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AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.
InventorsCraig S. Forrest, Edward H. Frank, Patrick J. Naughton
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A method and apparatus for quickly copying a first frame region into a second frame region. A video memory array comprising a plurality of video random access memory devices is divided into at least two frame regions. A background image is rendered by a central processing unit into a background frame region within the video memory array. The central processing unit then requests the background image in the background frame region to be copied into a new frame region in the video memory array. A dedicated circuit copies the entire background image in the background frame region into the new frame region. The dedicated circuit operates by using a serial data register within each video random access memory device during the vertical retrace period of a video timing signal. The dedicated circuit performs the background frame copy without requiring any processing resources from the central processing unit.
A method for generating and displaying a sequence of animation frames, said method for use with a frame buffer apparatus comprising at least three data regions, each of the data regions having contents comprising frame data, and said frame buffer apparatus further comprising a display region pointer, a background region pointer, and a new frame region pointer, said method comprising the following steps:
An apparatus for generating and displaying a sequence of animation frames, said apparatus comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.