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US 2003/0164824 A1Published application
Graphics engine with isochronous context switching
Assignee3Dlabs Inc., Ltd.
InventorsPaul Parsons, David Robert Baldwin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A 3D graphics processing unit which performs rapid context switching from normal rendering tasks to isochronous tasks when required. Preferably a secondary rasterizer, having less capability than the primary rasterizer, is provided in hardware, so that the primary rasterizer does not have to be context-switched when isochronous tasks are started.
Claims5
A graphics accelerator, comprising:
- a primary rendering subunit, which is optimized for performing rendering of high-bandwidth 3D graphics;
- a secondary rendering subunit, which has less capability than said primary rendering unit, but can render at least some 3D primitives;
- a plurality of shading subunits interconnected with said primary rendering subunit to form at least one 3D graphics processing pipeline;
- and
- context switching control logic, which can respond to video-time-related conditions by initiating a context switch which causes said shading subunits to switch context, and to receive their tasks from said secondary rendering subunit rather than from set primary rendering subunit;
- whereby said context control logic provides real-time video capability.
3 more elements
A graphics accelerator, comprising:
- a primary rasterizer, which can rasterize primitives for rendering;
- and
- a secondary rasterizer, which rendering subunit, which is physically smaller than and has less capability than said primary rendering unit, but can render at least some 3D primitives;
- and
- a plurality of shading subunits interconnected with said rasterizers to form at least one 3D graphics processing pipeline;
- wherein at least sometimes,
- when an isochronous rendering task is commanded while said primary rasterizer is performing another task,
- ones of said shading subunits are context-switched,
- but said primary rasterizer is not context-switched,
- and said secondary rasterizer performs rasterization for said isochronous task.
7 more elements
A method for 3D graphics rendering, comprising the steps of:
- rasterizing 3D primitives in a primary rasterizer;
- and when an isochronous rendering task is commanded, performing rasterization for said isochronous task in a secondary rasterizer without context-switching said primary rasterizer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.