User Interface Unit for Fetching Only Active Regions of a Frame
First Claim
1. A user interface unit comprising:
- one or more registers programmable to define at least one active region of a frame, wherein pixels within the at least one active region of the frame are to be displayed and pixels outside of the at least one active region of the frame are not to be displayed; and
fetch circuitry configured to fetch a frame from memory, wherein the fetch circuitry is configured to fetch only the pixels within the at least one active region of the frame defined by programmed contents of the one or more registers;
wherein the user interface unit is configured to provide the fetched pixels to a blend unit configured to blend the fetched pixels with pixels from other frames to produce an output frame.
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Abstract
A user interface unit in a graphics processing display pipe may include registers programmable with information that defines active regions of an image frame. Pixels within the active regions of the image frame are meant to be displayed, while pixels outside of the active regions of the image frame are not to be displayed. Fetch circuitry within the user interface unit may fetch frames from memory, fetching only the pixels within the active regions of the image frames as defined by the programmed contents of the registers. The user interface unit may then provide the fetched pixels to a blend unit to blend the fetched pixels with pixels from other frames or pixels of a video stream to produce output frames. When blended with pixels of a video stream, the fetched pixels may be displayed as a graphics overlay on top of the video stream.
14 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A user interface unit comprising:
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one or more registers programmable to define at least one active region of a frame, wherein pixels within the at least one active region of the frame are to be displayed and pixels outside of the at least one active region of the frame are not to be displayed; and fetch circuitry configured to fetch a frame from memory, wherein the fetch circuitry is configured to fetch only the pixels within the at least one active region of the frame defined by programmed contents of the one or more registers; wherein the user interface unit is configured to provide the fetched pixels to a blend unit configured to blend the fetched pixels with pixels from other frames to produce an output frame. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A display pipe comprising:
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a host interface unit configured to interface with system memory; a plurality of user interface units coupled to the host interface unit and configured to hold frame information defining respective active regions within a plurality of frames, wherein pixels within the respective active regions of the plurality of frames are to be displayed and pixels outside of the respective active regions of the plurality of frames are not to be displayed; wherein the plurality of user interface units are configured to fetch from the system memory through the host interface unit the pixels within the respective active regions of the plurality of frames as defined by the frame information, for displaying the fetched pixels in corresponding output frames. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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8. A method comprising:
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defining an active region of a frame, wherein pixels within the defined active region of the frame are to be displayed and pixels outside the defined active region of the frame are not to be displayed; fetching the frame from system memory, comprising fetching only the pixels within the defined active region of the frame; and producing an output frame, comprising blending the fetched pixels with pixels from one or more other frames. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method comprising:
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writing image information comprising one or more image frames into one or more frame buffers; writing active region information into one or more registers, wherein the active region information defines active regions of the one or more image frames, wherein pixels within the one or more image frames within the active regions of the one or more image frames are to be displayed, and pixels within the one or more image frames outside the active regions of the one or more image frames are not to be displayed; and providing the one or more image frames from the frame buffers to a blend circuit, comprising providing only the pixels within the active regions of the one or more image frames as defined by the active region information. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system comprising:
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system memory comprising; at least one frame buffer configured to store image frame information that defines corresponding image frames; and a video buffer configured to store video frame information defining corresponding video frames; at least one register configured to store active region information that defines respective active regions of the image frames, wherein pixels within the respective active regions of the image frames are to be displayed and pixels outside of the respective active regions of the image frames are not to be displayed; a first fetch unit configured to fetch the image frame information from the at least one frame buffer, wherein in fetching the image frame information the first fetch unit is configured to fetch only the image frame information defining the pixels of the image frames within the respective active regions of the image frames, responsive to the active region information stored in the at least one register; a second fetch unit configure to fetch the video frame information from the video buffer; and a blend unit configured to blend the fetched image frame information with the fetched video frame information to produce output frames. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification