Nvidia Corporation

Manas Mandal

James Leroy Deming

Wishwesh Anil Gandhi

Gregory Scott Palmer

Shailendra Singh

Alan Menezes

Praveen Joginipally

Pranav Vaidya

Feiqi Su

Jerome Francis Duluk, Jr

Lacky V Shah

Samuel Hammond Duncan

Timothy John Purcell

Jonathon Stuart Ramsey Evans

Eric Rock

Colyn Scott Case

Sonata Gale Wen

Brad W Simeral

David G Reed

Praveen Jain

Dennis K Ma

Oren Rubinstein

William Tsu

Donald A Bittel

Jonathon Stuart Ramsay Evans

Radha Kanekal

Paul MacDougal

Ashish Kaul

Daphne Das

Devang Sachdev

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 system and method for communicating over a single virtual channel. The method includes reserving a first group of credits of a credit pool for a first traffic class and a second group of credits of the credit pool for a second traffic class. In addition, a first and second respective groups of tags are reserved from a tag pool for the first and second traffic class. A packet may then be selected from a first buffer for transmission over the virtual channel. The packet may include a traffic indicator of the first traffic class operable to allow the packet to pass a packet of the second traffic class from a second buffer. The method further includes sending the packet over the virtual channel and adjusting the first group of credits and the first group of tags based on having sent a packet of the first traffic class.

System and method for virtual channel communication

A raster operations (ROP) unit interleaves read and write requests for efficiently communicating with a frame buffer via a PCI Express (PCI E) link or other system bus that provides separate upstream and downstream data transfer paths. One example of a ROP unit processes pixels in groups, performing read modify writeback sequences for each group. The read requests associated with pixels in a second group are advantageously interleaved with the writeback requests for pixels in the first group prior to sending the requests on the system bus.

Raster operations unit with interleaving of read and write requests using PCI express

Multiple data transfer requests can be merged and transmitted as a single packet on a packetized bus such as a PCI Express (PCI-E) bus. In one embodiment, requests are combined if they are directed to contiguous address ranges in the same target device. An opportunistic merging procedure is advantageously used that merges a first request with a later request if the first request and the later request are mergeable and are received within a holdoff period that is dynamically determined based on a level of bus activity; otherwise, requests can be transmitted without merging.

Packet combiner for a packetized bus with dynamic holdoff time

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Manas Mandal