Vertex attribute buffer for inline immediate attributes and constants
US8810592B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 30, 2010 |
| Grant date | Aug 19, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 17, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T15/005
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing primitives and vertex attributes to the graphics pipeline. A primitive distribution unit constructs the batches of primitives and writes inline attributes and constants to a vertex attribute buffer (VAB) rather than passing the inline attributes directly to the graphics pipeline. A batch includes indices to attributes, where the attributes for each vertex are stored in a different VAB. The same VAB may be referenced by all of the vertices in a batch or different VABs may be referenced by different vertices in one or more batches. The batches are routed to the different processing engines in the graphics pipeline and each of the processing engines reads the VABs as needed to process the primitives. The number of parallel processing engines may be changed without changing the width or speed of the interconnect used to write the VABs.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.