Tile Cache

• US 20150186376A1
• Filed: 12/02/2014
• Published: 07/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Garside, Adrian J., Salman, Milena, Tripathi, Vivek Y.
• Granted Patent: US 10,114,865 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24552 Database cache management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/36 characterised by the display of a graphic pattern, e.g. using an all-points-addressable [APA] memory

Abstract

Tile cache techniques are described. In at least some embodiments, a tile cache is maintained that stores tile content for a plurality of tiles. The tile content is ordered in the tile cache to match a visual order of tiles in a graphical user interface. When tiles are moved (e.g., panned and/or scrolled) in the graphical user interface, tile content can be retrieved from the tile cache and displayed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform operations including;

detecting that new tile content for a tile is received that exceeds available storage in an existing tile slot for the tile;

storing the new tile content in a new tile slot in a cache;

mapping the tile to the new tile slot; and

reordering the cache to incorporate the new tile slot such that a tile slot order in the cache matches a visual order of a group of tiles that includes the tile.

2. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the new tile content includes one or more of replacement tile content, content that is additional to existing tile content, or a new version of existing tile content.

3. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the new tile slot is at a different location in the cache than the existing tile slot.

4. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the new tile slot is located after a last tile slot in the cache.

5. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing at least some existing content from the existing tile slot in the new tile slot.

6. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said storing comprises storing at least some existing content from the existing tile slot in the new tile slot, the existing content comprising existing tile content that isn'"'"'t replaced by the new tile content.

7. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said mapping comprises mapping a visual ordering of the tile in a display to the new tile slot.

8. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said mapping comprises editing a cache header for the cache to reflect the mapping of the visual ordering of the tile in the display to the new tile slot.

9. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said reordering comprises scheduling an idle time reorder operation to cause the cache to be reordered.

10. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said reordering causes tile slots for the group of tiles to be stored in contiguous portions of the cache.

11. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the operations further include retrieving tile content for the group of tiles via a single storage access operation from the cache.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting, by a computing system, tile movement on a display device including at least one outgoing tile that leaves a graphical user interface displayed on the display device; and

communicating, by the computing system and in response to said detecting, an indication that a portion of primary memory used for tile content for the outgoing tile is available for a task such that the portion of primary memory is repurposable for the task.

13. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 12, wherein said detecting occurs in response to one or more of panning or scrolling of the tile in the graphical user interface.

14. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 12, wherein said communicating comprises communicating the indication to an operating system of the computing system.

15. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 12, wherein said communicating comprises communicating the indication to an operating system of the computing system to cause the operating system to utilize the portion of primary memory for the task.

16. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 12, wherein said communicating comprises communicating an indication that tile content for the outgoing tile is pushable to a standby list for tile data.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting, by a computing system, tile movement on a display device including an incoming tile that enters a graphical user interface displayed on the display device;

ascertaining, by the computing system, whether tile content for the incoming tile is available in primary memory;

responsive to a determination that the tile content is not available in the primary memory, retrieving the tile content from a cache to the primary memory; and

causing the tile content to be displayed as part of the incoming tile.

18. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 17, wherein said detecting is responsive to detecting user manipulation within the graphical user interface.

19. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 17, further comprising communicating placeholder content to be displayed in the incoming tile prior to the tile content from the cache.

20. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 17, wherein said causing comprises communicating a notification to a functionality of the graphical user interface, the notification indicating that the tile content is retrievable from the primary memory.