ENCODER CONTROLLER GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNIT AND METHOD OF ENCODING RENDERED GRAPHICS

• US 20140286390A1
• Filed: 03/20/2013
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Fear, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US13/847,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20140286390A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/395 involving distributed video coding [DVC], e.g. Wyner-Ziv video coding or Slepian-Wolf video coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/467 characterised by the embedded information being invisible, e.g. watermarking

Abstract

An encoder controller graphics processing unit (GPU) and a method of encoding rendered graphics. One embodiment of the encoder controller GPU includes: (1) an encoder operable to encode rendered frames of a video stream for transmission to a client, and (2) an encoder controller configured to detect a mark embedded in a rendered frame of the video stream and cause the encoder to begin encoding.

Claims

1. A graphics processing unit (GPU), comprising:

an encoder operable to encode rendered frames of a video stream for transmission to a client; and

an encoder controller configured to detect a mark embedded in a rendered frame of said video stream and cause said encoder to begin encoding.

2. The GPU recited in claim 1 wherein said mark is a square.

3. The GPU recited in claim 1 further comprising a frame capturer configured to capture said rendered frames for encoding.

4. The GPU recited in claim 1 further comprising a renderer configured to render said video stream.

7. The GPU recited in claim 1 wherein said mark is at least one defined pixel.

5. The GPU recited in claim 5 wherein said renderer is operable to carry out rendering commands on scene data generated by a graphics application.

6. The GPU recited in claim 5 wherein said mark is a defined set of pixels incorporated into said graphics application.

8. A method of encoding rendered graphics, comprising:

rendering frames of a video stream and capturing said frames for encoding;

detecting a mark embedded in at least one of said frames; and

encoding said at least one of said frames and all subsequent frames of said video stream for transmission to a client upon detection.

9. The method recited in claim 8 further comprising executing a graphics application thereby generating scene data and rendering commands for said video stream to be employed in said rendering.

10. The method recited in claim 9 wherein said executing yields at least one frame for rendering before said at least one of said frames.

11. The method recited in claim 9 wherein said executing is carried out by a virtual machine running on a central processing unit (CPU).

12. The method recited in claim 8 further comprising decoding and displaying said video stream on said client.

13. The method recited in claim 8 wherein said encoding includes H.264 video compression.

14. The method recited in claim 8 wherein said encoding is carried out by a graphics processing unit (GPU).

15. A graphics rendering server, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU) configured to execute a graphics application, thereby generating rendering commands and scene data including a mark embedded in at least one frame; and

a graphics processing unit (GPU) configured to employ said rendering commands and scene data to render frames of a video stream and having;

an encoder configured to encode said frames for transmission to a client, and

an encoder controller operable to detect said mark and cause said encoder to begin encoding.

16. The graphics rendering server recited in claim 15 wherein said GPU includes a renderer operable to carry out said rendering commands on said scene data.

17. The graphics rendering server recited in claim 15 wherein said GPU includes a frame capturer configured to capture rendered frames of video for encoding.

18. The graphics rendering server recited in claim 15 wherein said encoder is further configured to employ a H.264 video compression scheme.

19. The graphics rendering server recited in claim 15 wherein said encoder is a component of one of a plurality of virtual GPUs within said GPU.

20. The graphics rendering server recited in claim 15 wherein said mark comprises at least one defined pixel detectable by said GPU.