Controlling Display Performance

• US 20170352322A1
• Filed: 09/23/2016
• Published: 12/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Spence, Arthur L., Sandmel, Jeremy T., Chan, David M., Zhang, Chendi, Tsoi, Peter C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,510,317 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0252 Improving the response speed
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• 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 2360/12 Frame memory handling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/04 Exchange of auxiliary data, i.e. other than image data, between monitor and graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3618 with automatic refresh of the display panel using sense/write circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/01 Conversion of standards , e.g. involving analogue television standards or digital television standards processed at pixel level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0127 by changing the field or frame frequency of the incoming video signal, e.g. frame rate converter

Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide for a display system to generate and display data on a display device, the display system comprising one or more graphics processors to generate one or more frames of data for display on the display device; display logic to receive a request to display the one or more frames of data, the request including a requested presentation time in which the one or more frames of data are to be displayed; and a display engine to present the one or more frames of data to the display device for display at a target presentation time, the target presentation time derived from the requested presentation time, wherein the display engine is to adjust a refresh rate of the display device based on the target presentation time of the one or more frames of data.

Claims

1. A display system to generate and display data on a display device, the display system comprising:

one or more graphics processors to generate one or more frames of data for display on the display device;

display logic to receive a request to display the one or more frames of data, the request including a requested presentation time in which the one or more frames of data are to be displayed; and

a display engine to present the one or more frames of data to the display device for display at a target presentation time, the target presentation time derived from the requested presentation time, wherein the display engine is to adjust a refresh rate of the display device based on the target presentation time of the one or more frames of data.

2. The display system as in claim 1, wherein the display logic is to derive the target presentation time for the one or more frames of data based on an adjustment of the requested presentation time by a programming time for the display engine.

3. The display system as in claim 2, wherein the display logic is to generate one or more display events for the display engine, the one or more display events associated with the one or more frames of data.

4. The display system as in claim 3, wherein the one or more display events include the target presentation time of the one or more frames of data.

5. The display system as in claim 4, the one or more display events including a first display event associated with a first frame and a second display event associated with a second frame.

6. The display system as in claim 5, wherein the first display event includes a first target presentation time and the second display event includes a second target presentation time different from the first target presentation time.

7. The display system as in claim 6, wherein the display engine is to refresh the display device at a first refresh rate in response to the first display event and a second refresh rate in response to the second display event.

8. The display system as in claim 7, wherein the display engine is to process the first display event and to explicitly refresh the display device in response to the first display event.

9. The display system as in claim 8, wherein the display engine is further to process the second display event and explicitly refresh the display device in response to the second display event.

10. The display system as in claim 9, wherein the display engine is to not refresh the display device between the first display event and the second display event.

21. The display system of claim 1 wherein the target presentation time is represented by a timestamp in a timestamp queue.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations to generate and display data on a display device, the operations comprising:

receiving a request to display one or more frames of data on a display device, the one or more frames of data generated via the one or more processors, wherein the request includes a requested presentation time in which the one or more frames of data are to be displayed;

deriving a target presentation time based on the requested presentation time, the target presentation time derived based on a programming time for a display engine;

programming the display engine to present the one or more frames of data to the display device for display; and

adjusting a refresh rate of the display device based on the target presentation time of the one or more frames of data.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 11, the operations additionally comprising generating one or more display events associated with the one or more frames of data and programming the display engine based on the one or more display events.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 12, the operations additionally comprising processing a first display event at a first target presentation time before programming the display engine to present a first frame to the display device for display, the display engine to trigger a refresh of the display device explicitly to display the first frame and to subsequently refresh the display device at a first refresh rate.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 13, the operations additionally comprising processing a second display event at a second target presentation time before programming the display engine to present a second frame to the display device for display, the display engine to trigger a refresh of the display device explicitly to display the second frame and to subsequently refresh the display device at a second refresh rate that differs from the first refresh rate.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 14, wherein the first refresh rate is zero and the display device is not refreshed between the first frame and the second frame.

22. The medium of claim 11 wherein the target presentation time is represented by a timestamp in a timestamp queue.

16. An electronic device comprising:

a variable refresh rate display device;

one or more graphics processors to generate one or more frames of data for display on the variable refresh rate display device;

display logic to receive a request to display the one or more frames of data, the request including a requested presentation time in which the one or more frames of data are to be displayed; and

a display engine to present the one or more frames of data to the variable refresh rate display device for display at a target presentation time, the target presentation time derived from the requested presentation time, wherein the display engine is to adjust a refresh rate of the variable refresh rate display device based on the target presentation time of the one or more frames of data.

17. The electronic device as in claim 16, wherein the display logic is to derive the target presentation time for the one or more frames of data based on an adjustment of the requested presentation time by a programming time for the display engine and to generate one or more display events for the display engine, wherein the one or more display events are associated with the one or more frames of data and include the target presentation time of the one or more frames of data.

18. The electronic device as in claim 17, the one or more display events including a first display event associated with a first frame and a second display event associated with a second frame, the first display event including a first target presentation time and the second display event including a second target presentation time different from the first target presentation time.

19. The electronic device as in claim 18, wherein the display engine is to refresh the variable refresh rate display device at a first refresh rate in response to the first display event and a second refresh rate in response to the second display event.

20. The electronic device as in claim 18, the display engine to process the first display event, explicitly refresh the display device in response to the first display event, process the second display event, explicitly refresh the display device in response to the second display event, and not refresh the display device between the first display event and the second display event.

23. The electronic device of claim 16 wherein the target presentation time is represented by a timestamp in a timestamp queue.