Patents by Inventor William E. Sweeney, Jr.

William E. Sweeney, Jr. 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: 6952214
    Abstract: A graphics system comprising a plurality of rendering pipelines and a scheduling network. Each rendering pipeline couples to the scheduling network, and includes a media processor, a rendering unit and a memory. A communication bus may couple the scheduling network and the memory of each rendering pipeline. The media processor in each rendering pipeline may direct the saving of state information of the corresponding rendering pipeline to the corresponding memory in response to receiving a corresponding context switch indication. A first of the media processors initiates the transfer of a resume token to the scheduling network through the corresponding rendering pipeline if the context switch occurs during an ordered processing mode. The scheduling network unblocks one or more rendering pipelines other than the first rendering pipeline in response to receiving the resume token.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2005
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Nathaniel David Naegle, William E. Sweeney, Jr., Wayne A. Morse