Patent · US Active

Automatic load balancing of a 3D graphics pipeline

US7940261B2 · kind B2 · utility

5Cited by
7References
30Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 10, 2007
Grant dateMay 10, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 11, 2030

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T1/20
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A device has a processor for processing a vertex processing stage, a sub-screen dividing stage and a pixel rendering stage of a three-dimensional (3D) graphics pipeline. The processor includes processing threads which balance the work load of the 3D graphics pipeline by prioritizing processing for the pixel rendering stage over other stages. Each processing thread, operating in parallel and independently, checks a level of tasks in a Task list of sub-screen tasks. If the level is below a threshold value, empty or the sub-screen tasks are all locked, the processing thread loops to the vertex processing stage. Otherwise, the processing thread processes a sub-screen task during the pixel rendering stage.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.