System and method for controlling multiple processing units with a single input device

• US 20040125084A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: MacPherson, Mike B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,505,029 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04

Abstract

A system and method for transferring control of an input device from one processor to another processor in a distributed computing system when a pointer is located within a transition area of a display. Movement of the input device triggers the transfer of input signals generated by the input device to the other processor. In one embodiment, the input device includes a keyboard and mouse.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a machine-accessible medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon, the machine-executable instructions to be executed by the processor from the memory to control two or more processing units from one input device based on movement of the input device in a two-dimensional manner.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising one or more input/output devices to provide input signals to the processor.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the one or more input/output devices comprise a mouse.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the one or more input/output devices comprise a keyboard.

5. A system comprising:

a master processing unit;

a next processing unit operatively coupled to the master processing unit; and

an input device operatively coupled to the master processing unit, the input device to control the master processing unit and the next processing unit wherein control is switched between the master processing unit and the next processing unit based on movement of the input device.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising a display coupled to the master processing unit, the display to present output from the master processing unit and the next processing unit.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a display switch operatively coupled to each of the master processing unit, the next processing unit, and the display, wherein the display switch is toggled when control is switched between the master processing unit and the next processing unit.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the display switch is a hardware-based video switch.

9. The system of claim 5, further comprising:

a first display operatively coupled to the master processing unit, the first display to present output from the master processing unit; and

a second display operatively coupled to the next processing unit, the second display to present output from the next processing unit.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the next processing unit is coupled to the master processing unit through a network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the network comprises an Ethernet network.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the input device comprises a mouse.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the input device further comprises a keyboard.

14. A machine-accessible medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving one or more input signals generated by an input device coupled to a master processing unit, the one or more input signals controlling movement of a pointer on a display;

detecting when the pointer is located within a transition area of the display;

checking a display map upon such detection to identify a next processing unit to receive one or more subsequent input signals generated by the input device; and

transferring processing of operations in response to the one or more subsequent input signals to the next processing unit.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 14, wherein the method performed further comprises transferring the one or more subsequent input signals generated by the input device to the next processing unit.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises determining an amount of time the pointer is located within the transition area.

17. The machine-accessible medium of claim 14, wherein the method performed further comprises toggling a switch that is operatively coupled to the display.

18. A computerized method comprising:

detecting when a pointer controlled by an input device operatively coupled to a master processing unit is located within a transition area of a display; and

upon detecting the pointer within the transition area, forwarding one or more input signals generated by the input device from the master processing unit to a next processing unit.

19. The computerized method of claim 18, further comprising transferring processing of operations in response to the one or more input signals from the master processing unit to the next processing unit.

20. The computerized method of claim 18, further comprising determining an amount of time the pointer is located within the transition area.

21. The computerized method of claim 20, wherein the operation of forwarding begins when the amount of time is between ½

second to 2 seconds.

22. The computerized method of claim 18, further comprising:

configuring a master display map on the master processing unit; and

transmitting a copy of the master display map from the master processing unit to one or more processing units, wherein the one or more processing units include the next processing unit.

23. The computerized method of claim 22, further comprising determining the next processing unit from an entry in the master display map.

24. The computerized method of claim 22, further comprising:

updating the master display map on the master processing unit; and

transmitting an updated copy of the master display map from the master processing unit to the one or more processing units.

25. The computerized method of claim 24, wherein the updating the master display map is performed in response to a user-initiated request to change the master display map.

26. A machine-accessible medium encoded with a display map data structure for access by a data processing system, the display map data structure comprising:

a plurality of control processing unit indexes;

one or more display transition-area indexes; and

one or more next processing unit entries that are each referenced by one of the control processing unit indexes and one of the display transition-area indexes,

wherein the data processing system searches the display map data structure to identify a next processing unit to receive one or more input signals generated by an input device.

27. The machine-accessible medium of claim 26, wherein the one or more display transition-area indexes of the display map data structure include a left transition-area index, a right transition-area index, a top transition-area index, and a bottom transition-area index.

28. The machine-accessible medium of claim 26, wherein the one or more display transition-area indexes of the display map data structure include an upper-left transition-area index, an upper-right transition-area index, a lower-left transition-area index, and a lower-right transition-area index.