Abstract: An antifouling dispersant composition having an alcohol polyoxyethylene (EO) ether (EO number 1-14), represented by the general formula (I), wherein R is an alkyl with about 3-20 carbon atoms; and n is 1-14.

Abstract: Methods and compositions for inhibiting carbonyl-based fouling of basic wash systems. The methods comprise contacting the hydrocarbon stream that is or will be subjected to such washing with water soluble or water dispersible copolymers comprising repeat units of 1) ethylenically unsaturated monomers such as acrylic acid with one or more 2) other repeat units such as alkyl acrylates, allyl ethers, ethoxylated allyl repeat units, etc. In other embodiments, a third repeat unit 3) is present and may comprise a hydrophobic moiety such as a styrene repeat unit. The compositions may be terpolymers comprising repeat units 1), 2), and 3).

Abstract: Provided are methods and compositions for inhibiting carbonyl based fouling materials of basic wash systems. Said methods comprise contacting the hydrocarbon stream that is or will be subjected to said wash systems with water soluble or water dispersible copolymers. Said copolymers comprise repeat units of ethylenically unsaturated monomers such as acrylic acid with other repeat units such as alkyl acrylates, allyl ethers, ethoxylated allyl repeat units, etc. In other embodiments, a third repeat unit is present and may comprise a hydrophobic moiety such as a styrene repeat unit.

Abstract: Methods and compositions are provided for inhibiting the polymerization of a vinyl aromatic monomer, such as styrene monomer, during elevated temperature processing or distillation thereof. The compositions comprise an inhibitor combination of (A) a hydroxylamine and (B) a stable free radical plus a retarder that is either; (C) dinitrobutylphenol or (D) quinone methide. The ratio of (A) to (B) ranges from about 5% (A) to 95% (B) to about 95% (A) to about 5% (B). The compositions are added to the vinyl aromatic monomer in amounts sufficient to prevent polymerization during the distillation process. Typically the inhibitor combination is added to the vinyl aromatic monomer in an amount ranging from about 10 to 150 ppm of the monomer. Retarders are typically added in an amount ranging from 50 to 1500 ppm of the vinyl aromatic monomer.

Abstract: Methods and compositions are provided for inhibiting the polymerization of a vinyl aromatic monomer, such as styrene monomer, during elevated temperature processing or distillation thereof. The compositions comprise an inhibitor combination of (A) a hydroxylamine and (B) a stable free radical plus a retarder that is either; (C) dinitrobutylphenol or (D) quinone methide. The ratio of (A) to (B) ranges from about 5% (A) to 95% (B) to about 95% (A) to about 5% (B). The compositions are added to the vinyl aromatic monomer in amounts sufficient to prevent polymerization during the distillation process. Typically the inhibitor combination is added to the vinyl aromatic monomer in an amount ranging from about 10 to 150 ppm of the monomer. Retarders are typically added in an amount ranging from 50 to 1500 ppm of the vinyl aromatic monomer.

Abstract: A system for integrating triangle setup and attribute setup operations into a programmable execution unit of a graphics processing unit is disclosed. A method for integrating triangle setup and attribute setup operations into a programmable execution unit graphics processing unit is also disclosed. In one embodiment, at least one execution unit is configured for multi-threaded operation. The at least one execution unit is configured to execute at least one thread for triangle setup operations and attribute setup operations as well as threads for pixel shader, geometry shader and vertex shader operations.

Abstract: Methods and systems for data compression and decompression in a graphics processing system are provided. For example, in at least one embodiment, a method comprises distributing the graphics data values of a pixel block about zero to minimize redundancy, and the pixel block includes a plurality of quadrants. The method further comprises determining whether to encode the distributed graphics data values, and responsive to a determination to encode the distributed graphics data values, encoding at least one graphics data value of one of the quadrants depending on an encoding indicator. The encoding includes determining an entropy parameter and dividing each positive data value by the entropy parameter yielding an entropy part and a noise part.

Abstract: Methods and compositions are provided for inhibiting the polymerization of a vinyl aromatic monomer, such as styrene monomer, during elevated temperature processing or distillation thereof. The compositions comprise an inhibitor combination of (A) a hydroxylamine and (B) a stable free radical plus a retarder that is either; (C) dinitrobutylphenol or (D) quinone methide. The ratio of (A) to (B) ranges from about 5% (A) to 95% (B) to about 95% (A) to about 5% (B). The compositions are added to the vinyl aromatic monomer in amounts sufficient to prevent polymerization during the distillation process. Typically the inhibitor combination is added to the vinyl aromatic monomer in an amount ranging from about 10 to 150 ppm of the monomer. Retarders are typically added in an amount ranging from 50 to 1500 ppm of the vinyl aromatic monomer.

Abstract: Methods and systems for data compression and decompression in a graphics processing system are provided. For example, in at least one embodiment, a method comprises distributing the graphics data values of a pixel block about zero to minimize redundancy, and the pixel block includes a plurality of quadrants. The method further comprises determining whether to encode the distributed graphics data values, and responsive to a determination to encode the distributed graphics data values, encoding at least one graphics data value of one of the quadrants depending on an encoding indicator. The encoding includes determining an entropy parameter and dividing each positive data value by the entropy parameter yielding an entropy part and a noise part.

Abstract: Systems and methods for border color handling in a graphics processing unit are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a border color register that stores at least one border color pointer. A border color pointer indicates an address in an external memory at which border color information is located. Border color information is populated within external memory and retrieved by the texture cache controller if the texture filter unit requires a border color for texture mapping operations.

Abstract: A system for integrating triangle setup and attribute setup operations into a programmable execution unit of a graphics processing unit is disclosed. A method for integrating triangle setup and attribute setup operations into a programmable execution unit graphics processing unit is also disclosed. In one embodiment, at least one execution unit is configured for multi-threaded operation. The at least one execution unit is configured to execute at least one thread for triangle setup operations and attribute setup operations as well as threads for pixel shader, geometry shader and vertex shader operations.

Abstract: A method of performing anisotropic texture mip-mapping. The method includes determining a region of support for a set of target pixels of the image to be textured, and mapping the region of support to an area in texture map that is generally elliptical. For each axis of the ellipse the number of samples is determined and a filter function is performed on those samples to find the final color value. For four texels, the filter function is a weighted sum of the color values of each texel, where the weights are determined based on the fraction of the Level of Detail (LOD) and the fraction of the U or V coordinate.

Abstract: Systems and methods for border color handling in a graphics processing unit are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a border color register that stores at least one border color pointer. A border color pointer indicates an address in an external memory at which border color information is located. Border color information is populated within external memory and retrieved by the texture cache controller if the texture filter unit requires a border color for texture mapping operations.

Abstract: An improved target and initiator. The initiator provides a starting address and length information on a bus synchronously with a clock signal. While the starting address and length information are present on the bus, the initiator provides a write or a read request signal that is activated and deactivated synchronously. The initiator then receives from the target unit a grant signal that is activated and deactivated synchronously. After the grant signal is deactivated, for a write operation, the initiator provides a number of write data items on the bus synchronously for capture by the target unit. For a read operation, the target provides a number of read data items on the bus synchronously for capture by the initiator unit. One data item provided in each clock cycle of the clock signal and the number of data items is determined by the length information provided.

Abstract: A method of cubic mapping with texturing is described. Neighboring pixels on an object are mapped to adjacent faces of the cube, but these adjacent faces do not guarantee continuity in the texture mip-map associated with each face. Therefore, the u and v texture map coordinates are adjusted after mapping to adjacent faces to make a continuity adjustment that insures that the LOD for the texture mip-map is the same for each adjacent face. The continuity adjustment includes either switching the u coordinate with the v coordinate or negating one of the coordinates or both. Additionally, if the u and v coordinates are normalized, the normalization may be compensated by adding or subtracting unity from the adjusted coordinate. After the continuity adjustment is made an approximation to the derivative is computed and used to determine the LOD for the mip-map. Texturing can then proceed using the LOD.

Abstract: A system and method for rendering a non-zero thickness line on a pixel-limited output device such that aliasing of the line is reduced. The edges defining a line segment are expanded to insure that any pixel touched by the line segment has its center included in the bounds of the line segment. The area of any pixel partially or fully covered by the expanded line is determined. If one edge of the line traverses the pixel, the area is determined according to whether a triangular or triangular plus parallelogram area is covered. If more than one edge of the line segment traverses a pixel, the area covered is computed based on the single edge case. With the area covered by the line segment known, the color or shading of the pixel is determined by linear interpolation between the line and the background.

Abstract: A system and method for rendering a graphics primitive. A two pass method is employed where, in the first pass, for each block affected by the primitive, whether the pixels of the affected block intersect the front and/or back layers of the block is determined. If there are intersected pixels in the block, a flag is set indicating that the z-buffer must be read to determine the visibility of the affected pixels in the block. On a second pass, the blocks affected by the graphics primitive are again examined. If the flag is not set, then the visible pixels are rendered to the frame buffer based on the front and back layers of the block. If the flag is set, then for each sub-block affected by the primitive, the z-buffer is read and the visible pixels are rendered to the frame buffer based on the reading of the z-buffer.

Abstract: A system and method for rendering a graphics primitive. A two pass method is employed where, in the first pass, for each block affected by the primitive, whether the pixels of the affected block intersect the front and/or back layers of the block is determined. If there are intersected pixels in the block, a flag is set indicating that the z-buffer must be read to determine the visibility of the affected pixels in the block. On a second pass, the blocks affected by the graphics primitive are again examined. If the flag is not set, then the visible pixels are rendered to the frame buffer based on the front and back layers of the block. If the flag is set, then for each sub-block affected by the primitive, the z-buffer is read and the visible pixels are rendered to the frame buffer based on the reading of the z-buffer.

Abstract: A method of performing anisotropic texture mip-mapping. The method includes determining a region of support for a set of target pixels of the image to be textured, and mapping the region of support to an area in texture map that is generally elliptical. For each axis of the ellipse the number of samples is determined and a filter function is performed on those samples to find the final color value. For four texels, the filter function is a weighted sum of the color values of each texel, where the weights are determined based on the fraction of the Level of Detail (LOD) and the fraction of the U or V coordinate.

Abstract: A lighting evaluation unit in a graphics processing system. The lighting evaluation unit includes a calculation unit having dot product circuitry used in determining specular, diffuse, spot, and attenuation components of a lighting equation in parallel. In one embodiment, the lighting evaluation unit is constructed in a pipeline manner, and includes multi-use circuitry for performing dot product calculations.