Apparatus and method for persistent display interface

• US 7,478,341 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2001
• Issued: 01/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dove, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): SAX, STEVEN PAUL
• Application Number:
  US09/838,695
• Publication Number:
  US 20010047435A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,826 Days
• Field of Search: 715802-804, 715790-797, 715/766, 715744-747, 715762-763, 715740-743, 715/805, 715/767, 715/705, 345/553, 345606-611, 345/581, 345/629, 709/220, 709/231
• US Class Current: 715/790
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

An apparatus and method for maintaining a graphics display window on a display screen that will not be obscured by any other graphics display window. The graphic display apparatus comprises an arbiter, a gatekeeper and an access control table. The arbiter selects from among a plurality of computer applications requesting authorization on the display screen to display data. Authorization is granted via a persistence attribute. Once a persistence attributed is obtained, the graphics display window remains on the screen unobscured.

Claims

1. An apparatus for producing a perceptible representation of program data windows, comprising:

an arbiter adapted to;

(a) select a program to be a dominant program from among a plurality of programs which have requested, from the arbiter, a master persistence attribute to display a program data window according to a predetermined priority hierarchy, and

(b) assign the master persistence attribute to the selected program,

wherein the program data window of the selected program is displayed concurrently with program data windows of other programs of the plurality of programs while not being obscured by the program data windows of the other programs or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one program data window of the other programs.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an access control table, operationally coupled with the arbiter, adapted to contain indicia representative of the predetermined priority hierarchy.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

a configuration application program, operationally coupled with the access control table, adapted to configure the arbiter with the predetermined priority hierarchy.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an I/O manager, operationally coupled with the arbiter, adapted to communicate display data for the perceptible representation between the plurality of programs and a display.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:

a graphics device driver, operationally coupled with the I/O manager and the display, adapted to provide the display data to the display.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a graphics device driver, operationally coupled with the arbiter, adapted to transmit the display data for the perceptible representation to a display.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the indicia include one of a process ID (PID), a window ID (WID), a priority, revoked and repudiated credentials, an authentication token or key, a master persistence attribute authorization, descriptive text, a program status, a system status, an accessible display region, and an excluded displayed region.

8. The apparatus claim 1, wherein the arbiter further comprises at least one of a rules engine, a state machine, and a content-addressable memory that provides the predetermined priority hierarchy for selecting the program to be the dominant program.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a gatekeeper adapted to select given programs of the plurality of programs to be granted access to the arbiter to seek the master persistence attribute according to the predetermined priority hierarchy.

10. A graphic display apparatus, comprising:

a gatekeeper adapted to select given programs of a plurality of programs to be granted a key to request a persistence attribute according to a predetermined priority hierarchy, the persistence attribute enabling a selected program of the given programs, upon receipt of the persistence attribute, to display a program data window of the selected program concurrently with program data windows of the other given programs while not being obscured by the program data windows of the other programs, or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one program data window of the other given programs.

11. The graphic display apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a graphics device driver, operationally coupled with the gatekeeper, adapted to provide display data for the program data windows of the given programs to a display.

12. The graphic display apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

an arbiter adapted to;

(a) select a program to be a dominant program from the given programs seeking the persistence attribute, and

(b) assign the persistence attribute to the selected program.

13. The graphic display apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

an access control table, operationally coupled with the arbiter, adapted to store indicia representative of the predetermined priority hierarchy.

14. The graphic display apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an I/O manager, operationally coupled with the gatekeeper, adapted to manage communication of graphical data between the given programs and a display.

15. The graphic display apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an application manager, operationally coupled with the gatekeeper, adapted to prevent unauthorized access to an operating system by the given programs.

16. The graphic display apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

a graphics device driver, operationally coupled with the application manager, adapted to provide graphical data to display the program data windows of the given programs on the display.

17. The graphics display apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a configuration application program, operationally coupled with the gatekeeper, adapted to configure the gatekeeper with the predetermined priority hierarchy.

18. The graphic display apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a configuration table, operationally coupled with the gatekeeper, adapted to store indicia representative of the predetermined priority hierarchy.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the indicia include one of a process ID (PID), a window ID (WID), a priority, revoked and repudiated credentials, an authentication token or key, a master persistence attribute authorization, descriptive text, a program status, a system status, an accessible display region, and an excluded display region.

20. A graphic display apparatus comprising:

(a) a gatekeeper adapted to select given programs of a plurality of programs which have requested, from the gatekeeper, to be granted a master persistence display attribute according to a predetermined priority hierarchy, and

(b) an arbiter adapted to;

(1) select a program to be a dominant program from the given programs; and

(2) assign the master persistence display attribute to the selected program according to the predetermined priority hierarchy,

wherein the apparatus displays a program data window of the selected program concurrently with program data windows of other programs of the given programs while not being obscured by the program data windows of the other programs, or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one program data window of the other programs.

21. The graphic display apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

one of (i) a configuration table, operationally coupled with at least one of the arbiter and the gatekeeper, adapted to contain first indicia representative of the predetermined priority hierarchy, and (ii) an access control table, operationally coupled with at least one of the arbiter and the gatekeeper, adapted to contain second indicia representative of the predetermined priority hierarchy.

22. The graphic display apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a configuration application, operationally coupled with at least one of the configuration table and the access control table, adapted to configure at least one of the arbiter and the gatekeeper.

23. The graphic display apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

an I/O manager, operationally coupled with at least one of the arbiter and the gatekeeper, adapted to communicate display data for the program data windows of the selected program and the other programs between at least one application program and a display.

24. The graphic display apparatus of claim 23, further comprising:

a graphics device driver, operationally coupled with the I/O manager and the display, adapted to provide the display data to the display.

25. The graphic display apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:

a display buffer operationally coupled with the graphic device driver.

26. The graphic display apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a graphics device driver, operationally coupled with at least one of the arbiter and the gatekeeper, adapted to provide display data to a display.

27. The graphic display apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

a display buffer operationally coupled with the graphics device driver.

28. The graphic display apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

an I/O manager, operationally coupled with the graphics device driver, adapted to facilitate communication between an application program and the display.

29. The graphic display apparatus of claim 20 further comprising:

an application manager, operationally coupled with at least one of the gatekeeper and the arbiter, adapted to prevent unauthorized access to an operating system by the given programs.

30. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein at least one of the first indicia and the second indicia include one of a process ID (PID), a window ID (WID), a priority, revoked and repudiated credentials, an authentication token or key, a master persistence attribute authorization, descriptive text, a program status, a system status, an accessible display region, and an excluded display region.

31. A graphics system comprising:

(a) a video input adapted to receive a graphical data signal;

(b) a video output operationally coupled with a display;

(c) a display controller operationally coupled with the video input and adapted to selectively transmit the graphical data signal to the video output; and

(d) an arbiter operationally coupled with the display controller, the arbiter adapted to effect the selective transmission by granting a persistence attribute, according to a predetermined priority hierarchy, to a window associated with a program which has requested, from the arbiter, the persistence attribute for displaying data on the display, the display controller adapted to selectively transmit responsive to the arbiter,

wherein the video output is further adapted to write data to a set of pixel memory locations, which are later read by the display, and

wherein the window which has been granted the persistence attribute by the arbiter has exclusive access to a portion of the set of pixel memory locations in place of at least one other window which would otherwise have access to the portion of the set of pixel memory locations or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one program data window of other programs.

32. The graphics system of claim 31, further comprising a CPU interface adapted to operationally couple the graphics system to a CPU, the CPU adapted to receive display control signals and the arbiter adapted to be responsive thereto.

33. The graphics system of claim 32, wherein the CPU includes a gatekeeper operationally coupled with the arbiter and adapted to transmit the predetermined priority hierarchy thereto.

34. The graphics system of claim 32, wherein the CPU includes a gatekeeper operationally coupled with the arbiter and adapted to select display control signals having access to the arbiter.

35. The graphics system of claim 34, further comprising an arbiter access control table adapted to receive indicia relevant to the predetermined priority hierarchy.

36. The graphics system of claim 35, wherein the indicia include one of a process ID (PID), a window ID (WID), a priority, revoked and repudiated credentials, an authentication token or key, a master persistence attribute authorization, descriptive text, a program status, a system status, an accessible display region, and an excluded display region.

37. A method of assigning a persistence attribute to at least one of a plurality of programs, the method comprising:

(a) requesting a master persistence attribute from a gatekeeper;

(b) assigning a set of priority rules to the gatekeeper via a configuration application program;

(c) granting keys to given program of the plurality of programs with the gatekeeper, the keys adapted to allow the given program access to an arbiter;

(d) examining an arbiter access control table with the arbiter, the arbiter access control table being adapted to store a predetermined priority hierarchy; and

(e) assigning the persistence attribute to a selected program of the given programs, the persistence attribute adapted to grant the selected program access to a dominant display window,

wherein the dominant display window is adapted to display data of the selected program concurrently with display windows of other programs of the given programs while not being obscured by the display windows of the other programs, or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one of the display windows of the other programs.

38. A computer readable storage medium having recorded thereon a computer program product for assigning a master persistence attribute to a selected program of a plurality of programs which have requested the master persistence attribute from an arbiter, the computer program product comprising:

(a) computer readable program code that, when executed, provides a gatekeeper adapted to grant an access token to the plurality of programs, the access token adapted to allow access to the arbiter according to a predetermined access hierarchy; and

(b) computer readable program code by which the arbiter assigns the master persistence attribute to the selected program, thereby granting access to a dominant display window,

wherein the dominant display window is adapted to display data of the selected program concurrently with display windows of other programs while not being obscured by the display windows of the other programs, or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one display window of the other programs.

39. The storage medium of claim 38, further comprising computer readable program code by which the arbiter examines an arbiter access control table adapted to store the predetermined access hierarchy.

40. The storage medium of claim 39, further comprising computer readable program code adapted to assign a set of access rules to the gatekeeper and to assign a set of priority rules to the arbiter using a configuration application program.

41. A method of assigning a master persistence display attribute to a selected application program of a plurality of application programs, the method comprising:

(a) requesting the persistence attribute from a gatekeeper;

(b) accessing, with the gatekeeper, a configuration table adapted to store a predetermined priority hierarchy;

(c) granting, with the gatekeeper, keys to given application programs of the plurality of programs;

(d) applying the keys, with the given application programs, to access an arbiter adapted to examine an arbiter access control table adapted to store the predetermined priority hierarchy; and

(e) assigning, with the arbiter, the master persistence display attribute to the selected application program, the master persistence attribute adapted to grant the selected program access to a dominant display window,

wherein the selected program displays data in the dominant display window concurrently with display windows of other programs of the given programs while not being obscured by the display windows of the other programs, or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one of the display windows of the other programs.

42. An apparatus for producing a perceptible representation of program data windows, the apparatus comprising an arbiter adapted to select a program to be a dominant program from among a plurality of programs which have requested a master persistence attribute to display a program data window according to a predetermined priority hierarchy, and to assign the master persistence attribute to the selected program,

wherein the perceptible representation of program data windows is rendered on one of a computer, a communication pad, a telephony device, a handheld remote control device, and a handheld computing device, and

wherein the selected program displays a dominant program data window concurrently with program data windows of other programs while not being obscured by the program data window of the other programs, or by a subsequent window being focused on or by a subsequent program requesting the master persistence attribute, and while overlapping at least one program data window of the other programs.

43. The apparatus of claim 42 wherein a medium by which data is communicated to the apparatus comprises one of a wireless/RF channel, a wire-based channel, a cable-based channel, and a fiberoptic channel.