Patents by Inventor David K. Fowler

David K. Fowler has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9292965
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement, program product and circuit arrangement utilize the known view orientation for an image frame to be rendered to reposition an Accelerated Data Structure (ADS) used during rendering to optimize the generation and/or use of the ADS, e.g., by transforming a scene from which an image frame is rendered to orient the scene relative to the view orientation prior to generating the ADS. A scene may be transformed, for example, to orient the view orientation within a single octant of the scene, with additional processing resources assigned to that octant to ensure sufficient processing resources are devoted to processing the primitives within the view orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer
  • Patent number: 8529300
    Abstract: An electrical connector assembly includes a front housing that has a mating interface. Contact modules are loaded into the front housing and extend rearward from the front housing. Each contact module has a plurality of conductors that are held by a dielectric contact module body. The conductors have mating portions that extend from the contact module body and mounting portions that extend from the contact module body. The contact modules have channels formed therein. An organizer bar is received in the channels of the contact modules. The organizer bar is manufactured from a dielectric material. The organizer bar holds the positions of the contact modules relative to one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Tyco Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher David Ritter, Ronald A. Carns, David K. Fowler
  • Publication number: 20130072071
    Abstract: An electrical connector assembly includes a front housing that has a mating interface. Contact modules are loaded into the front housing and extend rearward from the front housing. Each contact module has a plurality of conductors that are held by a dielectric contact module body. The conductors have mating portions that extend from the contact module body and mounting portions that extend from the contact module body. The contact modules have channels formed therein. An organizer bar is received in the channels of the contact modules. The organizer bar is manufactured from a dielectric material. The organizer bar holds the positions of the contact modules relative to one another.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2011
    Publication date: March 21, 2013
    Applicant: TYCO ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: CHRISTOPHER DAVID RITTER, RONALD A. CARNS, DAVID K. FOWLER
  • Patent number: 8248412
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement, program product and circuit arrangement utilize a textured bounding volume to reduce the overhead associated with generating and using an Accelerated Data Structure (ADS) in connection with physical rendering. In particular, a subset of the primitives in a scene may be mapped to surfaces of a bounding volume to generate textures on such surfaces that can be used during physical rendering. By doing so, the primitives that are mapped to the bounding volume surfaces may be omitted from the ADS to reduce the processing overhead associated with both generating the ADS and using the ADS during physical rendering, and furthermore, in many instances the size of the ADS may be reduced, thus reducing the memory footprint of the ADS, and often improving cache hit rates and reducing memory bandwidth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer
  • Patent number: 8248401
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement, program product and method utilize the known view orientation for an image frame to be rendered to optimize the generation and/or use of an Accelerated Data Structure (ADS) used in physical rendering-based image processing. In particular, it has been found that while geometry primitives that are not within a view orientation generally cannot be culled from a scene when a physical rendering technique such as ray tracing is performed, those primitives nonetheless have a smaller impact on the resulting image frame, and as a result, less processing resources can be applied to such primitives, leaving greater processing resources available for processing those primitives that are located within the view orientation, and thereby improving overall rendering performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer
  • Patent number: 7871296
    Abstract: High-speed backplane connectors systems for mounting a substrate that are capable of operating at speeds of up to at least 25 Gbps, while in some implementations also providing pin densities of at least 50 pairs of electrical connectors per inch are disclosed. Implementations of the high-speed connector systems may provide ground shields and/or other ground structures that substantially encapsulate electrical connector pairs, which may be differential electrical connector pairs, in a three-dimensional manner throughout a backplane footprint, a backplane connector, and a daughtercard footprint. These encapsulating ground shields and/or ground structures prevent undesirable propagation of non-traverse, longitudinal, and higher-order modes when the high-speed backplane connector systems operates at frequencies up to at least 30 GHz.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: Tyco Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Evan C. Wickes, Donald E. Wood
  • Publication number: 20100238169
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement, program product and circuit arrangement utilize a textured bounding volume to reduce the overhead associated with generating and using an Accelerated Data Structure (ADS) in connection with physical rendering. In particular, a subset of the primitives in a scene may be mapped to surfaces of a bounding volume to generate textures on such surfaces that can be used during physical rendering. By doing so, the primitives that are mapped to the bounding volume surfaces may be omitted from the ADS to reduce the processing overhead associated with both generating the ADS and using the ADS during physical rendering, and furthermore, in many instances the size of the ADS may be reduced, thus reducing the memory footprint of the ADS, and often improving cache hit rates and reducing memory bandwidth.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Publication date: September 23, 2010
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer
  • Publication number: 20100239185
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement, program product and method utilize the known view orientation for an image frame to be rendered to optimize the generation and/or use of an Accelerated Data Structure (ADS) used in physical rendering-based image processing. In particular, it has been found that while geometry primitives that are not within a view orientation generally cannot be culled from a scene when a physical rendering technique such as ray tracing is performed, those primitives nonetheless have a smaller impact on the resulting image frame, and as a result, less processing resources can be applied to such primitives, leaving greater processing resources available for processing those primitives that are located within the view orientation, and thereby improving overall rendering performance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Publication date: September 23, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer
  • Publication number: 20100239186
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement, program product and circuit arrangement utilize the known view orientation for an image frame to be rendered to reposition an Accelerated Data Structure (ADS) used during rendering to optimize the generation and/or use of the ADS, e.g., by transforming a scene from which an image frame is rendered to orient the scene relative to the view orientation prior to generating the ADS. A scene may be transformed, for example, to orient the view orientation within a single octant of the scene, with additional processing resources assigned to that octant to ensure sufficient processing resources are devoted to processing the primitives within the view orientation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Publication date: September 23, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer
  • Publication number: 20100144165
    Abstract: High-speed backplane connectors systems for mounting a substrate that are capable of operating at speeds of up to at least 25 Gbps, while in some implementations also providing pin densities of at least 50 pairs of electrical connectors per inch are disclosed. Implementations of the high-speed connector systems may provide ground shields and/or other ground structures that substantially encapsulate electrical connector pairs, which may be differential electrical connector pairs, in a three-dimensional manner throughout a backplane footprint, a backplane connector, and a daughtercard footprint. These encapsulating ground shields and/or ground structures prevent undesirable propagation of non-traverse, longitudinal, and higher-order modes when the high-speed backplane connector systems operates at frequencies up to at least 30 GHz.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2009
    Publication date: June 10, 2010
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Evan C. Wickes, Donald E. Wood
  • Patent number: 4813251
    Abstract: A four point locking system for a storage cabinet having a pair of outwardly pivotable doors which provide access to the cabinet interior. The locking system includes a lock bar vertically disposed in each door and adapted to be moved downwardly into the bottom lintel of the cabinet. A plunger bracket is pivotably mounted within the top of the cabinet and includes plunger flanges which move down through the top lintel of the cabinet into each door to lock the top portion of the cabinet doors while simultaneously moving the lock bars downwardly to lock the bottom portion of the cabinet doors. The pivotable movement of the plunger bracket is controlled by a lock push bar which is directly connected to a lock push button extending through the front of the cabinet. An extension spring is utilized to bias the push bar and plunger bracket towards the unlocked position while compression springs attached to the lock bars bias the bars upwardly to their unlocked position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1988
    Date of Patent: March 21, 1989
    Assignee: The Marvel Group, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, David E. Story
  • Patent number: 4688862
    Abstract: A workstation or terminal table utility for use with electronic information devices. The workstation incorporates selectively adjustable means for enabling an operator to most effectively and efficiently use the devices supported on the workstation while at the same time minimizing muscle fatigue and strain during operation of the devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1987
    Assignee: Marvel Metal Products Company
    Inventors: David K. Fowler, Margaret Karadimas, Ronald DeSimone, Frank J. Termini
  • Patent number: 4614374
    Abstract: The latch housing is made from a sheet of metal cut and bent to form a back wall and top and bottom and side walls which extend forwardly therefrom. The side walls diverge from each other so that the forward edges of the side walls are spaced apart a distance greater than the width of the opening in the door. The side walls are movable toward one another between the top and bottom walls to enable insertion of the housing into the opening. When mounted, the side walls extend between the top and bottom walls with their bottom edges overlying the upper surface of the bottom wall to conceal from view the space between the side walls and the bottom wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 1984
    Date of Patent: September 30, 1986
    Assignee: Lyon Metal Products, Incorporated
    Inventors: James W. Lannert, James D. Sanders, David K. Fowler, Jerry G. Love