US6995771B2 — Sparse refresh of display

Claim 1

Independent Claim 73 words

A method, comprising: detecting a write command to a frame buffer; determining a region in the frame buffer associated with a frame buffer address in the write command, wherein the region spans more than one row of pixels and wherein a shape of the region is configurable; and determining whether the region is the same as a last-modified region for purposes of deciding whether to asynchronously send the region to a display device.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 73 words

A method, comprising: detecting a write command to a frame buffer; determining a region in the frame buffer associated with a frame buffer address in the write command, wherein the region spans more than one row of pixels and wherein a shape of the region is configurable; and determining whether the region is the same as a last-modified region for purposes of deciding whether to asynchronously send the region to a display device.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 41 words

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: when the region is not the same as the last-modified region, asynchronously sending the region to the display device associated with the frame buffer, and setting the last-modified region to be the region.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 33 words

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: when the region is the same as the last-modified region, refraining from sending the region to the display device until a different region is detected.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 20 words

The method of claim 1 , wherein the write command is issued by a graphics engine to the frame buffer.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame buffer comprises a plurality of regions each representing a plurality of pixels on a display device, and wherein the region is one of the plurality of regions.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of regions represent the plurality of pixels in a rectangular shape on the display device.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 19 words

The method of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of regions represents a same number of pixels.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 23 words

The method of claim 4 , wherein the detecting is carried out by logic connected to the frame buffer and the graphics engine.

Claim 10

Independent Claim 76 words

An apparatus, comprising: a graphics engine to: generate an asynchronous write command having an associated region in a frame buffer, wherein the region spans more than one row of pixels and wherein a shape of the region is configurable, determine whether scan-out logic is accessing the associated region in the frame buffer, and store the write command in memory associated with the graphics engine when the scan-out logic accesses the associated region in the frame buffer.

Claim 11

Independent Claim 76 words

An apparatus, comprising: a graphics engine to: generate an asynchronous write command having an associated region in a frame buffer, wherein the region spans more than one row of pixels and wherein a shape of the region is configurable, determine whether scan-out logic is accessing the associated region in the frame buffer, and store the write command in memory associated with the graphics engine when the scan-out logic accesses the associated region in the frame buffer.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 35 words

The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the graphics engine is further to: send the write command to the frame buffer when the scan-out logic is not accessing the associated region in the frame buffer.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 37 words

The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the frame buffer comprises a plurality of regions each representing a plurality of pixels on a display device, and wherein the associated region is one of the plurality of regions.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 94 words

A signal-bearing medium comprising instructions, which when read and executed by a processor comprise: accumulating writes by a graphics engine to one of a plurality of regions in a frame buffer, wherein the plurality of regions represent respective pixels on a display device which spans more than one row of pixels and shapes of the regions are configurable; detecting that the graphics engine has written to another region of the plurality of regions in the frame buffer; and in response to the detecting, causing the one region to be written to the display device.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 94 words

A signal-bearing medium comprising instructions, which when read and executed by a processor comprise: accumulating writes by a graphics engine to one of a plurality of regions in a frame buffer, wherein the plurality of regions represent respective pixels on a display device which spans more than one row of pixels and shapes of the regions are configurable; detecting that the graphics engine has written to another region of the plurality of regions in the frame buffer; and in response to the detecting, causing the one region to be written to the display device.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 22 words

The signal-bearing medium of claim 12 , wherein the detecting further comprises converting frame buffer addresses in the writes to region numbers.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 36 words

The signal-bearing medium of claim 12 , wherein the causing further comprises: instructing scan-out logic to copy the one region from the frame buffer to the display device asynchronously from the writes to the frame buffer.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 90 words

An electronic device, comprising: a graphics engine to, for every respective modified region in a set of candidate regions, asynchronously copy the respective modified region from a frame buffer to a display, when the respective modified region was written to during the copy, mark the respective modified region as modified, and when the respective modified region was not written to during the copy, mark the respective modified region as not modified, wherein the modified and candidate regions span more than one row of pixels and have shapes which are configurable.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 90 words

An electronic device, comprising: a graphics engine to, for every respective modified region in a set of candidate regions, asynchronously copy the respective modified region from a frame buffer to a display, when the respective modified region was written to during the copy, mark the respective modified region as modified, and when the respective modified region was not written to during the copy, mark the respective modified region as not modified, wherein the modified and candidate regions span more than one row of pixels and have shapes which are configurable.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 28 words

The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the set of candidates comprises all regions that have not been written to during a most recent period of time.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 23 words

The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the set of candidates comprises all regions except a number of most-recently written to regions.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 20 words

The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the set of candidates comprises a number of least-recently written to regions.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 21 words

The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the set of candidates comprises all regions being displaced from the frame buffer.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2009-02-06	2009-08-08	2010-02-07	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2013-02-06	2013-08-08	2014-02-07	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2017-02-06	2017-08-08	2018-02-07	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Sparse refresh of display

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