Graphics discard engine

A method comprising:

• storing, by circuitry of a cache, attribute data of vertices of each primitive of a set of primitives;
• executing, by circuitry of a plurality of compute units, pixel shaders to consume the attribute data;
• receiving, by circuitry of a discard engine, a bin completion signal indicating a bin of primitives has been processed by the pixel shaders of the plurality of compute units;
• retrieving, from the bin completion signal by the discard engine, a bin identifier (ID) specifying the bin that has been processed;
• and
• responsive to a search of a discard table with entries for different ranges of attribute data, generating and conveying discard commands, by the discard engine, for ranges of attribute data having a same bin ID as the bin ID retrieved from the bin completion signal.

A system comprising:

• a cache;
• and
• a discard engine comprising circuitry configured to:
• receive a bin completion signal indicating a bin of primitives has been processed by pixel shaders of a plurality of compute units comprising circuitry configured to execute pixel shaders to consume attribute data of vertices of each primitive of a set of primitives;
• retrieve, from the bin completion signal, a bin identifier (ID) specifying the bin that has been processed;
• and
• responsive to a search of a discard table with entries for different ranges of attribute data, generate and convey discard commands to a cache for ranges of attribute data having a same bin ID as the bin ID retrieved from the bin completion signal.