Nvidia Corporation

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Nokia Corporation

Silicon Graphics, Incorporated

Nvida Corporation

Vimal S Parikh

Howard H Cheng

Robert J Moore

Andrew J Tao

Lordson L Yue

Henry Packard Moreton

Carroll Philip Gossett

Craig Michael Wittenbrink

Yan Yan Tang

Chi Fai Ho

John Stephen Montrym

David Conrad Tannenbaum

Douglas A Voorhies

Nancy Cam Winget

Andrew D Bowen

Derek Bosch

Eric Demers

Amar S Gupta

Christopher James Goodman

Thomas Melvin Ogletree

Shaun Ho

Robert W Gimby

Adrian Jeday

Ian O'Donnell

Anan Nagarajan

An apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a clipping unit that is configured to produce and issue ninitial outputs based on execution of a set of clipping operations, wherein nrepresents the number of the initial outputs that are issued by the clipping unit prior to context switching, and the initial outputs partially define a clipped graphics primitive. The graphics processing apparatus also includes a control unit connected to the clipping unit. The control unit is configured to preserve an initial execution state of the clipping unit in response to an initial command for context switching, wherein the initial execution state is preserved based on n.

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives with accelerated context switching

An apparatus and method for buffering graphics data are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a storage unit and a reorder control unit that is connected to the storage unit. The reorder control unit is configured to coordinate storage of vertex attributes in the storage unit so as to convert the vertex attributes from an initial order to a modified order. The reorder control unit is configured to identify a subset of the vertex attributes to be stored within a common range of addresses in the storage unit, and the reorder control unit is configured to access the storage unit such that the subset of the vertex attributes is written into the storage unit substantially in parallel.

Buffering unit to support graphics processing operations

An apparatus and method for buffering graphics data are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a memory and a buffering unit that is connected to the memory. The buffering unit is configured to buffer vertex attributes en route to the memory. The buffering unit is configured to coalesce a subset of the vertex attributes to be stored within a common range of addresses in the memory, and the buffering unit is configured to issue a single write request to the memory on behalf of the subset of the vertex attributes.

An apparatus, system, and method for determining clipping distances are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a clipping unit and an instruction memory connected to the clipping unit. The instruction memory includes a clipping program to direct the clipping unit to perform clipping operations. The clipping program includes a clipping distance instruction to determine a clipping distance with respect to any of a set of clipping planes.

Apparatus, system, and method for determining clipping distances

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a clipping engine and an output unit connected to the clipping engine. The clipping engine is configured to clip an input graphics primitive with respect to a set of clipping planes to derive spatial attributes of new vertices. The output unit is configured to identify a subset of the new vertices that defines an output graphics primitive, and the output unit is configured to derive non-spatial attributes of the subset of the new vertices to produce the output graphics primitive.

Clipping graphics primitives with deferred derivation of vertex attributes

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a clipping module includes a clipping engine and a clipping controller connected to the clipping engine. The clipping controller is configured to determine which edges of an input graphics primitive intersect a first clipping plane. The clipping controller is configured to direct the clipping engine to clip, with respect to the first clipping plane, a first pair of edges of the input graphics primitive in response to determining that the first pair of edges intersect the first clipping plane.

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives

An apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a clipping unit, a read-only memory that is connected to the clipping unit, a read-write memory that is connected to the clipping unit, and an addressing unit that is connected to the read-only memory and the read-write memory. The read-only memory is configured to store a clipping program, and the read-write memory is configured to store a patch program. The addressing unit is configured to selectively address one of the read-only memory and the read-write memory based on a set of input conditions.

Programmable clipping engine for clipping graphics primitives

An interface for a graphics system includes simple yet powerful constructs that are easy for an application programmer to use and learn. Features include a unique vertex representation allowing the graphics pipeline to retain vertex state information and to mix indexed and direct vertex values and attributes; a projection matrix value set command; a display list call object command; and an embedded frame buffer clear/set command.

Graphics system interface

Vertices defining a graphics primitive are converted into homogeneous space and clipped against a single clipping plane, the w=0 plane, to produce a clipped graphics primitive having vertices including w coordinates that are greater than or equal to zero. Rasterizing a graphics primitive having a vertex with a w coordinates that is greater than or equal to zero is less complex than rasterizing a graphics primitive having a vertex with a w coordinate that is less than zero. Clipping against the w=0 plane is less complex than conventional clipping since conventional clipping may require that the graphics primitive be clipped against each of the six faces of the viewing frustum to produce a clipped graphics primitive.

Clipping graphics primitives to the w=0 plane

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a clipping module includes a mapping unit and a clipping engine that is connected to the mapping unit. The mapping unit is configured to map a graphics primitive onto a canonical representation that is defined with respect to a clipping plane. The clipping engine is configured to clip the graphics primitive with respect to the clipping plane based on the canonical representation.

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives with respect to a clipping plane

An apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a clipping unit that is configured to issue an initial set of outputs based on execution of a set of clipping operations. The graphics processing apparatus also includes a control unit that is connected to the clipping unit. The control unit is configured to preserve an initial execution state of the clipping unit in response to an initial command for context switching, and the initial execution state is preserved based on a number of the initial set of outputs.

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

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives are described. In one embodiment, a graphics processing apparatus includes a mapping unit and a clipping engine that is connected to the mapping unit. The mapping unit is configured to map a graphics primitive onto a canonical representation. The clipping engine is configured to perform a set of clipping operations with respect to the canonical representation.

Apparatus, system, and method for clipping graphics primitives with reduced sensitivity to vertex ordering

Clipping techniques introduce additional vertices into existing primitives without requiring creation of new primitives. For an input triangle with one vertex on the invisible side of a clipping surface, a quadrangle can be defined. The vertices of the quadrangle are the two internal vertices of the input triangle and two clipped vertices. For determining attribute values for pixel shading, three vertices of the quadrangle are selected, and a parameter value for an attribute equation is computed using the three selected vertices. For determining pixel coverage for the quadrangle, the three edges that do not correspond to the edge created by clipping are used.

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Vimal S Parikh