regen : Java Glossary

the re-generate buffer. The regen buffer is some high speed, usually dual-ported RAM (Random Access Memory), that lives on your video adapter card. It contains the bits representing the image currently showing on screen. Your CPU (Central Processing Unit) can adjust the bits to change the image. About 70 times a second, the video card examines the buffer and sends the bits to the monitor, in a raster scan. That is why you want dual ported RAM for speed, so CPU and the refresh process don’t interfere with each other.

Modern video processors are specialised and extremely fast, designed for gaming animations. They can generate images and shuffle pieces around, inserting offscreen regen-resident images. Java’s VolatileImage class let’s you put offscreen images inside the hardware regen buffer then blast them onscreen much faster than usual. The super-fast, wide-path video processor moven the bits which are already in the regen; they don’t have to be brought it from the outside standard RAM.