Thermal and power aware graphics processing

• US 9,047,835 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2012
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bennett, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Richer, Joni
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang, Yi
• Application Number:
  US13/423,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20130241942A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,170 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/21 characterised by their sensors, purposes or types
• 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 2320/041 Temperature compensation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/045 Protection against panel overheating
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/121 using a cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/02 Networking aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/022 Centralised management of display operation, e.g. in a server instead of locally
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/37 Details of the operation on graphic patterns G09G5/38 takes precedence

Abstract

Embodiments for thermal and/or power aware graphics processing are provided. In an embodiment, a thermally and/or power adaptive graphics processing environment is presented. The graphics processing environment includes various thermally and/or power adaptive elements, each of which may be thermally and/or power aware (adaptive) in the sense that it may adapt at least one aspect of its operation and/or outputs based on thermal and/or power information to effectuate a change in graphics processing in any element (including itself) of the environment. This may include changing or causing a change in at least one of a graphics element, feature, setting, or characteristic based on thermal and/or power information. In an embodiment, thermal and/or power based adaptation may include software and/or hardware adaptation of graphics processing to affect thermal and/or power performance.

Claims

1. A graphics system, comprising:

first interface circuitry configured to receive first graphics content, wherein the first graphics content includes graphics data;

processing circuitry, coupled to the first interface circuitry, configured to process the first graphics content, based on thermal information, to generate second graphics content, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to modify the graphics data to generate the second graphics content, the first graphics content having a higher thermal loading characteristic than the second graphics content, the processing circuitry further configured to process the second graphics content to generate video frame data from the second graphics content, wherein the thermal loading characteristics of the first graphics content and the second graphics content indicate respective predicted thermal outputs of the processing circuitry; and

second interface circuitry configured to deliver the video frame data.

2. The graphics system of claim 1, further comprising a display, wherein the second interface circuitry is configured to deliver the video frame data to the display.

3. The graphics system of claim 1 used with a supporting display device, wherein the second interface circuitry is configured to deliver the video frame data to the supporting display device.

4. The graphics system of claim 1, wherein the first graphics content further comprises graphics configuration commands, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to modify at least one of the graphics configuration commands to generate the second graphics content.

5. A graphics device, comprising:

interface circuitry configured to receive first graphics content and power consumption information, wherein the first graphics content includes graphics data; and

processing circuitry, coupled to the interface circuitry, configured to adaptively process the first graphics content based on the power consumption information to generate second graphics content, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to modify the graphics data to generate the second graphics content,

the processing circuitry further configured to process the second graphics content to generate an output and to deliver the output to support a visual presentation, wherein the power consumption information comprises predictive power consumption information.

6. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the power consumption information comprises thermal information.

7. The graphics device of claim 6, further comprising a device housing, wherein the thermal information originates at least in part from a location remote from the device housing.

8. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the power consumption information comprises power source information.

9. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the power consumption information comprises historical power consumption information.

10. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the output comprises a modified version of the first graphics content.

11. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the output comprises video frame data.

12. The graphics device of claim 5 used with a supporting device, wherein the interface circuitry is configured to receive the first graphics content from the supporting device.

13. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the interface circuitry is configured to receive the first graphics content from a storage.

14. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the first graphics content is generated at least in part from a graphics software application.

15. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to deliver the output to at least one of:

a graphics application programming interface, a graphics settings manager, and a graphics driver.

16. The graphics device of claim 5, wherein the first graphics content further comprises graphics configuration commands, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to modify at least one of the graphics configuration commands to generate the second graphics content.

17. A method of graphics processing in a device, the method comprising:

receiving user input indicating a desired visual experience;

establishing a first graphics processing configuration of the device based on the desired visual experience, wherein the first graphics processing configuration corresponds to a first setting of a graphics processing circuitry of the device;

processing received graphics content using the graphics processing circuitry according to the first graphics processing configuration;

evaluating power consumption information of the device, wherein the power consumption information comprises predictive power consumption information;

establishing a second graphics processing configuration based on the evaluation of the power consumption information, wherein the second graphics processing configuration corresponds to a second setting of the graphics processing circuitry of the device, and wherein the first graphics processing configuration results in a device output that is a closer match to the desired visual experience than a device output of the second graphics processing configuration; and

processing the received graphics content using the graphics processing circuitry according to the second graphics processing configuration, wherein processing the received graphics content according to the second graphics processing configuration comprises modifying the received graphics content to generate a modified graphics content and processing the modified graphics content using the graphics processing circuitry.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the power consumption information comprises thermal information.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the received graphics content comprises graphics data, and wherein modifying the received graphics content comprises modifying the graphics data to generate the modified graphics content.