System and method for geometry shading
US8212825B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 27, 2007 |
| Grant date | Jul 3, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 31, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T2210/52
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for more effectively utilizing graphics hardware by allowing the developer to exploit parallelism at the primitive-level. In this technique, an algorithm is analyzed to break the total work associated with processing one primitive into discrete portions of work. The results of this analysis are used to program a geometry shader group that includes multiple geometry shaders. Upon receiving a single input primitive, the geometry shader group launches multiple parallel threads, one thread in each geometry shader in the group corresponding to each discrete portion of work. As each thread completes, the output of the thread is stored in on-chip GPU memory for processing by the next stage in the graphics pipeline. Since the overall work associated with a given input primitive is distributed across multiple threads, the output of each thread is smaller and, thus, the total memory required to implement the algorithm is reduced.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.