Translation of register-combiner state into shader microcode
First Claim
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1. A method of generating shader program instructions to control a fragment shader within a programmable graphics processing pipeline, wherein the programmable graphics processing pipeline includes a GPU driver and a combiner instruction processing unit (IPU), the method comprising:
- receiving, at the GPU driver, a fixed function application programming interface (API) call to perform one or more combiner operations on pixel data;
converting, at the GPU driver, the fixed function API call into a fixed function state that represents the one or more combiner operations;
providing the fixed function state to the combiner instruction processing unit;
translating, at the combiner instruction processing unit, the fixed function state into at least one shader program instruction for performing the one or more combiner operations, wherein the at least one shader program instruction is suitable for execution by the fragment shader within the programmable graphics processing pipeline for shading one or more pixels for display; and
after translating the fixed function state into the at least one shader program instruction, providing the at least one shader program instruction to the fragment shader within the programmable graphics processing pipeline for execution.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for translating fixed function state into a shader program. Fixed function state is received and stored and when a new shader program is detected the fixed function state is translated into shader program instructions. Registers specified by the program instructions are allocated for processing in the shader program. The registers may be remapped for more efficient use of the register storage space.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of generating shader program instructions to control a fragment shader within a programmable graphics processing pipeline, wherein the programmable graphics processing pipeline includes a GPU driver and a combiner instruction processing unit (IPU), the method comprising:
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receiving, at the GPU driver, a fixed function application programming interface (API) call to perform one or more combiner operations on pixel data; converting, at the GPU driver, the fixed function API call into a fixed function state that represents the one or more combiner operations; providing the fixed function state to the combiner instruction processing unit; translating, at the combiner instruction processing unit, the fixed function state into at least one shader program instruction for performing the one or more combiner operations, wherein the at least one shader program instruction is suitable for execution by the fragment shader within the programmable graphics processing pipeline for shading one or more pixels for display; and after translating the fixed function state into the at least one shader program instruction, providing the at least one shader program instruction to the fragment shader within the programmable graphics processing pipeline for execution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus for generating shader program instructions for performing an application programming interface (API) call to perform combiner operations, comprising:
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a GPU driver stored in a memory configured to; receive and store a set of fixed function states associated with an API call to perform one or more combiner operations on pixel data, wherein the set of fixed function state represents the one or more combiner operations, and provide the fixed function states to the combiner instruction processing unit; and a combiner instruction processing unit configured to; generate the shader program instructions for performing the one or more combiner operations by translating the fixed function state into at least one shader program instruction, wherein the at least one shader program instruction is suitable for execution by a fragment shader within the programmable graphics processing pipeline for performing the combiner functions and produce one or more pixels for display, and after translating the fixed function state into the at least one shader program instruction, provide the at least one shader program instruction to the fragment shader within the programmable graphics processing pipeline for execution. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification