Method and system in display device interface for managing surface memory

摘要

A display device interface creates surface structures to represent regions in system or video memory. These surface structures enable application programs to access video memory directly. A flipping structure includes a front buffer and one or more back buffers. In response to an application's request to flip a flipping structure, a flipping function changes the reference to underlying surface memory, but the flipping structure remains unchanged with respect to the application. Surface structures are implemented using surface objects that represent pixmaps, Z buffers, or alpha buffers stored in video or system memory. Complex surface structures including two or more surfaces are implemented by attaching surface objects to each other.