Media Action Script Acceleration Apparatus

• US 20100149189A1
• Filed: 02/14/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LeoNovus USA, Inc. (LeoNovus, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PersonalPath Systems, Inc. (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Master, Paul L., Satyavolu, Lakshmikanth Surya Naga, Kota, Bhaskar, Bollam, Praveen Kumar, Sambaraju, Sairam, Puppala, Ganapathi Venkata
• Granted Patent: US 8,487,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/442
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/20 Drawing from basic elements, e.g. lines or circles

Abstract

Exemplary apparatus, method, and system embodiments provide for accelerated hardware processing of an action script for a graphical image for visual display. An exemplary apparatus comprises: a first memory to store corresponding data; a first processor to separate the action script from other data; and a second processor to convert a plurality of descriptive elements of the action script into a plurality of operational codes, and to perform an operation corresponding to an operational code of the plurality of operational codes using the corresponding data to generate pixel data for the graphical image. In exemplary embodiments the second processor further is to parse the action script into the plurality of descriptive elements and the corresponding data, and to extract data from the action script and to store the extracted data in the first memory as a plurality of control words having the corresponding data in predetermined fields.

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing an action script for a graphical image for visual display, the apparatus comprising:

a first memory to store data;

a first processor; and

a second processor coupled to the first processor, the second processor to convert a plurality of descriptive elements of the action script into a plurality of operational codes and to perform one or more operations corresponding to an operational code of the plurality of operational codes to generate pixel data for the graphical image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to parse the action script into the plurality of descriptive elements and corresponding data.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second processor further is to decode a descriptive element to determine a corresponding parsing operational code of the plurality of operational codes to control the parsing of the action script.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second processor further comprises:

a decoder to determine a type of descriptive element;

a parsing controller to determine or select a number of bits to parse parameter;

a stream register to store a plurality of bits of the action script; and

at least one barrel shifter to shift out of the stream register a number of bits designated by the number of bits to parse parameter.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to parse the action script into a plurality of temporally descriptive elements and corresponding data.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to parse the action script into a plurality of positionally descriptive elements and corresponding data.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to extract data from the action script and store in the first memory a plurality of control words comprising the extracted data in predetermined fields.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second processor further is to store the plurality of operational codes and plurality of control words in a database structure.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each control word of the plurality of control words comprises a starting or an ending x-coordinate and y-coordinate for a corresponding line or curve segment for the graphical image.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein each control word of the plurality of control words further comprises a control x-coordinate and control y-coordinate for a corresponding curve segment for the graphical image.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each control word of the plurality of control words comprises a first memory address for line style array for a corresponding line or curve segment for the graphical image and a second memory address for fill style array for a plurality of line or curve segments comprising the graphical image.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each control word of the plurality of control words comprises a line style array for a corresponding line or curve segment for the graphical image and a fill style array for a plurality of line or curve segments comprising the graphical image.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor is to separate the action script from other data.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of descriptive elements are a plurality of tags or bytecodes.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of descriptive elements are a plurality of control tags, definition tags, and dictionary tags or dictionary repositories.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second memory to store the plurality of operational codes; and

wherein the second processor further is to convert the action script directly to the plurality of operational codes by performing a deterministic function on each descriptive element of the plurality of descriptive elements to generate a corresponding result and to use the result to determine a corresponding operational code of the plurality of operational codes.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second memory to store a look up table having the plurality of operational codes; and

wherein the second processor further is to convert the action script directly to the plurality of operational codes by performing a hash function on each descriptive element of the plurality of descriptive elements to generate a corresponding hash result and to use the hash result as an index or entry into the look up table to determine a corresponding operational code of the plurality of operational codes.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to decode each operational code of the plurality of operational codes to generate a corresponding plurality of control signals to control the second circuitry to perform a selected operation, of a plurality of operations, corresponding to a selected operational code of the plurality of operational codes.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the second processor further comprises a floating point circuit, and wherein the second processor further is to generate a first corresponding control signal to enable the floating point circuit to perform the selected operation.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the second processor further is to generate a second corresponding control signal to select a floating point calculation result provided by the enabled floating point circuit.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the second processor further comprises an arithmetic logic unit, and wherein the second processor further is to decode an operational code of the plurality of operational codes to generate a corresponding plurality of control signals to select a calculation result generated by the arithmetic logic unit.

22. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further comprises

at least one arithmetic logic unit;

and

at least one floating point circuit.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one arithmetic logic unit further comprises:

an adder circuit;

a subtractor circuit;

a bitwise-OR logic circuit;

a bitwise-AND logic circuit;

a bitwise-exclusive OR logic circuit;

a barrel shifter circuit; and

an output multiplexer.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one floating point circuit further comprises:

a floating point adder and subtractor circuit;

a floating point multiplier circuit;

a floating point divider circuit;

a floating point comparator circuit;

an integer-to-floating point converter circuit;

a floating point-to-integer converter circuit; and

an output multiplexer.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second processor further is to control two floating point comparator circuits to perform a comparison and to use results of the comparisons to perform a conditional branch operation during a single clock cycle.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second processor further is to control a plurality of floating point comparator circuits to perform at least four comparisons corresponding to four conditions and to use results of the comparisons to perform a conditional branch operation during a single clock cycle.

27. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising:

a configurable interconnect coupled to the at least one arithmetic logic unit and to the at least one floating point execution unit, the configurable interconnect comprising;

a multiport register; and

a cross-point switch for configuration of a data path.

28. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to match a plurality of line or curve segments of a boundary of the graphical image.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the second processor further is to determine a sequential ordering of the plurality of line or curve segments to form boundary coordinates of the graphical image.

30. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further is to apply a fill style to generate pixel data for an area of the graphical image.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the second processor further is to apply a line style by forming a second graphical image from a boundary of the graphical image, and wherein the ninth circuitry is further configured to apply a fill style to the second graphical image to generate pixel data for the line style.

32. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor is to perform a Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), or Internet Protocol (“

IP”

), or both TCP and IP, for reception of a data file.

33. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor is to perform hypertext transfer protocol (“

HTTP”

) for reception of a data file.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the first processor further is to pre-fetch referenced data of the data file.

35. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the first processor further is to generate pixel data for hypertext markup language (“

HTML”

) data, or extensible markup language (“

XML”

) data, or both HTML and XML data of the data file.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising:

a frame buffer;

wherein the second processor further is to transfer the pixel data for the graphical image to the frame buffer and wherein the first processor further is to transfer the pixel data for the HTML or XML data to the frame buffer.

37. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising:

a frame buffer; and

a visual display;

wherein the second processor further is to transfer the pixel data for the graphical image to the frame buffer and wherein the first processor further is to transfer the pixel data for the HTML or XML data to the visual display.

38. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising:

a frame buffer; and

a display controller;

wherein the second processor further is to transfer the pixel data for the graphical image to the frame buffer and wherein the first processor further is to transfer the pixel data for the HTML or XML data to the display controller.

39. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor and the second processor are embodied in a single integrated circuit.

40. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor and the second processor comprise a plurality of processor cores.

41. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor, or the second processor, or both the first processor and the second processor, is or are at least one of the following:

a field programmable gate array, an application-specific integrated circuit, a microprocessor, a processor core, a cell processor, a plurality of processor cores, a digital signal processor, a reduced instruction set processor, a reconfigurable processing element, a graphics processing unit, or a computing grid.

42. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of descriptive elements are a specification of at least one graphical image at least partially in a non-pixel-by-pixel form.

43. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of descriptive elements are a specification of at least one graphical image in a form which at least partially is not a pixel bitmap and at least partially is not a pixel matrix.

44. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each operational code of the plurality of operational codes is a hardware-level control code comprising at least one of the following:

a hardware-level instruction, or a hardware-level sub-instruction, or a hardware-level binary instruction, or hardware-level configuration, or a hardware-level control signal, or hardware-level microcode.

45. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second processor further comprises a hardware decoder to decode a selected operational code of the plurality of operational codes into at least one of the following:

a hardware-level instruction, or a hardware-level sub-instruction, or a hardware-level binary instruction, or hardware-level configuration, or a hardware-level control signal, or hardware-level microcode.

46. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the action script is a data file which has not been fully compiled to machine code and which comprises at least one descriptive element specifying the graphical image at least partially in a form which is not pixel-based.

47. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the action script is a data file specifying the graphical image at least partially using non-pixel data and which comprises an ASCII-encoded scripting language or bytecode.

48. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the graphical image is an image of any kind for visual display which has been specified at least partially in a form in the action script which is not a pixel bitmap and is not a pixel matrix.

49. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor, or the second processor, or both the first processor and the second processor, is or are coupled to the first memory through at least one of the following:

an interconnection network, a configurable interconnect, a packet-based interconnect, a circuit-switched interconnect, a crosspoint switch, a serial bus, a parallel bus, or a network.

50. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first processor is coupled to the second processor through at least one of the following:

the first memory, an interconnection network, a configurable interconnect, a packet-based interconnect, a circuit-switched interconnect, a crosspoint switch, a serial bus, a parallel bus, or a network.

51. An apparatus for processing an action script for a graphical image for visual display, the apparatus comprising:

a first memory circuit to store data;

a first processor circuit to separate the action script from other data; and

a second processor circuit coupled to the first processor circuit and to the first memory circuit, the second processor circuit to parse the action script, to convert a plurality of descriptions of the action script into a plurality of operational codes, and to perform one or more operations in response to a selected operational code of the plurality of operational codes to generate pixel data for the graphical image.

52. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further is to parse the action script into the plurality of descriptions and corresponding data.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the second processor circuit further is to decode a description of the plurality of descriptions to determine a corresponding parsing operational code of the plurality of operational codes to control the parsing of the action script.

54. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a parser circuit to parse the action script into the plurality of descriptions and corresponding data;

a converter circuit to convert the plurality of descriptions of the action script into the plurality of operational codes; and

an execution circuit to use the corresponding data to perform the one or more operations in response to the selected operational code to generate the pixel data.

55. The apparatus of claim 54, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a decoder circuit to decode a description to determine a corresponding parsing operational code of the plurality of operational codes to control the parsing of the action script by the parser circuit.

56. The apparatus of claim 54, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a decoder circuit to decode each operational code of the plurality of operational codes to generate a corresponding plurality of control signals to control the execution circuit to perform the selected operation corresponding to the selected operational code.

57. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a decoder to determine a type of description;

a parsing controller to determine or select a number of bits to parse parameter;

a stream register to store a plurality of bits of the action script; and

at least one barrel shifter to shift out of the stream register a number of bits designated by the number of bits to parse parameter.

58. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further is to extract data from the action script and store the extracted data in the first memory circuit as a plurality of control words having corresponding data in predetermined fields.

59. The apparatus of claim 58, wherein the second processor circuit further is to store the plurality of operational codes and plurality of control words in a database structure.

60. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the plurality of descriptions are a plurality of tags or bytecodes.

61. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the plurality of descriptions are a plurality of control tags, definition tags, and dictionary tags or dictionary repositories.

62. The apparatus of claim 51, further comprising:

a second memory circuit storing a look up table having the plurality of operational codes; and

wherein the second processor circuit further is to perform a hash function on each description of the plurality of descriptions to generate a corresponding hash result and to use the hash result as an index or entry into the look up table to determine a corresponding operational code of the plurality of operational codes.

63. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

at least one arithmetic logic unit; and

at least one floating point circuit.

64. The apparatus of claim 63, wherein the at least one arithmetic logic unit further comprises:

an adder circuit;

a subtractor circuit;

a bitwise-OR logic circuit;

a bitwise-AND logic circuit;

a bitwise-exclusive OR logic circuit;

at least one barrel shifter circuit; and

an output multiplexer.

65. The apparatus of claim 63, wherein the at least one floating point circuit further comprises:

a floating point adder and subtractor circuit;

a floating point multiplier circuit;

a floating point divider circuit;

a floating point comparator circuit;

an integer-to-floating point converter circuit;

a floating point-to-integer converter circuit; and

an output multiplexer.

66. The apparatus of claim 65, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a control circuit to control a plurality of floating point comparator circuits to perform at least four comparisons corresponding to four conditions and to use results of the comparisons to perform a conditional branch operation during a single clock cycle.

67. The apparatus of claim 51, further comprising:

a configurable interconnect comprising;

a multiport register; and

a cross-point switch for configuration of a data path.

68. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a post-processing circuit to match a plurality of line or curve segments of a boundary of the graphical image and to determine a sequential ordering of the plurality of line or curve segments to form boundary coordinates of the graphical image.

69. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the second processor circuit further comprises:

a graphics rendering circuit to apply a fill style to generate pixel data for an area of the graphical image.

70. The apparatus of claim 69, wherein the second processor circuit further is to apply a line style by forming a second graphical image from a boundary of the graphical image, and to apply a fill style to the second graphical image to generate pixel data for the line style.

71. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the first processor circuit further is to perform a Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), or Internet Protocol (“

IP”

), or both TCP and IP, for reception of a data file.

72. The apparatus of claim 71, wherein the first processor circuit further is to perform hypertext transfer protocol (“

HTTP”

) for reception of the data and to generate pixel data for hypertext markup language (“

HTML”

) data, or extensible markup language (“

XML”

) data, or both HTML and XML data of the data file.

73. The apparatus of claim 72, further comprising:

a frame buffer;

wherein the second processor circuit further is to transfer the pixel data for the graphical image to the frame buffer and wherein the first processor circuit further is to transfer the pixel data for the HTML or XML data to the frame buffer.

74. The apparatus of claim 72, further comprising:

a frame buffer; and

a visual display;

wherein the second processor circuit further is to transfer the pixel data for the graphical image to the frame buffer and wherein the first processor circuit further is to transfer the pixel data for the HTML or XML data to the visual display.

75. The apparatus of claim 72, further comprising:

a frame buffer; and

a display controller;

wherein the second processor circuit further is to transfer the pixel data for the graphical image to the frame buffer and wherein the first processor circuit further is to transfer the pixel data for the HTML or XML data to the display controller.

76. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the plurality of descriptions are a specification of at least one graphical image which at least partially is in a non-pixel form;

wherein each operational code of the plurality of operational codes is a hardware-level instruction or hardware-decodable into a plurality of hardware-level microcode, or hardware-level binary instructions, or hardware-level control signals;

wherein the action script is a data file which has not been fully compiled to machine code and which comprises at least one description; and

wherein the graphical image is an image of any kind for visual display which has been specified at least partially in a non-pixel form in the action script.

77. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the first processor circuit, or the second processor circuit, or both the first processor circuit and the second processor circuit, is or are at least one of the following:

a field programmable gate array, an application-specific integrated circuit, a microprocessor, a processor core, a cell processor, a plurality of processor cores, a digital signal processor, a reduced instruction set processor, a reconfigurable processing element, a graphics processing unit, or a computing grid.

78. An apparatus for processing a data file for visual display of a graphical image, the data file comprising interpretable descriptions of the graphical image in a non-pixel-bitmap form, the data file not having been fully compiled to a machine code, the apparatus comprising:

a first memory storing corresponding data;

a first processor to separate the data file from other data; and

a second processor coupled to the first processor and to the memory, the second processor to parse and convert the data file to a plurality of hardware-level operational codes and corresponding data, and to perform a plurality of operations in response to at least some hardware-level operational codes of the plurality of hardware-level operational codes to generate pixel data for the graphical image.

79. The apparatus of claim 78, wherein the second processor further is to decode at least some of the data file to determine a corresponding parsing operational code of the plurality of hardware-level operational codes to control the parsing of the data file.

80. The apparatus of claim 78, wherein the second processor further is to extract data from the data file and store the extracted data in the first memory as a plurality of control words having corresponding data in predetermined fields.

81. The apparatus of claim 78, wherein the first processor, or the second processor, or both the first processor and the second processor, is or are at least one of the following:

a field programmable gate array, an application-specific integrated circuit, a microprocessor, a processor core, a cell processor, a plurality of processor cores, a digital signal processor, a reduced instruction set processor, a reconfigurable processing element, a graphics processing unit, or a computing grid.

82. The apparatus of claim 78, further comprising:

a second memory to store a look up table having the plurality of hardware-level operational codes; and

wherein the second processor further is to convert the parsed data file directly to the plurality of hardware-level operational codes by performing a hash function on each descriptive element of a plurality of descriptive elements to generate a corresponding hash result and to use the hash result as an index or entry into the look up table to determine a corresponding hardware-level operational code of the plurality of hardware-level operational codes.

83. An apparatus for processing a data file for visual display of a graphical image, the data file comprising at least one description of the graphical image in a non-pixel-bitmap form, the data file further comprising data which is not fully compiled to executable machine code, the apparatus comprising:

a first memory circuit storing corresponding data;

a first processor to separate the data file from other data; and

a second processor coupled to the first processor and to the memory, the second processor to use the corresponding data to perform one or more operations in response to a selected hardware control code of a plurality of hardware control codes to generate pixel data for the graphical image.