A Window-Based Graphics Frame Store Architecture

Abstract

A proposal for a scalable frame store architecture for a hardware-based window graphics system is described. The architecture is based on a distributed linear array of common elements called microframe stores. Each window and viewport can be independently configured in size and color depth. Unlike the strip-based hardware window systems referenced, this system places no restrictions on the number of transitions that can be accommodated on each scanline. The approach described allows real-time window graphics to be achieved on a variety of full-color, high-resolution, high-refresh-rate, raster-scan displays with pixel rates of up to 400 MHz. © 1988, ACM. All rights reserved.