Graphics discard engine
US12236529B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 27, 2021 |
| Grant date | Feb 25, 2025 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 27, 2041 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/455
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
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.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.