S1=raycer.ASNM.&OS =AN/raycer&RS=AN/raycer" target="_blank"> raycer patent</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,288,730'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,288,730&RS=PN/6,288,730"; target="_blank">Method and apparatus for generating texture</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,268,875'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,268,875&RS=PN/6,268,875"; target="_blank">Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,229,553'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,229,553&RS=PN/6,229,553"; target="_blank">Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor</a>
<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,229,917'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,229,917&RS=PN/6,229,917"; target="_blank">Digital image coding system</a>
I just don't know enough about this stuff to know if this is new or not. Can anyone make heads or tails of this and 'splain in words of 2 syllables or less (well, maybe 3...if the words aren't too complex
What struck me was that these all have application dates right around/just after Apple bought out Raycer and
My head hurts....... <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
I looks like all of the patents for the Pismo....
Sorry, I just had to say it. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
<strong>
I looks like all of the patents for the Pismo....
Sorry, I just had to say it. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
*sob, sob* IS NOT!!!!! <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
That's ok....I wouldn't have been able to resist either.