A VERTEX BASED GEOMETRY ENGINE SYSTEM FOR USE IN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN

摘要

A system for processing geometry which reduces the amount of memory spaces while improving the processing speed. The system delivers vertices in sequence to a vertex queue (70) so that data in the vertex queue is freed as it is delivered and only minimal intermediate results are stored. By this incremental evaluation, less memory space is needed. In another aspect of the invention the vertices are maintained in the proper sequence so that sorting operation can be eliminated. A sorted vertex queue (70) and an unsorted vertex list (72) are utilized so that resorting of the entire vertex list may be prevented. In addition, a compressed format (34) for storing geometry is utilized based on the fact that much information can be rederived from a sorted and reduced vertex queue.