Apparatus, system, and method for reducing shadowed state memory requirements for identifying driver command exceptions in a graphics system

• US 7,768,515 B1
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Eitzmann, Gregory M, Montrym, John S., Silkebakken, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Amini; Javid A
• Application Number:
  US11/556,635
• Time in Patent Office: 1,369 Days
• Field of Search: 345/501
• US Class Current: 345/501
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining

Abstract

A graphics processing unit has a reduced memory space shadow memory as a source of state information for performing validation of commands. The reduced memory space shadow memory is smaller in size than a full version of state variables associated with an abstract state machine representation of a class of commands received from a software driver. The reduced memory space shadow memory is used by validation logic to detect exceptions indicative of an illegal command or sequence of commands.

Claims

1. A method of developing graphics hardware and software, comprising:

providing a model of a graphics system in which a class of commands has a corresponding abstract state machine representation that includes a set of state variables;

performing semantic processing on said model to generate validation logic capable of utilizing a reduced memory space shadow memory storing state information for performing validation of said class of commands that is smaller in size than a full version of said set of state variables; and

executing driver software issuing commands within said class of commands;

wherein said validation logic utilizes said reduced memory space shadow memory to determine exceptions generated by said driver software, wherein said model is an object model in which the object has an abstract state machine representation defining object behavior and associated object state.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a front-end to map commands to instructions for graphics hardware.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said semantic processing includes identifying redundant state variables not required to perform validity checks.

4. A method of developing graphics hardware and software, comprising:

providing a model of a graphics system in which a class of commands has a corresponding abstract state machine representation that includes a set of state variables;

performing semantic processing on said model to generate validation logic capable of utilizing a reduced memory space shadow memory storing state information for performing validation of said class of commands that is smaller in size than a full version of said set of state variables; and

executing driver software issuing commands within said class of commands;

wherein said validation logic utilizes said reduced memory space shadow memory to determine exceptions generated by said driver software, wherein said semantic processing includes identifying translated forms of state variables having a reduced memory size requirement for use in performing validation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said executing comprises debugging said driver software.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said executing comprises normal operation, further comprising:

performing exception handling.

7. A method of detecting exceptions generated by a graphics driver, comprising:

providing validation logic utilizing a reduced memory space shadow memory, said validation logic validating a class of commands having a corresponding abstract state machine representation with a set of state variables, said reduced memory space shadow memory storing a representation of state information for performing validation of said class of commands that is smaller in size than a full representation of said set of state variables; and

testing commands issued by said graphics driver utilizing said validation logic;

wherein said validation logic and said reduced memory space shadow memory are disposed in a graphics processing unit, wherein said validation logic and said reduced memory space shadow memory are generated by semantically processing said abstract state machine representation to generate said validation logic capable of utilizing said reduced memory space shadow memory storing a subset of said set of state variables.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said model is an object model in which the object has an abstract state machine representation defining object behavior and associated object state.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said validation logic and said reduced memory space shadow memory are disposed in a front-end unit configured to map input commands to instructions for a graphics pipeline.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said testing comprises a debug operation.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein said testing comprises detecting bugs for exception handling during normal operation.