Nvidia Corporation

Apple Inc.

Narayanan Swaminathan

Cathy Donovan

Nicholas Haemel

Michael Imbrogno

Michal Valient

Karol E Czaradzki

This disclosure includes example embodiments of graphics processor memory management systems that support the use of graphical textures that are not fully bound or 'backed' in memory throughout their entire lifespans. Such graphical textures are referred to herein as 'sparse textures.' According to some embodiments, sparse textures may be split into fixed-dimension pages in memory wherein, during execution, a user may indicate a desire to map certain pages to physical memory locations and populate such pages with the underlying data. In other embodiments, statistical information obtained from the graphics processor is used to aid in the determination of whether or not a given texture (or portion of a texture) needs physical memory backing. In yet other embodiments, the graphics processor may also enforce ordering guarantees, e.g., in instances when there are fewer pages in memory available than there is a need for backing of at a given moment in time.

Graphics system and method for use of sparse textures

Disclosed herein are mobile computing devices that employ compatible updated drivers. In one embodiment, the mobile computing device includes: (1) a processor, (2) a driver library configured to store original drivers and updated drivers for applications on the mobile computing device, and (3) a driver selector configured to determine at least one driver from the original drivers or the updated drivers to use for running one of the applications.

Method of disseminating updated drivers to mobile computing devices and a dissemination system therefor

Disclosed herein are methods and systems that provide compatible device drivers to mobile computing devices. In one embodiment, a method of determining compatibility between different versions of device drivers and operating systems of a mobile computing device is disclosed that includes: (1) establishing a test environment employing a current operating system of a mobile computing device, (2) applying an updated driver to the test environment and (3) determining system compatibility of the updated driver with the current operating system employing the test environment, wherein the determining is based on both direct and implied compatibility of the updated driver with the current operating system.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Narayanan Swaminathan