Universal graphic adapter for interfacing with hardware and means for determining previous output ranges of other devices and current device intial ranges
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorMaciej Maciesowicz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The subject invention relates to a Universal Graphics Adapter (UGA) that is a hardware-independent design that encapsulates and abstracts low-level graphics hardware in a standard manner through firmware. UGA is a firmware standard, intended to wrap existing or planned hardware, including VGA. UGA does not require the use of real-mode assembly language, direct hardware register, or frame buffer access to program, thus providing advantages over conventional systems. UGA supports basic drawing operations, continuous display modes, and power management. As a firmware-based standard, UGA facilitates updating a system to support both evolving and new hardware features.
Claims9
A computer implemented method for negotiating output ranges comprising:
- establishing initial values;
- determining initial ranges of a current device via reading the current device;
- determining if the current device is a first device being read and if yes determining whether the data read succeeded and if yes setting output ranges as the initial ranges read;
- and
- identifying an intersection between previously determined output ranges for one or more other devices and the current device's initial ranges if the current device is not a first read device being read but was read successfully.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.