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:
Jan. 13, 2015
Filed:
May. 08, 2006
Mark J. French, Raleigh, NC (US);
Emmett M. Kilgariff, San Jose, CA (US);
Steven E. Molnar, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Walter R. Steiner, Flagler Beach, FL (US);
Douglas A. Voorhies, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Adam Clark Weitkemper, Morrisville, NC (US);
Mark J. French, Raleigh, NC (US);
Emmett M. Kilgariff, San Jose, CA (US);
Steven E. Molnar, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Walter R. Steiner, Flagler Beach, FL (US);
Douglas A. Voorhies, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Adam Clark Weitkemper, Morrisville, NC (US);
NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth an architecture for advancing the Z-test operation prior to pixel shading whenever possible. The current rendering state, as maintained by the setup engine, determines whether advancing the Z-test function above the shader engine for 'early' Z-testing is possible or whether the Z-test function should be deferred until after shading operations for 'late' Z-testing. Data is dynamically routed to each processing engine in the pipeline, so that the appropriate data flow for either early Z or late Z is dynamically constructed, as determined by the current rendering state. The same functional units are utilized in both early Z and late Z configurations.