Google Inc.

Neeti Desai

Jason Rupert Redgrave

Albert Meixner

Ofer Shacham

Daniel Finchelstein

Qiuling Zhu

William R Mark

Donald C Stark

David Patterson

Dilan Manatunga

Edward Y Chang

David S Warren

Asif Khan

Edward T Chang

Daniel Frederic Finchelstein

Daniel Fredric Finchelstein

An apparatus is described that include a line buffer unit composed of a plurality of a line buffer interface units. Each line buffer interface unit is to handle one or more requests by a respective producer to store a respective line group in a memory and handle one or more requests by a respective consumer to fetch and provide the respective line group from memory. The line buffer unit has programmable storage space whose information establishes line group size so that different line group sizes for different image sizes are storable in memory.

Line buffer unit for image processor

An image processor is described. The image processor includes an I/O unit to read input image data from external memory for processing by the image processor and to write output image data from the image processor into the external memory. The I/O unit includes multiple logical channel units. Each logical channel unit is to form a logical channel between the external memory and a respective producing or consuming component within the image processor. Each logical channel unit is designed to utilize reformatting circuitry and addressing circuitry. The addressing circuitry is to control addressing schemes applied to the external memory and reformatting of image data between external memory and the respective producing or consuming component. The reformatting circuitry is to perform the reformatting.

Macro I/O unit for image processor

An apparatus is described. The apparatus includes an image processing unit. The image processing unit includes a plurality of stencil processor circuits each comprising an array of execution unit lanes coupled to a two-dimensional shift register array structure to simultaneously process multiple overlapping stencils through execution of program code. The image processing unit includes a plurality of sheet generators respectively coupled between the plurality of stencil processors and the network. The sheet generators are to parse input line groups of image data into input sheets of image data for processing by the stencil processors, and, to form output line groups of image data from output sheets of image data received from the stencil processors. The image processing unit includes a plurality of line buffer units coupled to the network to pass line groups in a direction from producing stencil processors to consuming stencil processors to implement an overall program flow.

Architecture for high performance, power efficient, programmable image processing

An image processor is described. The image processor includes a storage circuit to store segments of input image data received in a raster scan format. The image processor further includes a reformatting circuit to convert the segments of input image data into a block image format. The image processor further includes a processor comprising a two-dimensional execution lane array and a two-dimensional shift register array. The two-dimensional shift register array is to store the input image data that has been formatted into the block image format. The execution lane array is to execute instructions that operate on the image data from the two-dimensional shift register array.

Image processor I/O unit

An image processor is described. The image processor includes a storage circuit to store segments of input image data received in a raster scan format from a camera. The image processor further includes a reformatting circuit to convert the segments of input image data into a block image format. The image processor further includes a processor comprising a two-dimensional execution lane array and a two-dimensional shift register array. The two-dimensional shift register array is to store the input image data that has been formatted into the block image format. The execution lane array is to execute instructions that operate on the image data from the two-dimensional shift register array.

An apparatus is described. The apparatus includes an image processing unit. The image processing unit includes a network. The image processing unit includes a plurality of stencil processor circuits each comprising an array of execution unit lanes coupled to a two-dimensional shift register array structure to simultaneously process multiple overlapping stencils through execution of program code. The image processing unit includes a plurality of sheet generators respectively coupled between the plurality of stencil processors and the network. The sheet generators are to parse input line groups of image data into input sheets of image data for processing by the stencil processors, and, to form output line groups of image data from output sheets of image data received from the stencil processors. The image processing unit includes a plurality of line buffer units coupled to the network to pass line groups in a direction from producing stencil processors to consuming stencil processors to implement an overall program flow.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Neeti Desai