DEFERRED SHADING GRAPHICS PIPELINE PROCESSOR HAVING ADVANCED FEATURES
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Abstract
A deferred shading graphics pipeline processor and method are provided encompassing numerous substructures. Embodiments of the processor and method may include one or more of deferred shading, a tiled frame buffer, and multiple?stage hidden surface removal processing. In the deferred shading graphics pipeline, hidden surface removal is completed before pixel coloring is done. The pipeline processor comprises a command fetch and decode unit, a geometry unit, a mode extraction unit, a sort unit, a setup unit, a cull unit, a mode injection unit, a fragment unit, a texture unit, a Phong lighting unit, a pixel unit, and a backend unit.
370 Citations
57 Claims
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1-12. -12. (canceled)
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13. A deferred graphics pipeline processor comprising:
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a geometry unit configured to receive primitive data related to a vertex on a surface and output a data stream in response thereto;
a mode extraction unit configured to receive the data stream from the geometry unit and separate the data stream into spatial data and non-spatial data;
a sorting unit configured to receive the spatial data from the mode extraction unit for storage;
a polygon memory configured to receive the non-spatial data from the mode extraction unit for storage; and
a mode injection unit configured to retrieve at least a portion of the non-spatial data from the polygon memory and output retrieved non-spatial data;
whereinthe mode injection unit is associated with at least one cache to determine whether the retrieved non-spatial data is cached. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A method for processing pipeline data comprising:
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receiving primitive data related to a vertex on a surface of a screen and outputting a data stream in response thereto;
separating the data stream into spatial data corresponding to hidden surface removal data and non-spatial data corresponding to rasterization data;
storing the spatial data in a first memory;
storing the non-spatial data in a second memory; and
retrieving at least a portion of the non-spatial data from the second memory; and
determining whether retrieved non-spatial data is cached; and
transmitting at least a portion of the non-spatial data in response thereto. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. A method for sending image data from a first stage to a second stage in a graphics pipeline in a spatially staggered sequence, the image data including at least one spatial datum corresponding to a vertex of at least one of a plurality of geometry primitives, the method comprising:
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dividing a first two-dimensional window into a first plurality of tiles, the first two-dimensional window having a width corresponding to a horizontal pixel width, and a height corresponding to a vertical pixel height;
sorting each of the plurality of geometry primitives in the first stage in the graphics pipeline with respect to the first plurality of tiles;
rounding up the horizontal pixel width and the vertical pixel height to define a second two-dimensional window that is larger than the first two-dimensional window;
dividing the second two-dimensional window into a second plurality of tiles, each region of the second plurality of tiles corresponding to a tile of the first two-dimensional window;
numbering each tile of the second plurality of tiles in a row-by-row manner;
defining a random sequence of tile processing; and
reading the image data out of a memory to the second stage, in a tile-by-tile manner according to the random sequence of tile processing, wherein each tile in the tile-by-tile manner is selected from the second plurality of tiles. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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Specification