The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 18, 2019
Filed:
Feb. 10, 2017
Providing instruction characteristics to graphics scheduling circuitry based on decoded instructions
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Michael A. Geary, Round Rock, TX (US);
Brian K. Reynolds, Austin, TX (US);
Terence M. Potter, Austin, TX (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed relating to scheduling graphics instructions for execution on different types of execution units based on characteristics of decoded and cached graphics instruction. In some embodiments, a graphics unit includes multiple different types of execution units that are configured to execute different types of instructions (e.g., different units for datapath, sample, load/store, etc.). In some embodiments, the graphics unit stores decoded instructions in an instruction cache in at least one cache level, along with information specifying characteristics of the instructions. The characteristics may be stored at clause granularity and may indicate the type of instructions in each clause (e.g., corresponding to which type of execution unit is configured to execute the instructions). In some embodiments, scheduling circuitry is configured to access the information and select instructions from the instruction cache to send to ones of the plurality of execution units based on the stored information.