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Abstract

A geometry process for use in a graphics processing system, especially adapted to couple with a hierarchically structured graphics database memory, a special purpose processor for traversing the database, and a display processor, wherein the geometry processor includes double-buffered input registers, a first private data bus to the special purpose traversing processor, a second private data bus to the graphics database memory, a high-speed arithmetic processing module, a double-buffered output register, and a microprogrammable control system. The geometry processor is configured to process the graphics database in two passes. The first pass is a culling operation that culls out graphics data supplied from the database memory that is outside of a defined viewing volume, with the culled data being sent over of the first private bus to a stack memory in the traversing processor. The second pass retraverses the culled data, along with additional associated data from the database memory, from the traversing processor's stack memory and transforms that data from a three-dimensional mathematical format to a two-dimensional format suitable for display on a video display system.

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First Claim