Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Ati Technologies Ulc

Randy Wayne Ramsey

Todd Martin

Mangesh P Nijasure

Nishank Pathak

Michael Mantor

Tad Robert Litwiller

Yash Ukidave

Christopher Jude Brennan

Rex Eldon McCrary

Alexander Fuad Ashkar

Brian D Emberling

Laurent Lefebvre

Jimshed B Mirza

Mark M Leather

Angel E Socarras

Jason David Carroll

Harry J Wise

Anthony Chan

Rashad Oreifej

Brian A Buchner

Mark Russell Anderson

William David Isenberg

Sukanya Chavan

Zhongliang Chen

Ricky Wai Yeung Iu

Ryan James Cash

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for performing geometry work in parallel on multiple chiplets are disclosed. A system includes a chiplet processor with multiple chiplets for performing graphics work in parallel. Instead of having a central distributor to distribute work to the individual chiplets, each chiplet determines on its own the work to be performed. For example, during a draw call, each chiplet calculates which portions to fetch and process of one or more index buffer(s) corresponding to one or more graphics object(s) of the draw call. Once the portions are calculated, each chiplet fetches the corresponding indices and processes the indices. The chiplets perform these tasks in parallel and independently of each other. When the index buffer(s) are processed, one or more subsequent step(s) in the graphics rendering process are performed in parallel by the chiplets.

Distributed geometry

Systems, methods, and techniques dynamically utilize load balancing for workgroup assignments between a group of shader engines by a command processor of a graphics processing unit (GPU). Based on one or more commands received for execution, a plurality of workgroups is generated for assignment to a plurality of shader engines for processing, each shader engine including a respective quantity of active compute units. Each workgroup of the plurality of workgroups is dynamically assigned to a respective shader engine for execution based at least in part on indications of available resources respectively associated with each of the shader engines. In various embodiments, the indications of available resources may include physical parameters regarding each shader engine, as well as current status information regarding the processing of workgroups assigned to each shader engine.

Dynamic dispatch for workgroup distribution

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a discard engine in a graphics pipeline are disclosed. A system includes a graphics pipeline with a geometry engine launching shaders that generate attribute data for vertices of each primitive of a set of primitives. The attribute data is consumed by pixel shaders, with each pixel shader generating a deallocation message when the pixel shader no longer needs the attribute data. A discard engine gathers deallocations from multiple pixel shaders and determines when the attribute data is no longer needed. Once a block of attributes has been consumed by all potential pixel shader consumers, the discard engine deallocates the given block of attributes. The discard engine sends a discard command to the caches so that the attribute data can be invalidated and not written back to memory.

Graphics discard engine

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for preemptively reserving buffer space for primitives and positions in a graphics pipeline are disclosed. A system includes a graphics pipeline frontend with any number of geometry engines coupled to corresponding shader engines. Each geometry engine launches shader wavefronts to execute on a corresponding shader engine. The geometry engine preemptively reserves buffer space for each wavefront prior to the wavefront being launched on the shader engine. When the shader engine executes a wavefront, the shader engine exports primitive and position data to the reserved buffer space. Multiple scan converters will consume the primitive and position data, with each scan converter consuming primitive and position data based on the screen coverage of the scan converter. After consuming the primitive and position data, the scan converters mark the buffer space as freed so that the geometry engine can then allocate the freed buffer space to subsequent shader wavefronts.

Graphics primitives and positions through memory buffers

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for loading multiple primitives per thread in a graphics pipeline are disclosed. A system includes a graphics pipeline frontend with a geometry engine, shader processor input (SPI), and a plurality of compute units. The geometry engine generates primitives which are accumulated by the SPI into primitive groups. While accumulating primitives, the SPI tracks the number of vertices and primitives per group. The SPI determines wavefront boundaries based on mapping a single vertex to each thread of the wavefront while allowing more than one primitive per thread. The SPI launches wavefronts with one vertex per thread and potentially multiple primitives per thread. The compute units execute a vertex phase and a multi-cycle primitive phase for wavefronts with multiple primitives per thread.

Load multiple primitives per thread in a graphics pipeline

An apparatus, such as a graphical processing unit (GPU), includes one or more processors configured to determine a plurality of first locality information of a received wave at a processing unit and to select a first processing element of a plurality of processing elements, the first processing unit having a plurality of second locality information from a previous wave that matches the plurality of first locality information to execute the received wave.

Method and apparatus for implementing a rasterizer in GPU operations

Improvements to graphics processing pipelines are disclosed. More specifically, the vertex shader stage, which performs vertex transformations, and the hull or geometry shader stages, are combined. If tessellation is disabled and geometry shading is enabled, then the graphics processing pipeline includes a combined vertex and graphics shader stage. If tessellation is enabled, then the graphics processing pipeline includes a combined vertex and hull shader stage. If tessellation and geometry shading are both disabled, then the graphics processing pipeline does not use a combined shader stage. The combined shader stages improve efficiency by reducing the number of executing instances of shader programs and associated resources reserved.

Combined world-space pipeline shader stages

A processing system includes a graphics pipeline that executes a first shader of a first type and a second shader of a second type. In some cases, the first shader is a geometry shader and the second shader is a pixel shader. The processing system also includes buffers that hold primitives generated by the first shader and provide the primitives to the second shader. The processing system also includes a primitive hub that monitors fullness of the buffers. Launching of waves from the first shader is throttled based on the fullness of the buffers. A shader processor input (SPI) selectively throttles the waves launched by the geometry shader based on a signal from the primitive hub indicating the fullness, an indication of relative resource usage of geometry waves and pixel waves in the graphics pipeline, or an indication of lifetimes of the geometry waves.

Throttling shaders based on resource usage in a graphics pipeline

An apparatus such as a graphics processing unit (GPU) includes a plurality of processing elements configured to concurrently execute a plurality of first waves and accumulators associated with the plurality of processing elements. The accumulators are configured to store accumulated values representative of behavioral characteristics of the plurality of first waves that are concurrently executing on the plurality of processing elements. The apparatus also includes a dispatcher configured to dispatch second waves to the plurality of processing elements based on comparisons of values representative of behavioral characteristics of the second waves and the accumulated values stored in the accumulators. In some cases, the behavioral characteristics of the plurality of first waves comprise at least one of fetch bandwidths, usage of an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), and number of export operations.

Selectively dispatching waves based on accumulators holding behavioral characteristics of waves currently executing

The address of the draw or dispatch packet responsible for creating an exception is tied to a shader/wavefront back to the draw command from which it originated. In various embodiments, a method of operating a graphics pipeline and exception handling includes receiving, at a command processor of a graphics processing unit (GPU), an exception signal indicating an occurrence of a pipeline exception at a shader stage of a graphics pipeline. The shader stage generates an exception signal in response to a pipeline exception and transmits the exception signal to the command processor. The command processor determines, based on the exception signal, an address of a command packet responsible for the occurrence of the pipeline exception.

Exception handler for sampling draw dispatch identifiers

Improvements in the graphics processing pipeline are disclosed. More specifically, a new primitive shader stage performs tasks of the vertex shader stage or a domain shader stage if tessellation is enabled, a geometry shader if enabled, and a fixed function primitive assembler. The primitive shader stage is compiled by a driver from user-provided vertex or domain shader code, geometry shader code, and from code that performs functions of the primitive assembler. Moving tasks of the fixed function primitive assembler to a primitive shader that executes in programmable hardware provides many benefits, such as removal of a fixed function crossbar, removal of dedicated parameter and position buffers that are unusable in general compute mode, and other benefits.

Primitive shader

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for suspending and restoring operations on a processor are disclosed. In one embodiment, a processor includes at least a control unit, multiple execution units, and multiple work creation units. In response to detecting a request to suspend a software application executing on the processor, the control unit sends requests to the plurality of work creation units to stop creating new work. The control unit waits until receiving acknowledgements from the work creation units prior to initiating a suspend operation. Once all work creation units have acknowledged that they have stopped creating new work, the control unit initiates the suspend operation. Also, when a restore operation is initiated, the control unit prevents any work creation units from launching new work-items until all previously in-flight work-items have been restored to the same work creation units and execution units to which they were previously allocated.

Growing community of inventors

Oviedo, FL, United States of America

Randy Wayne Ramsey