Displaying Compressed Supertile Images

• US 20120162250A1
• Filed: 07/19/2011
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: GLEN, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,064,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/06 Use of more than one graphics processor to process data before displaying to one or more screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/122 Tiling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution

Abstract

A method for the display of compressed supertile images is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for displaying an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames includes: reading the compressed supertile frames; expanding the compressed supertile frames; and combining the expanded supertile frames to generate the image frame. The expanding can include generating an expanded supertile frame corresponding to each of the compressed supertile frames by inserting blank pixels for tiles in the expanded supertile frame that are not in the corresponding compressed supertile frame. Corresponding system and computer program products are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for displaying an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames, comprising:

reading the compressed supertile frames;

expanding each of the compressed supertile frames to generate an expanded supertile frame by inserting blank pixels for one or more tiles in the expanded supertile frame that are not from the compressed supertile frame; and

combining the expanded supertile frames to generate the image frame.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating the compressed supertile frames from a plurality of tiles read from a system memory; and

displaying the generated image frame,

wherein neither the expanded supertile frames nor the generated image frame are written to the system memory.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing one or more of the compressed supertile frames in each of a plurality of processors.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a plurality of supertile frames from a plurality of tiles of the image flame;

assigning one or more of the supertile frames to each of said processors; and

compressing respective ones of the supertile frames.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the supertile frames comprises non-adjacent tiles of the image frame.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

storing the respective supertile frames in separate ones of said processors.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the compressing comprises:

storing, for respective ones of the supertile frames, substantially only a set of tiles assigned to the corresponding processor.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanding is performed substantially simultaneously with the combining

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the combining comprises:

combining the expanded supertile frames using an add operation.

10. A system for displaying an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames of the image frame, comprising:

a control processor;

a plurality of graphics processing units coupled to the control processor, each graphics processing unit configured to;

process one or more of the compressed supertile frames; and

a supertile frame combiner configured to;

read the compressed supertile frames;

expand each of the compressed supertile frames to generate an expanded supertile frame by inserting blank pixels for one or more tiles in the expanded supertile frame that are not from the compressed supertile frame; and

combine the expanded frames to generate the image frame.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the system further comprises:

a system memory coupled to the control processor and to the graphics processing units,

wherein neither the expanded supertile frames nor the generated image frame are written to the system memory.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a supertile frame generator configured to;

create a plurality of supertile frames representing the image frame;

assign one or more of the supertile frames to each of the graphics processing units; and

a supertile frame compressor configured to;

compress respective ones of the supertile frames.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the supertile frame compressor is further configured to:

store, for respective ones of the supertile frames, substantially only a set of tiles assigned to the corresponding graphics processing unit.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the supertile frames comprises non-adjacent tiles of the image frame.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the expanding is performed substantially simultaneously with the combining.

16. A computer readable media storing instructions wherein said instructions when executed are adapted to display an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames with a method comprising:

reading the compressed supertile frames;

expanding each of the compressed supertile frames to generate an expanded supertile frame by inserting blank pixels for one or more tiles in the expanded supertile frame that are not from the compressed supertile frame; and

combining the expanded supertile frames to generate the image frame.

17. The computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

creating the compressed supertile frames from a plurality of tiles read from a system memory; and

displaying the generated image frame,

wherein neither the expanded supertile frames nor the generated image frame are written to the system memory.

18. The computer readable media of claim 16, the method further comprising:

processing one or more of the compressed supertile frames in each of a plurality of processors.

19. The computer readable media of claim 16, the method further comprising:

determining a plurality of supertile frames from the plurality of tiles;

assigning one or more of the supertile frames to each of said processors; and

compressing respective ones of the supertile frames.

20. The computer readable media of claim 16, wherein each of the supertile frames comprises non-adjacent tiles of the image frame.