SIMD Group Formation Techniques during Ray Intersection Traversal

A method, comprising:

• executing, by shader circuitry of a graphics processor, a ray intersection instruction for a first SIMD group, wherein the instruction indicates coordinate information for a set of rays in a graphics scene;
• traversing, by ray intersection circuitry in response to the ray intersection instruction, multiple nodes in a spatially organized acceleration data structure, wherein nodes of the data structure indicate coordinates corresponding to bounding regions in the graphics scene and the traversing determines whether rays intersect the bounding regions;
• and
• in response to reaching a first node that indicates a transformation, forming a second SIMD group to execute on the shader circuitry to transform coordinates of one or more rays in the set of rays.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon design information that specifies a design of at least a portion of a hardware integrated circuit in a format recognized by a semiconductor fabrication system that is configured to use the design information to produce the circuit according to the design, wherein the design information specifies that the circuit includes:

• shader circuitry configured to execute a ray intersection instruction for a first SIMD group, wherein the instruction indicates coordinate information for a set of rays in a graphics scene;
• ray intersection circuitry configured to:
• traverse, in response to the ray intersection instruction, multiple nodes in a spatially-organized acceleration data structure, wherein nodes of the data structure indicate coordinates corresponding to bounding regions in the graphics scene and the traversal determines whether rays intersect the bounding regions;
• and
• form, in response to reaching a first node that indicates a transformation, a second SIMD group to execute on the shader circuitry to transform coordinates of one or more rays in the set of rays.