Appeal No. 2000-0975
Application No. 08/956,402
BACKGROUND
The invention is directed to raster image processing in a printing system having a
main processor and several parallel processors. Claim 1 is reproduced below.
1. A method of processing print data, comprising the steps of:
providing a main processor and a single semiconductor chip including a
plurality of parallel processors for processing print data;
performing language interpretation tasks on said print data with said main
processor, including a task of dividing up said print data into lists corresponding
to bands on a page of said print data;
performing geometry and rasterization processing upon said print data
bands with said parallel processors, such that several of said bands are
rendered in parallel into a frame buffer; and
transferring rasterized data from said frame buffer to a print engine for a
first page while the above steps are repeated for a next page.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Gauthier 5,594,860 Jan. 14, 1997
(filed Jan. 27, 1995)
Molnar et al. (Molnar), A Sorting Classification of Parallel Rendering, IEEE Computer
Graphics and Applications, pp. 23-32 (Jul. 1994).
Guttag et al. (Guttag), A Single-Chip Multiprocessor for Multimedia: The MVP, IEEE
Computer Graphics & Applications, pp. 53-64 (Nov. 1992).
Claims 1-14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Gauthier, Molnar, and Guttag.
Claim 15 has been allowed.
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