Patents by Inventor Stephen Patrick Thompson

Stephen Patrick Thompson 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: 8933947
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, apparatuses, and methods for enabling efficient reads to a local memory of a processing unit. In an embodiment, a processing unit includes an interface and a buffer. The interface is configured to (i) send a request for a portion of data in a region of a local memory of an other processing unit and (ii) receive, responsive to the request, all the data from the region. The buffer is configured to store the data from the region of the local memory of the other processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignees: ATI Technologies ULC, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: David I. J. Glen, Philip J. Rogers, Gordon F. Caruk, Gongxian Jeffrey Cheng, Mark Hummel, Stephen Patrick Thompson, Anthony Asaro
  • Publication number: 20110057939
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, apparatuses, and methods for enabling efficient reads to a local memory of a processing unit. In an embodiment, a processing unit includes an interface and a buffer. The interface is configured to (i) send a request for a portion of data in a region of a local memory of an other processing unit and (ii) receive, responsive to the request, all the data from the region. The buffer is configured to store the data from the region of the local memory of the other processing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2010
    Publication date: March 10, 2011
    Applicants: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventors: David I.J. GLEN, Philip J. Rogers, Gordon F. Caruk, Gongxian Jeffrey Cheng, Mark Hummel, Stephen Patrick Thompson, Anthony Asaro
  • Patent number: 7536511
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a central processing unit having an output to provide a status indicator, a graphics controller having an output coupleable to a display interface, a cache comprising a plurality of cache lines, and memory controller having an input to receive the status indicator. The memory controller is configured to disable allocation of cache lines of the cache for cache misses for data requests from the graphics controller in response to the status indicator indicating the central processing unit is in an active mode. The memory controller further is configured to enable allocation of cache lines of the cache for cache misses for data requests from the graphics controller in response to the status indicator indicating the central processing unit is in an idle mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2009
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen Patrick Thompson
  • Publication number: 20080007561
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a central processing unit having an output to provide a status indicator, a graphics controller having an output coupleable to a display interface, a cache comprising a plurality of cache lines, and memory controller having an input to receive the status indicator. The memory controller is configured to disable allocation of cache lines of the cache for cache misses for data requests from the graphics controller in response to the status indicator indicating the central processing unit is in an active mode. The memory controller further is configured to enable allocation of cache lines of the cache for cache misses for data requests from the graphics controller in response to the status indicator indicating the central processing unit is in an idle mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2006
    Publication date: January 10, 2008
    Applicant: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen Patrick Thompson
  • Patent number: 5771371
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for increasing efficiency in displaying characters on a display within the data processing system. A plurality of processes for displaying characters on the display in a data processing system are provided. Each of the processes requires a different amount of processor resources to display characters on the display. One of the processes is selected such that the selected process provides a more efficient display of characters on the display than other processes. Characters may be displayed by caching font data in system memory of the data processing system. Glyph bitmaps for a particular character may be moved from the cache to a graphics adapter utilizing a permanent move instruction available in the CPU. Characters are moved to the graphics adapter on a fixed scanline basis, either encompassing the entire width of the character or the entire string of characters on a line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 23, 1998
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary James Morse, Stephen Patrick Thompson