GRAPHICS ENGINE AND METHOD OF DISTRIBUTING PIXEL DATA

• US 20080170082A1
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Chun-Ho
• Granted Patent: US 8,189,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/582
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/40 Filling a planar surface by adding surface attributes, e.g. colour or texture

Abstract

A graphics engine and related method of operation are disclosed in which a pixel distributor distributes pixel data across a plurality of pixel shaders using a first approach when the presence of one or more rendering features is indicated, else using a second approach different from the first approach.

Claims

1. A 3-dimensional (3D) graphics engine comprising:

a plurality of pixel shaders; and

a pixel distributor distributing pixel data across the plurality of pixel shaders using a first approach when the presence of one or more rendering features is indicated, else using a second approach different from the first approach.

2. The graphics engine of claim 1, wherein the one or more rendering features comprises at least one of texture mapping, depth testing, and pixel blending.

3. The graphics engine of claim 2, further comprising:

a special function register (SFR) storing data values indicating the presence or absence of the one or more rendering features and generating a corresponding control signal.

4. The graphics engine of claim 3, further comprising:

a geometry processing unit generating polygon information in relation to the control signal generated by the SFR.

5. The graphics engine of claim 4, wherein the polygon information defines at least one of block size for a texture cache, a texture format, a texture size, a polygon size, polygon rotation, and a texture filtering mode.

6. The graphics engine of claim 4, further comprising:

a rasterizer receiving the polygon information from the geometry processing unit and generating the pixel data.

7. The graphics engine of claim 3, wherein a software routine is used to set data values in the SFR.

8. The graphics engine of claim 7, wherein the software routine is incorporated into a general program running the graphics engine.

9. The graphics engine of claim 2, wherein each one of the plurality of pixel shaders is operatively associated with a texture unit and a texture cache.

10. The graphics engine of claim 9, wherein each texture unit receives pixel data from a corresponding pixel shader, generates corresponding texture data, and stores texture data in a corresponding texture cache.

11. A graphics engine comprising:

a special function register (SFR) generating a control signal;

a geometry processing unit generating polygon information in response to the control signal;

a rasterizer receiving the polygon information and generating corresponding pixel data; and

a pixel distributor receiving and distributing the pixel data across a plurality of pixel shaders in response to the control signal,

wherein the control signal indicates the use of one or more rendering features associated with the pixel data.

12. The graphics engine of claim 11, wherein the one or more rendering features comprises at least one of texture mapping, depth testing, and pixel blending.

13. The graphics engine of claim 11, wherein each one of the plurality of pixel shaders comprises a texture unit and a corresponding texture cache.

14. The graphics engine of claim 13 wherein the texture unit receives pixel data, generates corresponding texture data, and stores texture data in the corresponding texture cache.

15. A method of operating a 3-dimensional graphics engine comprising pixel distributor and a plurality of pixel shaders, the method comprising:

receiving pixel data in the pixel distributor; and

distributing the pixel data across the plurality of pixel shaders using a first approach when the presence of one or more rendering features is indicated, else using a second approach different from the first approach.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more rendering features comprises at least one of texture mapping, depth testing, and pixel blending.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the graphics engine further comprises a special function register (SFR), and the method further comprises:

storing data values indicating the presence or absence of the one or more rendering features in the SFR; and

generating a control signal in relation to the stored data values.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the graphics engine further comprises a geometry processing unit, and the method further comprises:

generating polygon information in the geometry processing unit in relation to the control signal generated by the SFR.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the polygon information defines at least one of block size for a texture cache, a texture format, a texture size, a polygon size, polygon rotation, and a texture filtering mode.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the graphics engine further comprises a rasterizer, and the method further comprises:

receiving the polygon information in the rasterizer, generating the pixel data from the polygon information, and providing the pixel data to the pixel distributor.