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AssigneeA&N Corporation
InventorsJeremy E. San, Ben Cheese, Carl N. Graham, Peter R. Warnes
Estimating the term…
A fully programmable, graphics microprocessor is disclosed which is designed to be embodied in a removable external memory unit for connection with a host information processing system. In an exemplary embodiment, a video game system is described including a host video game system and a pluggable video game cartridge housing the graphics microprocessor. The game cartridge also includes a read-only program memory (ROM) and a random-access memory (RAM). The graphics coprocessor operates in conjunction with a three bus architecture embodied on the game cartridge. The graphics processor using this bus architecture may execute programs from either the program ROM, external RAM or its own internal cache RAM. The fully user programmable graphics coprocessor has an instruction set which is designed to efficiently implement arithmetic operations associated with 3-D graphics and, for example, includes special instructions executed by dedicated hardware for plotting individual pixels in the host video game system's character mapped display which, from the programmer's point of view, creates a “virtual” bit map by permitting the addressing of individual pixels—even though the host system is character based. The graphics coprocessor interacts with the host coprocessor such that the graphics coprocessor's 16 general registers are accessible to the host processor at all times.
For use with a home video game system having a game microprocessor for executing a first portion of a video game program, a game cartridge comprising:
In an information processing system having a host processing unit for executing a videographics program stored at least in part in an external memory in an external memory system, said external memory system comprising:
A video game system for use with a television type display comprising:
For use in an information processing system having a first processing unit for executing at least a first portion of a videographics program stored in an external memory, a programmable graphics processor comprising:
A programmable processor comprising:
For use in an information processing system having a display for displaying at least one object and having a first processing unit for executing at least a first portion of a videographics program stored in an external memory, said external memory storing a second portion of said videographics program including instructions relating to rotating said object, a programmable graphics processor comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.