Method for providing improved graphics performance through atypical pixel storage in video memory
First Claim
1. A method for improving the performance of a graphics system, said graphics system including a memory for storing an image comprising a plurality of pixels, said pixels comprising a plurality of subsets of bits of data, said memory comprising a plurality of slices, said method comprising the steps of:
- storing said pixels in said memory, where a first order of the subsets of successive pixels is rearranged such that corresponding subsets of vertically and horizontally neighboring pixels are stored in different, simultaneously accessible locations of said memory.
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Abstract
A method for improving the performance of a graphics system includes the steps of allocating appropriate pixels to slices of memory such that corresponding subsets of bits of neighboring pixels are allocated to different slices of memory, where `neighboring pixels` includes both consecutive pixels in a scan line, or pixels in consecutive scan lines. In addition, hardware is provided that allows for the individual memory slices to be independently accessed, thus allowed each slice to access data from a different 64 bit word in video memory during one video access period. Controllers which independently access the memory slices are advantageously totally time independent, to allow the most flexibility in the starting and finishing of the access of the memory slice. Performance is further gained by buffering of both the read and write requests to the video memory. Buffering requests allows reads and writes to neighboring locations to be merged to allow for the maximal bus utilization and minimizes the number of stalls in the video subsystem.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for improving the performance of a graphics system, said graphics system including a memory for storing an image comprising a plurality of pixels, said pixels comprising a plurality of subsets of bits of data, said memory comprising a plurality of slices, said method comprising the steps of:
storing said pixels in said memory, where a first order of the subsets of successive pixels is rearranged such that corresponding subsets of vertically and horizontally neighboring pixels are stored in different, simultaneously accessible locations of said memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for storing pixel data in a video memory, said video memory apportioned into a plurality of slices, said pixel data comprising a plurality of subsets of data for display on a CRT comprising a plurality of scan lines, said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving data from a CPU coupled to said video memory, and converting said received data into a plurality of pixels each comprising a plurality of subsets of data; rearranging an order of each of said subsets of each of said pixels; and writing said pixels in said video memory, wherein the order of each of said subsets of pixels is rearranged such that corresponding subsets of vertically, horizontally, and diagonally neighboring pixels are stored in different, simultaneously accessible locations of said memory. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus comprising:
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means, responsive to control information from a central processor unit, for generating pixels, each of said pixels comprising a plurality of subsets of bits; a memory for storing said generate d pixels, said memory apportioned into a plurality of slices, said pixels stored such that corresponding subsets of vertically and horizontally neighboring pixels stored in different, simultaneously accessible locations of said memory. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification