US 2023/0410243 A1Published application

Multicore master/slave communications

AssigneeImagination Technologies Limited

InventorsMichael John Livesley, Ian King

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Abstract

A master unit in a core of a plurality of cores in a graphics processing unit receives a set of image rendering tasks, assigns a first subset of the image rendering tasks to a first core of the plurality of cores and assigns a second subset of the image rendering tasks to a second core of the plurality of cores. The master unit transmits the first subset of image rendering tasks to a slave unit of the first core and transmits the second subset of image rendering tasks to a slave unit of the second core. The master unit stores a credit number for each of the first and second cores and adjusts the credit number of the first and second cores by a first amount for each task in the first and second subset of the image rendering tasks. The slave units transmit credit notifications when tasks have been processed and the master unit adjusts the credit numbers when it receives the notifications.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A graphics processing unit comprising a plurality of cores, wherein each core of the plurality of cores comprises a slave unit configured to manage the execution of image rendering tasks within the core, and wherein at least one of the plurality of cores further comprises a master unit configured to:

receive a set of image rendering tasks;
assign a first subset of the image rendering tasks to a first core of the plurality of cores;
assign a second subset of the image rendering tasks to a second core of the plurality of cores;
transmit the first subset of the image rendering tasks to the slave unit of the first core;
and
transmit the second subset of the image rendering tasks to the slave unit of the second core;
wherein:
the slave unit of the first core is configured to transmit to the master unit a first credit notification when a task in the first subset of the image rendering tasks has been processed,
the slave unit of the second core is configured to transmit to the master unit a second credit notification when a task in the second subset of the image rendering tasks has been processed;
and
the master unit is configured to:
store a credit number for each of the first and second cores,
adjust the credit number of the first core by a first amount for each task in the first subset of the image rendering tasks when the master unit assigns the first subset of the image rendering tasks to the first core,
adjust the credit number of the second core by the first amount for each task in the second subset of the image rendering tasks when the master unit assigns the second subset of the image rendering tasks to the second core,
adjust the credit number of the first core by a second amount when the master unit receives the first credit notification, and
adjust the credit number of the second core by the second amount when the master unit receives the second credit notification, wherein one of the first and second amounts is positive, and the other is negative.

13 more elements

A method of transmitting image rendering tasks in a graphics processing unit comprising a plurality of cores, the method comprising:

receiving, by a master unit in a core of the plurality of cores, a set of image rendering tasks;
assigning, by the master unit, a first subset of the image rendering tasks to a first core of the plurality of cores;
assigning, by the master unit, a second subset of the image rendering tasks to a second core of the plurality of cores;
transmitting, by the master unit, the first subset of image rendering tasks to a slave unit of the first core;
transmitting, by the master unit, the second subset of image rendering tasks to a slave unit of the second core;
storing, by the master unit, a credit number for each of the first and second cores;
adjusting, by the master unit, the credit number of the first core by a first amount for each task in the first subset of the image rendering tasks;
and
adjusting, by the master unit, the credit number of the second core by the first amount for each task in the second subset of image rendering tasks;
transmitting, by the slave unit of the first core to the master unit, a first credit notification when a task in the first subset of image rendering tasks has been processed;
transmitting, by the slave unit of the second core to the master unit, a second credit notification when a task in the second subset of image rendering tasks has been processed;
adjusting, by the master unit, the credit number of the first core by a second amount when the master unit receives the first credit notification;
and
adjusting, by the master unit, the credit number of the second core by the second amount when the master unit receives the second credit notification, wherein one of the first and second amounts is positive, and the other is negative.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/127,579Filed 28 Mar 2023
Priority: GB 2204508.230 Mar 2022
Published: 21 Dec 2023
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06F 9/5066
Partitioning or combining of resources: algorithms for mapping a plurality of inter-dependent sub-tasks onto a plurality of physical CPUs
G06T 1/20
General purpose image data processing: processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
G06F 9/4881
By program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system: scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
G06F 9/505
The resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals: considering the load

Family

US 12,299,768 B2Related patent
US 2023/0410243 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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