Nvidia Corporation

Robert W Gimby

Andrew D Bowen

Dominic Acocella

Henry Packard Moreton

David Conrad Tannenbaum

Christopher James Goodman

Thomas H Kong

Thomas Melvin Ogletree

Vimal S Parikh

Craig Michael Wittenbrink

Timothy J McDonald

Jeffrey B Moskal

Steven Gregory Foster, Jr

A method and system for remapping units that are disabled to active units in a 3-D graphics pipeline. Specifically, in one embodiment, a method remaps processing elements in a pipeline of a graphics pipeline unit. Graphical input data are received. Then the number of enabled processing elements are determined from a plurality of processing elements. Each of the enabled processing elements are virtually addressed above a translator to virtually process the graphical input data. Then, the virtual addresses of each of the enabled processing elements are mapped to physical addresses of the enabled processing elements at the translator. The graphical input data are physically processed at the physical addresses of the enabled processing elements. In addition, each of the enabled processing elements are physically addressed below the translator to further process the graphical input data.

Method and system for remapping processing elements in a pipeline of a graphics processing unit

The VPC unit and setup unit of a graphics processing subsystem perform culling operations. The VPC unit performs culling operations on geometric primitives falling within a specific criteria, such as having a property within of a numerical range limit. This limit reduces the complexity of the VPC unit. As increasing rendering complexity typically produces a large number of small primitives, the VPC unit culls many primitives despite its limitations. The VPC unit also includes a cache for storing previously processed vertices in their transformed form, along with previously computed culling information. This increases the VPC unit throughput by reducing the number of memory accesses and culling operations to be performed. The setup unit performs culling operations on any general primitive that cannot be culled by the VPC unit. By performing a first series of culling operations in the VPC unit, the processing burden on the setup unit is decreased.

Culling before setup in viewport and culling unit

Systems and methods for delivering two data streams via two buses allow one of the buses to be used for delivering selected elements of the data stream that is primarily being delivered by the other bus. At an input rerouting circuit, the selected elements are rerouted from the second data stream into the first data stream; a token inserted in the second data stream identifies a position of the rerouted element. The modified streams are transmitted by the two buses. A receiving circuit reinserts the rerouted data element into the second data stream at the sequential position identified by the placeholder token.

System and method for delivering multiple data streams via multiple buses

The VPC unit and setup unit of a graphics processing subsystem perform culling operations. The VPC unit performs culling operations on geometric primitives falling within a specific criteria, such as having a property within a numerical range limit of the VPC unit. This limitation reduces the complexity of the VPC unit. As increasing rendering complexity typically produces a large number of small primitives, the VPC unit can cull many primitives despite its culling limitations. The VPC unit also includes a cache for storing previously processed vertices in their transformed form, along with culling information previously computed for the vertices. To minimize memory bandwidth, the VPC unit retrieves vertex data used for culling operations first. After completing the culling operations, the VPC unit retrieves the attributes of a vertex only if the primitive has not been culled. The VPC unit applies a perspective correction factor to the vertex attributes.

Cull before attribute read

Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention provide circuits, methods, and apparatus that improve utilization of storage buffers by overwriting data in them as soon as the data is no longer needed. An exemplary embodiment employs a counter to add each time a particular unit of data is needed by a circuit. The counter also subtracts each time the data is actually used by the circuit. When the counter reaches zero, upstream circuitry is checked to see if a command allowing the particular data to be overwritten has been issued. If it has, the command is not waited for, rather the data may be overwritten immediately. Embodiments of the present invention may also make use of one level of indirection to mask physical storage buffer locations from upstream circuitry. In this way, utilization can be improved.

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West Bloomfield, MI, United States of America

Robert W Gimby