Unified compression/decompression graphics architecture
US9665951B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 27, 2008 |
| Grant date | May 30, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 16, 2032 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T2210/08
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A unified compression/decompression architecture is disclosed for reducing memory bandwidth requirements in 3D graphics processing applications. The techniques described erase several distinctions between a texture (compressed once, and decompressed many times), and buffers (compressed and decompressed repeatedly during rendering of an image). An exemplary method for processing graphics data according to one or more embodiments of the invention thus begins with the updating of one or more tiles of a first image array, which are then compressed, using a real-time buffer compression algorithm, to obtain compressed image array tiles. The compressed image array tiles are stored for subsequent use as a texture. During real-time rendering of a second image array, the compressed image array tiles are retrieved and decompressed using a decompression algorithm corresponding to the buffer compression algorithm. The decompressed image array tiles are then applied as a texture to one or more primitives in the second image array.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.