Patents by Inventor Kenneth M. Whaley

Kenneth M. Whaley 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: 6088701
    Abstract: A system and method for enabling a graphics processor to operate with a CPU that reorders write instructions without requiring expensive hardware and which does not significantly reduce the performance of the driver operating on the CPU. The invention allows the graphics processor to evaluate the data sent to it by software running on the CPU in its intended and proper order, even if the CPU transmits the data to the graphics processor in an order different from that generated by the software. The invention works regardless of the particular write reordering technique used by the CPU, and is a very low-cost addition to the graphics processor, requiring only a few registers and a small state machine. The invention identifies the number of "holes" in the reordered write instructions and when the number of holes becomes zero a set of received data is made available for execution by the graphics processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2000
    Assignee: 3Dfx Interactive, Incorporated
    Inventors: Kenneth M. Whaley, Gary Tarolli