Image buffer having logic-enhanced pixel memory cells and method for setting values therein
Patent Number: 4,827,445
Date of Patent: May 2, 1989
Inventor: Henry Fuchs (Pittsboro, N.C.)
Assignee: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Appl. No.: 856,208
Filed: Apr. 28, 1986
Related U.S. Application Data: Division of Ser. No. 349,818, Feb. 18, 1982, Pat. No. 4,590,465.
Int. Cl.: G06F 3/00
U.S. Cl.: 364/900; 340/750
13 Claims
Abstract
The system provides a relatively inexpensive raster-scan type graphics system capable of real time operation, utilizing logic-enhanced pixels within an image buffer, permitting parallel (simultaneous) calculations at every pixel. A typical implementation would be as custom VLSI chips. Each cell of the image buffer corresponds to a pixel of the display, and a processor at each cell enables calculation of the pixel color and the like for each polygon in the image covering that same pixel (cell) of the display. In the sequence of most general applications, each polygon is operated upon in sequence, and the image is built up as the polygons are processed without the necessity of sorting. With respect to each successive polygon, the following operations are effected: (1) all pixels within the polygon are identified; (2) the respective pixels which would be visible to the observer, that is, not obstructed by some previously processed polygon, are determined; and (3) the proper color intensities for each visible pixel are determined.