Abstract: A microprocessor includes a plurality of execution units configured to receive instructions and operands thereof and to execute the instructions. An instruction scheduler issues the instructions to the execution units and selects sources of the instruction operands. At least one of the execution units detects one of the operands of one of the instructions is a denormal operand, generates an indication that the instruction needs to be replayed in response to detecting the denormal operand, and provides the denormal operand to the instruction scheduler in response to detecting the denormal operand, rather than normalizing the denormal operand. The instruction scheduler normalizes the denormal operand, in response to the indication, and causes the normalized operand, rather than the denormal operand, to be provided to the execution unit when the instruction is replayed.

Abstract: Scroll wheels have simplified the movement of cursors and changes in focus as a users navigate their way through menus, lists, tables, and other objects typically found in graphical user interfaces. Also typical of navigation schemes driven by scroll wheels is the ability of the user to accelerate the rate of movement of the cursor or focus by spinning the scroll wheel faster. One issue with this behavior is that a user who over accelerates the scroll wheel will often wind up overshooting his intended target and reversing the direction of the scroll wheel several times. The embodiment addresses this problem by giving control of the speed of the cursor or focus movement to the object being navigated. If the granularity of the list, table, menu, or other objects become smaller, the object has the ability to filter the speed input of the scroll wheel.

Abstract: An application for a digital television platform includes a display, a television receiver operatively coupled to the display and a processor operatively coupled to both the display and to the television receiver. A memory and a non volatile storage medium is communicably coupled to the processor. A communication link is also communicably coupled to the processor and a communication event is detected signaling reception of a communication on the communication link. Responsive to the communication event, a set of instructions is executed by the processor, the set of instructions is configured to receive the communication and to process the communication with respect to a set of user preferences.

Abstract: An application for a method of presenting items of a catalog in various geographic regions includes providing a catalog of items, each item having associated therewith at least one geographic code. A search term and a geographic location are provided. The catalog is searched for matching items that are related to the search term and in which the geographic code indicates the item is suitable for the geographic location.

Abstract: A system and apparatus that allows the user or an application to turn off the display screen on a television when said application does not display images while it is active or the viewer is only interested in listening to the audio of a program. An example of this would be playing music received over a cable or satellite set top box or through a plurality of other means through the television speakers. Blanking or turning off the television display screen during this time results in a substantial energy savings. Another example is the viewer only being interested in the audio for a sports program such as basketball or baseball.

Abstract: Advertisers specify the size of an ad in pixels or in physical units such as inches or millimeters. The physical square area of an ad specified in pixels will change as the physical size of the television screen or computer display screen varies. The number of pixels of an ad specified in inches or millimeters will also change as the physical size of the television screen or computer display screen varies. The present invention manages the issue of keeping the physical area size of an image constant across television display screens regardless of the physical size of the screen.

Abstract: Write once media is used to store many different versions of metadata along with recorded video program. The metadata can be written many times over, for example once for each renter. The metadata can include rental information, or movie trailers, or other information.

Abstract: Digital content contained on physical media rented to a customer who fails to return said media once the rental term has expired. Date information encoded onto the media or encoded within the content is used to determine that the rental period has expired. If the media containing the expired content is residing in a media player, the user is notified through a plurality of notification schemes. Customers of expired digital content can also be notified if the media player is connected to the internet even if the media containing the content is not currently residing in the media player. This invention solves several problems currently effecting content rental services and allows the rental services to conserve costs normally associated with notifying customers that their rental has expired.

Abstract: A customer can rent and later buy digital content that is encoded onto rewritable media where the customer had selected at least one piece of content to be encoded on the media. The user has the ability to use the previously selected content and later purchase the content without the need to interact with the content seller indicating the desire to purchase the content. Purchased content is transferred to customer's local storage device. The rewritable media can also contain other digital content from which the user can temporary access after which he can rent or purchase the content.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for performing cryptographic operations. In one embodiment, an apparatus is provided for performing cryptographic operations. The apparatus includes fetch logic, keygen logic, and execution logic. The fetch logic is disposed within a microprocessor and receives cryptographic instruction single atomic cryptographic instruction as part of an instruction flow executing on the microprocessor. The cryptographic instruction single atomic cryptographic instruction prescribes one of the cryptographic operations, and also prescribes that a provided cryptographic key be expanded into a corresponding key schedule for employment during execution of the one of the cryptographic operations. The keygen logic is disposed within the microprocessor and is operatively coupled to the single atomic cryptographic instruction. The keygen logic directs the microprocessor to expand the provided cryptographic key into the corresponding key schedule. The execution logic is coupled to the keygen logic.

Abstract: A method of insuring a lottery ticket. The method includes providing an option on a lottery ticket to purchase insurance to use the same numbers presented on the ticket in future drawings. Specifically, with the purchase of the insurance if you would forget to purchase a ticket for a subsequent drawing wherein the numbers were winning numbers the consumer would receive a payout representing a portion of the winning jackpot by virtue of having the insurance.

Abstract: A housing and memory card, usable to store data, and where the operation connects directly to contacts on the memory devices that are housed within the card. The pinouts can be usb pinouts.

Abstract: An x87 fused multiply-add (FMA) instruction in the instruction set of an x86 architecture microprocessor is disclosed. The FMA instruction implicitly specifies the two factor operands as the top two operands of the x87 FPU register stack and explicitly specifies the third addend operand as a third x87 FPU register stack register. The microprocessor multiplies the first two operands and adds the product to the third operand to generate a result. The result is stored into the third register and the first two operands are popped off the stack. In an alternate embodiment, the third operand is also implicitly specified as being stored in the register that is two registers below the top of stack register; the result is also stored therein. The instruction opcode value is in the x87 opcode range.

Abstract: Gene promoters activated only during development of the fruiting body of filamentous fungi permit expression of large quantities of heterologous genes, even where such are otherwise toxic to the organism.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and method for performing cryptographic operations. In one embodiment, an apparatus is provided for performing cryptographic operations. The apparatus includes a cryptographic instruction, keygen logic, and execution logic. The cryptographic instruction is received by a computing device as part of an instruction flow executing on the computing device. The cryptographic instruction prescribes one of the cryptographic operations, and also prescribes that a provided cryptographic key be expanded into a corresponding key schedule for employment during execution of the one of the cryptographic operations. The keygen logic is operatively coupled to the cryptographic instruction. The keygen logic directs the computing device to expand the provided cryptographic key into the corresponding key schedule. The execution logic is coupled to the keygen logic. The execution logic expands the provided cryptographic key into the corresponding key schedule.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and method for performing cryptographic operations on a plurality of input data blocks within a processor. In one embodiment, an apparatus for performing cryptographic operations is provided. The apparatus includes a cryptographic instruction and translation logic. The cryptographic instruction is received by a computing device as part of an instruction flow. The cryptographic instruction prescribes one of the cryptographic operations. The translation logic translates the cryptographic instruction into micro instructions. The micro instructions are ordered to direct the computing device to load a second input text block and to execute the one of the cryptographic operations on the second input text block prior to directing the computing device to store an output text block corresponding to a first input text block. Consequently, the output text block is stored during execution of the one of the cryptographic operations on the second input text block.

Abstract: A mechanism for, and method of, clipping a red-green-blue (RGB) integer value to an n-bit maximum value and a processor incorporating the mechanism or the method. In one embodiment, the mechanism includes: (1) a multiplexer having a first input that accepts n low-order bits of the RGB integer value and a select input that accepts at least one high-order bit of the RGB integer value and (2) an n-bit maximum value generator, coupled to a second input of the multiplexer, that provides the n-bit maximum value to the second input, an output of the multiplexer providing the n low-order bits when the at least one high order bit has a zero value and providing the n-bit maximum value when the at least one high order bit has a nonzero value.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for bi-directional format conversion and transfer of data between integer and floating point registers is provided. A floating point register is configured to store floating point data, and integer data, in a variety of numerical formats. Data is moved in and out of the floating point register as integer data, and is converted into floating point format as needed. Separate processor instructions are provided for format conversion and data transfer to allow conversion and transfer operations to be separated.

Abstract: A method of displaying overlapping images of an object or space, each of which might be from different angles or perspectives on that object or space, which preserves the value of the detail of the individual images but yet juxtaposes them into a montage to provide a more complete view of the whole. Controls allow the entire montage to be scrolled or manipulated, but within the main part of the screen, the images are overlaid in sorted order where the image on the top is the one whose center is closest to the cursor from the overall perspective of the viewport. As the user moves the cursor or shifts the viewport, this order changes and new images are brought up while others get shuffled beneath them.