Method and system for improved data transmission in accelerated graphics port systems

Abstract

A method and system for improving data transmission in data processing systems, especially in the context of data processing systems utilizing the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) interface standard. The method and system provide an AGP-enabled device wherein is contained a command queue. The AGP-enabled device is connected to and communicates with an AGP-enabled bridge through and over a data bus. The AGP-enabled bridge has an AGP-enabled device mimicking unit. The AGP-enabled bridge also has an overflow protection unit. In one instance, the AGP-enabled device is an AGP-enabled graphics controller, the command queue is a graphics controller command queue, the AGP-enabled bridge is an AGP-enabled Northbridge, the data bus is an AGP interconnect, and the overflow protection unit is a mimicking buffer overflow detector and routing unit. In this instance, the graphics controller has a graphics controller full signal unit which controls and utilizes the PIPE# signal of the AGP-enabled graphics controller to indicate whether the graphics controller command queue can accept data. Further in this instance, the AGP-enabled Northbridge has an AGP-enabled graphics controller mimicking unit which has a graphics controller command queue mimicking buffer. Yet still further in this instance, the mimicking buffer overflow detector and routing unit has an overflow storage for the graphics controller command queue mimicking buffer where the overflow storage is provided in system memory by the use of pointers. In another instance, the method and system are substantially as described previously and the AGP-enabled Northbridge has a CPU mimicking unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.