Displaying compressed supertile images

• US 9,064,468 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2011
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Glen, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kimbinh T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Isanians, Raffi
• Application Number:
  US13/186,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20120162250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,435 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/06 Use of more than one graphics processor to process data before displaying to one or more screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/122 Tiling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution

Abstract

A method for the display of compressed supertile images is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for displaying an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames includes: reading the compressed supertile frames; expanding the compressed supertile frames; and combining the expanded supertile frames to generate the image frame. The expanding can include generating an expanded supertile frame corresponding to each of the compressed supertile frames by inserting blank pixels for tiles in the expanded supertile frame that are not in the corresponding compressed supertile frame. Corresponding system and computer program products are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for use in a system for displaying an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames, comprising:

creating, using a control processor, one or more compressed supertile frames from a plurality of tiles read from a system memory, wherein the tile frames correspond to an image to be generated;

processing, using a plurality of graphics processing units, the one or more compressed supertile frames, wherein each graphics processing unit processes the one or more compressed supertile frames allocated to the graphics processing unit;

reading, using a supertile frame combiner, the compressed supertile frames and expanding each of the compressed supertile frames to generate an expanded supertile frame, wherein the expanded supertile frame is generated at each graphics processing unit and the expanded supertile frame is created for each compressed supertile frame and contains blank tiles for one or more tiles for each tile not allocated to the graphics processing unit;

combining, using the supertile frame combiner, the expanded supertile frames to generate an image frame; and

displaying the generated image frame on a display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, using the control processor, a plurality of supertile frames from the plurality of tiles;

assigning, using the control processor, one or more of the supertile frames to each graphics processing unit; and

compressing, using the control processor, respective ones of the supertile frames.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the supertile frames comprises non-adjacent tiles of the image frame.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing the respective supertile frames in separate graphics processing units.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the compressing comprises:

storing, for respective ones of the supertile frames, substantially only a set of tiles assigned to the corresponding processor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanding is performed substantially simultaneously with the combining.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the combining comprises:

combining the expanded supertile frames using an add operation.

8. A system for displaying an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames of the image frame, comprising:

a control processor configured to create one or more compressed supertile frames from a plurality of tiles read from system memory, wherein the tile frames correspond to an image to be generated;

a plurality of graphics processing units coupled to the control processor, each graphics processing unit configured to process the one or more of the compressed supertile frames, wherein each graphics processing unit processes the one or more compressed supertile frames allocated to the graphics processing unit;

a system memory coupled to the control processor and plurality of graphics processing units;

a supertile frame combiner configured to read the compressed supertile frames, expand each of the compressed supertile frames to generate an expanded supertile frame, wherein the expanded supertile frame is generated at each graphics processing unit and the expanded supertile frame is created for each compressed supertile frame and contains blank tiles for one or more tiles for each tile not allocated to the graphics processing unit and combine the expanded frames to generate an image frame; and

a display configured to display the generated image frame.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

the control processor configured to;

determine a plurality of supertile frames from the plurality of tiles;

assign one or more of the supertile frames to each graphics processing unit; and

compress respective ones of the supertile frames.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the compressing comprises storing, for respective ones of the supertile frames, substantially only a set of tiles assigned to the corresponding graphics processing unit.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein each of the supertile frames comprises non-adjacent tiles of the image frame.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the expanding is performed substantially simultaneously with the combining.

13. A non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions wherein said instructions when executed are adapted to display an image frame from a plurality of compressed supertile frames with a method comprising:

creating one or more compressed supertile frames from a plurality of tiles read from a system memory, wherein the tile frames correspond to an image to be generated;

processing the one or more compressed supertile frames, wherein each graphics processing unit processes the one or more compressed supertile frames allocated to the graphics processing unit;

reading the compressed supertile frames and expanding each of the compressed supertile frames to generate an expanded supertile frame, wherein the expanded supertile frame is generated at each graphics processing unit and the expanded supertile frame is created for each compressed supertile frame and contains blank tiles for one or more tiles for each tile not allocated to the graphics processing unit;

combining the expanded supertile frames to generate an image frame; and

displaying the generated image frame on a display.

14. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 13, the method further comprising:

processing one or more of the compressed supertile frames in each of a plurality of processors.

15. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 13, the method further comprising:

determining a plurality of supertile frames from the plurality of tiles;

assigning one or more of the supertile frames to each graphics processing unit; and

compressing respective ones of the supertile frames.

16. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 13, wherein each of the supertile frames comprises non-adjacent tiles of the image frame.