Arm Limited

Jakob Axel Fries

Lars Oskar Flordal

Toni Viki Brkic

Edvard Fielding

Samuel Martin

Andreas Due Engh-Halstvedt

Peter William Harris

Oskar Lars Flordal

Jian Wang

Quinn Carter

Jorn Nystad

Sharjeel Saeed

Ian Victor Devereux

Sven Ola Johannes Hugosson

Hakan Lars-Goran Persson

Reimar Gisbert Döffinger

Ozgur Ozkurt

Carmelo Giliberto

Yoav Asher Levy

Henrik Nils-Sture Olsson

Andreas Loeve Selvik

David James Bermingham

Elad Kadosh

Lior-Levi Bandal

Muhammad Ali Shami

Bjorn Fredrik Wictorin, Iii

Sven Uwe Deidersen

A graphics processor performs graphics processing in respect of a region of a render output. The graphics processing comprises obtaining a scaling factor corresponding to a desired resolution for the region. The graphics processing further comprises, in accordance with the desired resolution, obtaining scaled graphics geometry to be rendered for the region and selecting a subregion of the region to be rendered in respect of the region. The selected subregion is then rendered using the scaled graphics geometry, thereby providing a subregion of data elements rendered in accordance with the desired resolution. The graphics processor can provide efficient and flexible graphics processing when performing variable resolution rendering.

Variable resolution graphics processing

There is disclosed a method of storing an encoded block of data in memory comprising encoding a block of data elements and determining a memory location () at which the encoded block of data is to be stored. The memory location () at which the encoded block of data is stored is then indicated in a header () for the encoded block of data by including in the header a memory address value () together with a modifier value () representing a modifier that is to be applied to the memory address value () when determining the memory location (). When the encoded block of data is to be retrieved, the header () is read and processed to determine the memory location ().

Accessing encoded blocks of data

A cache is provided having a plurality of entries for storing data. In response to a given access request, lookup circuitry performs a lookup operation in the cache to determine whether one of the entries in the cache is allocated to store data associated with the memory address indicated by the given access request, with a hit indication or a miss indication being generated dependent on the outcome of that lookup operation. During a single lookup period, the lookup circuitry is configured to perform lookup operations in parallel for up to N access requests. In addition, allocation circuitry is provided that is able to determine, during the single lookup period, at least N candidate entries for allocation from amongst the plurality of entries, and to cause one of the candidate entries to be allocated for each of the up to N access requests for which the lookup circuitry generates a miss indication.

Apparatus and method for operating a cache storage

A data processing system comprises encoding circuitry operable to encode arrays of data elements, decoding circuitry operable to decode encoded versions of arrays of data elements, and consumer circuitry operable to use arrays of data elements. Data indicative of a resolution that is to be used by the consumer circuitry for at least one region of the array of data elements is provided to the encoding circuitry, and the encoding circuitry uses the data indicative of the resolution that is to be used by the consumer circuitry to control the generation of the representation for representing at least one block that the array of data elements is divided into.

Data processing systems

When encoding a block of data elements in an array of data elements, the data values for data elements in the block are represented and stored in a data packet as truncated data values using a subset of one or more most significant bits of the respective bit sequences for the data values of the data elements. A rounding mode is selected from a plurality of available rounding modes that can be applied when decoding the block of data elements and an indication of the selected rounding mode is provided along with the encoded data packet. The rounding mode is associated with one or more rounding bit sequence(s) that can then be applied to the truncated data values when decoding the data packet to obtain decoded data values for the data elements in the block.

Encoding data arrays

Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for determining decoded data values for a data element of an array of data elements from an encoded representation of the array of data elements, wherein the decoding comprises determining which, if any, bits are missing for the data value(s) for the data element and selecting based on this an adjustment scheme to be applied for the data value(s) for the data element from a plurality of available adjustment schemes. Also disclosed are a method and apparatus for generating an encoding hint comprising an indication of the one or more encoding parameters that were used to generate the encoded representation which encoding hint can then be associated with the decoded data and then used when the decoded data is subsequently to be encoded.

Decoding data arrays

A data processing system includes a producer processor that produces a sequence of data outputs for use by consumer processors of the data processing system. The system also includes a memory for storing a sequence of data outputs produced by the data processor. The data processor encodes data outputs as encoded blocks of data, storing a particular encoded block of a first frame in a first location in the memory and an indication of the first location. The data processor stores a corresponding encoded block of a second data output in a second location and updates the indication to the second location.

Video data processing system for storing frames of video data

A graphics processor includes a rasteriser, an early depth tester, a renderer, a late depth tester, and a depth test data buffer that stores depth data values for use by the early and late depth testers. When a fragment is to undergo an early depth test to update the depth buffer, it is first determined whether the fragment should undergo the early depth test to update the depth buffer without waiting for any other fragment to undergo a depth test, or whether the result of a late depth test on a fragment that is still to undergo a late depth test should be awaited before performing a depth test to update the depth buffer on the fragment.

Optimizing depth testing in graphics processing systems that perform early and late depth testing

When storing an array of data in memory, the data array is divided into a plurality of blocks, and for respective groups of the blocks that the data array has been divided into, a set of data representing the group of blocks that includes: for each block of the group of blocks, a set of data for that block of the group of blocks; and a size indication for each of one or more of the blocks of the group of blocks, the size indication for a block of a group of blocks indicating the size in memory of the set of data for that block of the group included in the stored set of data representing the group of blocks, is stored. A set of header data is also stored separately for each group of blocks of the data array.

Methods and apparatus for storing data in memory in data processing systems

A method and an apparatus for generating a signature representative of the content of a region of an array of data in a data processing system, where the region of the array of data comprising plural data positions, and each data position having an associated data value or values. A data value or values for a data position of the region of the data array is/are generated. The data value or values for the data position of the region of the data array is/are written to storage that stores the region of the data array as it is being generated. A signature representative of the content of the region of the data array is generated in parallel with the data value or values for the data position of the region of the data array being written to the storage.

Method of and apparatus for generating a signature representative of the content of an array of data

A process of updating data for a block of an array of data elements stored in an allocated memory region for the block comprises reading in data for a first group of the data elements, updating the data for the first group, and then writing back the updated data to memory. The process can avoid overwriting data for a second group of the data elements that is yet to be read in from the memory region by writing back the updated data for the first group starting at a selected memory address, for example other than the start address of the memory region. The data for the second group of data elements can then be read in and updated, and the updated data can be written back to memory. The process can reduce the amount of memory bandwidth and local cache that needs to be used.

Updating data stored in a memory

A graphics processing system includes a cache system for transferring texture data stored in memory to a graphics processing unit for use by the graphics processing unit when generating a render output. The cache system includes a first cache operable to receive texture data from the memory system, and a second cache operable to receive texture data from the first cache and to provide texture data to the graphics processing unit for use when generating a render output, and a data processing unit intermediate the first cache and the second cache and operable to process data stored in the first cache and to store the processed data in the second cache.

Cache arrangement for graphics processing systems

A method of storing encoded blocks of data in memory comprises generating headers for the encoded blocks of data. The headers are stored in memory according to a tiled layout based on tiles of plural adjacent blocks of data elements of the array of data elements. Respective sets of the encoded blocks of data are also stored in respective distinct regions of memory locations that have been allocated to those sets. The method provides an efficient way to access headers and corresponding encoded blocks of data in memory.

Accessing encoded blocks of data in memory

A data array to be stored is first divided into a plurality of blocks. Each block is further sub-divided into a set of sub-blocks. Data representing sub-blocks of the data array is stored, together with a header data block for each block that the data array has been divided into. For each block, it is determined whether all the data positions for the block have the same data value associated with them, and, if so, an indication that all of the data positions within the block have the same data value associated with them, and an indication of the same data value that is associated with each of the data positions in the block, is stored in the header data block for that block of the data array.

Growing community of inventors

Malmo, Sweden

Jakob Axel Fries