Nvidia Corporation

Gregory Scott Palmer

Jerome Francis Duluk, Jr

Lacky V Shah

James Leroy Deming

Wishwesh Anil Gandhi

Shailendra Singh

Alan Menezes

Manas Mandal

Praveen Joginipally

Pranav Vaidya

Feiqi Su

Samuel Hammond Duncan

Timothy John Purcell

Jonathon Stuart Ramsey Evans

Patrick Richard Brown

Jesse David Hall

Eric Rock

Emmett Michael Kilgariff

Gentaro Hirota

Eric Sovelen Werness

Sonata Gale Wen

Ziyad Sami Hakura

Jack H Choquette

Shirish C Gadre

Dale L Kirkland

Jeffrey A Bolz

Rouslan Lyubomirov Dimitrov

Karim Abdalla

Philip Browning Johnson

Omkar Paranjape

Adam Clark Weitkemper

Fred Gruner

Jonathon Evans

Lei Yang

Jonathon Stuart Ramsay Evans

Rajballav Dash

Sriharsha Niverty

Milton Lei

John Christopher Cook

A parallel processing unit (PPU), operating in a traditional processing environment or in a virtualized processing environment, can be divided into partitions. Each partition is configured to operate similarly to how the entire PPU operates. A given partition includes a subset of the computational and memory resources associated with the entire PPU. Software that executes on a CPU partitions the PPU for an admin user. A guest user is assigned to a partition and can perform processing tasks within that partition in isolation from any other guest users assigned to any other partitions. Because the PPU can be divided into isolated partitions, multiple CPU processes can efficiently utilize PPU resources.

Techniques for configuring a processor to function as multiple, separate processors in a virtualized environment

A parallel processing unit (PPU) can be divided into partitions. Each partition is configured to operate similarly to how the entire PPU operates. A given partition includes a subset of the computational and memory resources associated with the entire PPU. Software that executes on a CPU partitions the PPU for an admin user. A guest user is assigned to a partition and can perform processing tasks within that partition in isolation from any other guest users assigned to any other partitions. Because the PPU can be divided into isolated partitions, multiple CPU processes can efficiently utilize PPU resources.

Techniques for configuring a processor to function as multiple, separate processors

Techniques for reconfiguring partitions in a parallel processing system

A parallel processing unit (e.g., a GPU), in some examples, includes a hardware scheduler and hardware arbiter that launch graphics and compute work for simultaneous execution on a SIMD/SIMT processing unit. Each processing unit (e.g., a streaming multiprocessor) of the parallel processing unit operates in a graphics-greedy mode or a compute-greedy mode at respective times. The hardware arbiter, in response to a result of a comparison of at least one monitored performance or utilization metric to a user-configured threshold, can selectively cause the processing unit to run one or more compute work items from a compute queue when the processing unit is operating in the graphics-greedy mode, and cause the processing unit to run one or more graphics work items from a graphics queue when the processing unit is operating in the compute-greedy mode. Associated methods and systems are also described.

Simultaneous compute and graphics scheduling

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for allocating processor resources to process compute workloads and graphics workloads substantially simultaneously. The method includes the steps of allocating a plurality of processing units to process tasks associated with a graphics pipeline, receiving a request to allocate at least one processing unit in the plurality of processing units to process tasks associated with a compute pipeline, and reallocating the at least one processing unit to process tasks associated with the compute pipeline.

System, method, and computer program product for simultaneous execution of compute and graphics workloads

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for executing a software method within a graphics processing unit (GPU) that minimizes the number of clock cycles during which the graphics engine is idled. The function of the software method is performed by a firmware method that is executed by a processor within the GPU. The firmware method is executed to access and optionally update the state stored in the GPU. Unlike execution of a conventional software method, execution of the firmware method does not require an exchange of information between a CPU and the GPU. Therefore, the CPU is not interrupted and throughput of the CPU is not reduced.

Software methods in a GPU

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for mid-primitive execution preemption. When preemption is initiated no new instructions are issued, in-flight instructions progress to an execution unit boundary, and the execution state is unloaded from the processing pipeline. The execution units within the processing pipeline, including the coarse rasterization unit complete execution of in-flight instructions and become idle. However, rasterization of a triangle may be preempted at a coarse raster region boundary. The amount of context state to be stored is reduced because the execution units are idle. Preempting at the mid-primitive level during rasterization reduces the time from when preemption is initiated to when another process can execute because the entire triangle is not rasterized.

Mid-primitive graphics execution preemption

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for tracking and filtering state change methods provided to a graphics pipeline. State shadow circuitry at the start of the graphics pipeline may be configured in different modes. A track mode is used to capture the current state by storing state change methods that are transmitted to the graphics pipeline. A passthrough mode is used to provide different state data to the graphics pipeline without updating the current state stored in the state shadow circuitry. A replay mode is used to restore the current state to the graphics pipeline using the state shadow circuitry. Additionally, the state shadow circuitry may also be configured to filter the state change methods that are transmitted to graphics pipeline by removing redundant state change methods.

State shadowing to support a multi-threaded driver environment

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for generating work to be processed by a graphics pipeline residing within a graphics processor. The method includes the steps of receiving an indication that a first graphics workload is to be submitted to a command queue associated with the graphics processor, allocating a first portion of shader accessible memory for one or more units of state information that are necessary for processing the first graphics workload, populating the first portion of shader accessible memory with the one or more units of state information, and transmitting to the command queue of the graphics processor the one or more units of state information stored within the first portion of shader accessible memory, wherein the first graphics workload is processed within the graphics pipeline based on the one or more units of state information.

GPU work creation and stateless graphics in OPENGL

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method macro expander (MME) coupled to a driver and the processing pipeline of a graphics processing unit. In operation, the MME receives, from the driver, a first packet of work indicating a macro stored in an instruction memory that is to be executed. The MME then executes the commands of the macro in the instruction memory to generate a second packet of work, and the second packet of work is then transmitted to the processing pipeline for further execution.

Method macro expander

Growing community of inventors

Cedar Park, TX, United States of America

Gregory Scott Palmer