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PC-based computing system employing a silicon chip of monolithic construction having a routing unit, a control unit and a profiling unit for parallelizing the operation of multiple GPU-driven pipeline cores according to the object division mode of parallel operation

  • US 7,812,846 B2
  • Filed: 10/26/2007
  • Issued: 10/12/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2003
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A PC-based computing system comprising:

  • system memory for storing software graphics applications, software drivers and graphics libraries;

    an operating system (OS), stored in said system memory;

    one or more graphics applications, stored in said system memory, for generating a stream of geometrical data and graphics commands supporting (i) the representation of one or more 3D objects in a scene having 3D geometrical characteristics and (ii) the viewing of images of said one or more 3D objects in said scene during an interactive process carried out between said PC-based computing system and a user of said PC-based computing system;

    one or more graphics libraries, stored in said system memory, for storing data used to implement said stream of geometrical data and graphics commands;

    a central processing unit (CPU), for executing said OS, said one or more graphics applications, said drivers and said graphics libraries;

    a CPU bus;

    a CPU/memory interface module for interfacing with said CPU by way of said CPU bus;

    a display surface for displaying said images by graphically displaying frames of pixel data;

    a plurality of GPU-driven pipeline cores arranged in a parallel architecture and operating according to an object division mode of parallelization so that said GPU-driven pipeline cores process generated data and graphics commands in a parallel manner;

    a silicon chip having a routing unit, a control unit, and a profiling unit; and

    software multi-pipe drivers, stored in said system memory, and including a GPU driver module allowing said GPU-driven pipeline cores to interact with said OS and said graphics libraries;

    wherein said routing unit (i) routes the stream of geometrical data and graphic commands from said one or more graphics applications to one or more of said GPU-driven pipeline cores, and (ii) routes pixel data output from one or more of said GPU-driven pipeline cores during the composition of each frame of pixel data corresponding to a final image, for display on said display surface;

    wherein said control unit accepts commands from said software multi-pipe drivers, over said CPU bus, and controls components within said silicon chip, including said routing unit;

    wherein said profiling unit profiles the performance of said GPU-driven pipeline cores and feeds back performance data to said software multi-pipe drivers, for balancing the data load among said GPU-driven pipeline cores during said object division mode of parallelization;

    wherein said software multi-pipe drivers perform the following functions;

    (i) controlling the operation of said silicon chip,(ii) interacting with said OS and said graphics libraries, and(iii) forwarding said stream of geometrical data and graphics commands, or a portion thereof, over said CPU bus to each said GPU-driven pipeline core; and

    wherein, for each image of said one or more 3D objects to be generated and displayed on said display surface, the following operations are performed;

    (i) said silicon chip uses said routing unit to distribute said stream of geometrical data and graphics commands, or a portion thereof, to said GPU-driven pipeline cores,(ii) one or more of said GPU-driven pipeline cores process said stream of geometrical data and graphics commands, or a portion thereof, during the generation of each said frame, while operating in said object division mode of parallelization, so as to generate pixel data corresponding to at least a portion of said image, and(iii) said silicon chip uses said routing unit to route said pixel data output from one or more of said GPU-driven pipeline cores and compose a frame of pixel data, representative of the image of said one or more 3D objects, for display on said display surface.

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