Hardware-managed virtual buffers using a shared memory for load distribution
US8760460B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 4, 2010 |
| Grant date | Jun 24, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 5, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T1/60
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for using a shared memory to store hardware-managed virtual buffers. A circular buffer is allocated within a general-purpose multi-use cache for storage of primitive attribute data rather than having a dedicated buffer for the storage of the primitive attribute data. The general-purpose multi-use cache is also configured to store other graphics data sinces the space requirement for primitive attribute data storage is highly variable, depending on the number of attributes and the size of primitives. Entries in the circular buffer are allocated as needed and released and invalidated after the primitive attribute data has been consumed. An address to the circular buffer entry is transmitted along with primitive descriptors from object-space processing to the distributed processing in screen-space.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.