Patents by Inventor Ronald T. Horan
Ronald T. Horan 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).
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Patent number: 6462745Abstract: A computer system having a highly parallel system architecture with multiple central processing units, multiple core logic chipsets and pooled system memory is provided with one or more AGP ports capable of connection to AGP devices. A memory manager is provided within the operating system for allocating pooled memory resources without regard to the location of that memory. A method is presented for dynamically allocating memory for the AGP device that is located on the same core logic chipset to which the AGP device is connected. By allocating local memory instead of allocating memory on remote core logic units, the AGP device can access the needed memory quickly without memory transmissions along the host bus, thereby increasing overall performance of the computer system.Type: GrantFiled: September 24, 2001Date of Patent: October 8, 2002Assignee: Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.Inventors: Todd S. Behrbaum, Ronald T. Horan, Stephen R. Johnson, Jr., John E. Theisen
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Publication number: 20020105523Abstract: A computer system having a highly parallel system architecture with multiple central processing units, multiple core logic chipsets and pooled system memory is provided with one or more AGP ports capable of connection to AGP devices. A memory manager is provided within the operating system for allocating pooled memory resources without regard to the location of that memory. A method is presented for dynamically allocating memory for the AGP device that is located on the same core logic chipset to which the AGP device is connected. By allocating local memory instead of allocating memory on remote core logic units, the AGP device can access the needed memory quickly without memory transmissions along the host bus, thereby increasing overall performance of the computer system.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 24, 2001Publication date: August 8, 2002Inventors: Todd S. Behrbaum, Ronald T. Horan, Stephen R. Johnson, John E. Theisen
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Patent number: 6326973Abstract: A computer system having a highly parallel system architecture with multiple central processing units, multiple core logic chipsets and pooled system memory is provided with one or more AGP ports capable of connection to AGP devices. A memory manager is provided within the operating system for allocating pooled memory resources without regard to the location of that memory. A method is presented for dynamically allocating memory for the AGP device that is located on the same core logic chipset to which the AGP device is connected. By allocating local memory instead of allocating memory on remote core logic units, the AGP device can access the needed memory quickly without memory transmissions along the host bus, thereby increasing overall performance of the computer system.Type: GrantFiled: December 7, 1998Date of Patent: December 4, 2001Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Todd S. Behrbaum, Ronald T. Horan, Stephen R. Johnson, Jr., John E. Theisen
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Patent number: 6078338Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that interconnects a processor(s), a system memory and peripheral device agents. The core logic chipset has a programmable memory access arbiter that may be programmed to optimize accesses by the computer system processor(s) and agents to the system memory for best computer system performance. The memory access arbiter may be programmed specifically for each system agent. An access count register may be incorporated into the core logic chipset wherein each system agent may be represented by a portion of the access count register. The values programmed into the portions of the access count register determine how many memory accesses the associated agent may take before another agent is granted a memory access, and how many cachelines may be transferred during a memory access.Type: GrantFiled: March 11, 1998Date of Patent: June 20, 2000Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Gary J. Piccirillo
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Patent number: 5999198Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as a graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein a Graphics Address Remapping Table ("GART table") is used by the core logic chipset to remap virtual memory addresses used by the AGP graphics controller into physical memory addresses that reside in the computer system memory. The GART table enables the AGP graphics controller to work in contiguous virtual memory address space, but actually use non-contiguous blocks or pages of physical system memory to store textures, command lists and the like. The GART table is made up of a plurality of entries, each entry comprising an address pointer to a base address of a memory page, and feature flags that may be used to customize the associated memory page.Type: GrantFiled: September 9, 1997Date of Patent: December 7, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Robert C. Elliott
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Patent number: 5999743Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as a graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein a Graphics Address Remapping Table ("GART table") is used by the core logic chipset to remap virtual memory addresses used by the AGP graphics controller into physical memory addresses that reside in the computer system memory. The GART table enables the AGP graphics controller to work in contiguous virtual memory address space, but actually use non-contiguous blocks or pages of physical system memory to store textures, command lists and the like. Contiguous virtual memory address space must be allocated for the AGP device within the addressable memory space of the computer system, typically 4 gigabytes using 32 bit addressing.Type: GrantFiled: September 9, 1997Date of Patent: December 7, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Robert C. Elliot
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Patent number: 5990914Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as a graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein a Graphics Address Remapping Table ("GART table") is used by the core logic chipset to remap virtual memory addresses used by the AGP graphics controller into physical memory addresses that reside in the computer system memory. The GART table enables the AGP graphics controller to work in contiguous virtual memory address space, but actually use non-contiguous blocks or pages of physical system memory to store textures, command lists and the like. The GART table is made up of a plurality of entries, each entry comprising an address pointer to a base address of a page of graphics data in memory, and feature flags that may be used to customize the associated page. One of the feature flags is used as a Present Bit for a corresponding memory page.Type: GrantFiled: September 9, 1997Date of Patent: November 23, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Robert C. Elliott
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Patent number: 5986677Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as an AGP graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein AGP transaction read requests are merged from the AGP graphics controller and retired when these requests are within a cacheline of the memory being accessed. The core logic chipset will request a memory cacheline read as it begins processing a current AGP transaction read request. Once the memory read access is initiated, the transaction read request will be popped off an AGP request queue in order to evaluate the next in order transaction request. If the next request can be partially or completely retired by the memory read access previously started, then the memory access that would have been normally required may be skipped and the data from the previous memory read access is used instead.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 1997Date of Patent: November 16, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Phillip M. Jones, Ronald T. Horan, Gregory N. Santos
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Patent number: 5949436Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as a graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein a Graphics Address Remapping Table ("GART table") is used by the core logic chipset to remap virtual memory addresses used by the AGP graphics controller into physical memory addresses that reside in the computer system memory The GART table enables the AGP graphics controller to work in contiguous virtual memory address space, but actually use non-contiguous blocks or pages of physical system memory to store textures, command lists and the like. The GART table is made up of a plurality of entries, each entry comprising an address pointer to a base address of a page of graphics data in memory. The core logic chipset may cache a subset of the most recently used GART table entries to increase AGP performance when performing the address translation.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 1997Date of Patent: September 7, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Jerome J. Johnson, Michael J. Collins
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Patent number: 5936640Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as a graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein a Graphics Address Remapping Table ("GART table") is used by the core logic chipset to remap virtual memory addresses used by the AGP graphics controller into physical memory addresses that reside in the computer system memory. The GART table enables the AGP graphics controller to work in contiguous virtual memory address space, but actually use non-contiguous blocks or pages of physical system memory to store textures, command lists and the like. A plurality of AGP memory-mapped status and control registers are stored in the computer system memory, and are used for status and control of AGP functions in the computer system.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 1997Date of Patent: August 10, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer CorporationInventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Robert C. Elliott
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Patent number: 5914727Abstract: A computer system having a core logic chipset that functions as a bridge between an Accelerated Graphics Port ("AGP") bus device such as a graphics controller, and a host processor and computer system memory wherein a Graphics Address Remapping Table ("GART table") is used by the core logic chipset to remap virtual memory addresses used by the AGP graphics controller into physical memory addresses that reside in the computer system memory. The GART table enables the AGP graphics controller to work in contiguous virtual memory address space, but actually use non-contiguous blocks or pages of physical system memory to store textures, command lists and the like. Contiguous virtual memory address space must be allocated for the AGP device within the addressable memory space of the computer system, typically 4 gigabytes using 32 bit addressing.Type: GrantFiled: September 9, 1997Date of Patent: June 22, 1999Assignee: Compaq Computer Corp.Inventors: Ronald T. Horan, Phillip M. Jones, Gregory N. Santos, Robert Allan Lester, Robert C. Elliott