Abstract: Some systems compress data utilized by a user mode software without the user mode software being aware of any compression taking place. To maintain that illusion, such systems prevent user mode software from being aware of and/or accessing the underlying compressed states of the data. While such an approach protects proprietary compression techniques used in such systems from being deciphered, such restrictions limit the ability of user mode software to use the underlying compressed forms of the data in new ways. Disclosed herein are various techniques for allowing user-mode software to access the underlying compressed states of data either directly or indirectly. Such techniques can be used, for example, to allow various user-mode software on a single system or on multiple systems to exchange data in the underlying compression format of the system(s) even when the user mode software is unable to decipher the compression format.

Abstract: Some systems compress data utilized by a user mode software without the user mode software being aware of any compression taking place. To maintain that illusion, such systems prevent user mode software from being aware of and/or accessing the underlying compressed states of the data. While such an approach protects proprietary compression techniques used in such systems from being deciphered, such restrictions limit the ability of user mode software to use the underlying compressed forms of the data in new ways. Disclosed herein are various techniques for allowing user-mode software to access the underlying compressed states of data either directly or indirectly. Such techniques can be used, for example, to allow various user-mode software on a single system or on multiple systems to exchange data in the underlying compression format of the system(s) even when the user mode software is unable to decipher the compression format.

Abstract: A solar cell and method of making are disclosed. The solar cell includes an acceptor layer a donor layer treated with a first quantum dot (QD) ligand and a blocking layer treated with a second, different, QD ligand. The acceptor layer has an acceptor layer valence band and an acceptor layer conduction band. The donor layer has a donor layer valence band and a donor layer conduction band, the donor layer valence band is higher than the acceptor layer valence band, the donor layer conduction band is higher than the acceptor layer conduction band. The blocking layer least partially blocks electron flow in at least one direction, the blocking layer having a blocking layer valence band and a blocking layer conduction band, the blocking layer valence band is higher than the donor layer valence band, the blocking layer conduction band is higher than the donor layer conduction band.

Abstract: A texture image that comprises a set of texels wherein each texel is assigned a (u,v) coordinate pair of a texture coordinate space. Each texel is then stored in memory at a memory address determined by applying a transformation function to the texel's (u,v) coordinate pair. The transformation function is customized to associate two dimensional portions of the texture coordinate space to each page of memory. When the texture image (or a portion of the texture image) stored in memory is later mapped to an object during rendering the object, the allocation of two dimensional portions of the texture coordinate space to each memory page reduces the number of memory pages accessed during the rendering of the object. The reduction in the number of memory pages accessed during the texture mapping process translates into improved texture mapping performance.

Abstract: A method and system for performing perspective divide operations on three-dimensional graphics data within a computer system is disclosed. In accordance with the method and system of the present invention, a 3-D graphical image is represented by three-dimensional graphical object data via a number of vertices. In a first iteration, the following steps are performed concurrently: computing a set of clip coordinates for a vertex N, wherein the set of clip coordinates is a four-component vector ?x', y', z', w'!; refining an estimate value of 1/w' for a vertex N-1, wherein vertex N-1 is a vertex calculated one iteration previous to vertex N; and, generating a clip code for the vertex N-1 .

Abstract: A system for determining the lighting conditions of objects illuminated by light sources. The system is adapted for use in a three-dimensional graphics system in which a scene is provided having one or more objects. Each object is made up of one or more polygons comprising one or more surfaces. Each surface is delimited by a plurality of vertices. One or more light sources are disposed within the scene. The inventive system determines lighting conditions such as color and intensity for each surface of each object taking into account ambient lighting conditions and each of the light sources in an accelerated manner relative to conventional approaches. In the illustrative embodiment, the inventive system first pre-computes a lighting condition for a vertex and provides a first value representative thereof. This value is stored to avoid the computational expense of re-computing same for each subsequent lighting condition evaluated for the vertex.