DISPLAY SCREEN SUBSECTION RENDERING APPARATUS AND METHOD

• US 20060055701A1
• Filed: 08/11/2005
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ATI Technologies Incorporated (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Ralph Clayton, Carey, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,907,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/522
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing rendering of subsections of screen space receives render commands associated with different screen subsections, such as from a command buffer populated by a coprocessor, and determines which screen section is currently being rendered by a rendering engine, or stated another way, which screen section the host processor wishes to have rendered, and evaluates screen subsection data that is associated with a received rendering command. The screen subsection data identifies a screen subsection for which the command refers. The method includes executing the command if it is determined that the command refers to a current screen section being rendered.

Claims

1. In a system that renders a screen space, a method comprising:

evaluating screen subsection data associated with a received rendering command that identifies a screen subsection for which the command refers; and

executing the received rendering command if the received rendering command is associated with an object to be displayed in a current screen subsection being rendered.

2. The method of claim 1 including populating a command buffer with rendering commands for a plurality of different screen subsections wherein at least a plurality of the populated commands indicate that they are predicated rendering commands and wherein populating the command buffer with rendering commands includes populating the command buffer without presorting commands for a particular screen subsection.

3. A method for providing rendering of subsections of a screen space comprising:

storing received screen subsection display mask data in memory;

fetching a group of stored rendering commands and associated display subsection rendering mask data from a command buffer;

storing received object screen subsection render command mask data in memory; and

discarding those fetched commands whose associated object screen subsection render command mask data does not correspond to a screen subsection identified by the stored screen subsection display mask data.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the received screen subsection under command mask data is receipt from a first processor and wherein discarding those fetched commands whose associated object screen subsection render command mask data, is performed by a second processor.

5. A command processor comprising:

screen subsection command discard logic operative to obtain received object screen subsection render command mask data and received screen subsection display mask data and operative to discard fetched commands whose associated object screen subsection render command mask data does not correspond to a screen subsection identified by the stored screen subsection display mask data.

6. A graphics processor comprising:

a rendering engine;

a command processor, operatively coupled to the rendering engine, the command processor comprising;

screen subsection command discard logic operative to obtain received object screen subsection render command mask data and received screen subsection display mask data, and operative to discard fetched commands whose associated object screen

subsection render command mask data does not correspond to a screen subsection identified by the stored screen subsection display mask data; and

wherein the rendering engine renders objects based on fetched commands that are not discarded.

7. Apparatus for providing rendering of subsections of a screen space comprising:

a first processor;

a display device operative to display display information;

a second processor, operatively coupled to the display device and operatively coupled to the first processor;

wherein the first processor is operative to provide rendering commands associated with different screen subsections and to store rendering commands and associated display subsection rendering mask data in a command buffer; and

wherein the second processor is operative to store received screen subsection display mask data in memory;

fetch a group of stored rendering commands and associated display subsection rendering mask data from a command buffer;

store received object screen subsection render command mask data in memory; and

discard those fetched commands whose associated object screen subsection render command mask data does not correspond to a screen subsection identified by the stored screen subsection display mask data.

8. An apparatus that renders a screen space comprising:

a processor operative to evaluate screen subsection data associated with a received rendering command that identifies a screen subsection for which the command refers, and

execute the received rendering command if the received rendering command is associated with an object to be displayed in a current screen subsection being rendered.