Buffers for display acceleration

• US 9,881,353 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2014
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Harper, John, Dyke, Kenneth C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Poon, King
• Assistant Examiner(s): PEREN, VINCENT ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US14/459,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20150035860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,265 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/377 for mixing or overlaying two or more graphic patterns G09G5/02, G09G5/397 take precedence

Abstract

Embodiments enable a graphics processor to more efficiently process graphics and compositing processing commands. In certain embodiments, a client application submits client graphics commands to a graphics driver. The client in certain embodiments can notify a window server that client graphics commands have been submitted. In response, the window server can generate compositing processing commands and provide these commands to the graphics driver. Advantageously, a graphics processor can execute the client graphics commands while the window server generates compositing processing commands. As a result, processing resource can be used more efficiently.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing graphics for presentation on a display of a data processing system, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of graphics commands from a first application executing on a processing system, the first set of graphics commands stored in memory, the first set of graphics commands associated with the first application, the first set of graphics commands corresponding to a first image layer;

receiving, asynchronously to receiving the first set of graphics commands, a second set of graphics commands from a second application executing on the processing system, the second set of graphics commands stored in memory, the second set of graphics commands associated with the second application, the second set of graphics commands corresponding to a second image layer;

determining whether composite processing is required to combine the first and second image layers as a composite image;

generating one or more compositing graphics commands for the compositing processing to combine the first image layer and the second image layer, in response to the determining that the compositing processing is required to combine the first image layer and the second image layer, the composite image corresponding to graphics commands including the first set of graphics commands, the second set of graphics commands and the compositing graphics commands; and

processing the first set of graphics commands, the second set of graphics commands, and the compositing graphics commands in a graphics system of the data processing system to display the composite image, wherein the graphics system executes the first or the second set of graphics commands in parallel with processing of the compositing graphics commands.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the compositing graphics commands are generated via graphics API (Application Programming Interface) comprising at least one of OpenGL™

, OpenGL™

ES, or DirectX™

APIs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the composite image corresponds to one frame of image data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of graphics commands, the second set of graphics commands, and the compositing graphics commands are transmitted as a batch of graphics commands to a graphics queue in response to a notification indicating that the graphics system is ready to process additional graphics commands.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first image layer is from an application and the second image layer is one of a popup message or a volume control or a user interface status bar.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second applications directly write via a graphics API the first and second sets of graphics commands to the memory, respectively.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second applications write the respective graphics commands to memory asynchronously.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first application writes new graphics commands into a first portion of the memory, while graphics commands previously written into a second portion of the memory are processed by the graphics system in parallel.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second applications call one or more graphics routines of a graphics API to send the first and second sets of graphics commands to the graphics system, which in turn stores the received the first and second sets of graphics commands in memory.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing executable instructions which when executed cause a method for processing graphics for presentation on a display of a data processing system, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of graphics commands from a first application executing on a processing system, the first set of graphics commands stored in memory, the first set of graphics commands associated with the first application, the first set of graphics commands corresponding to a first image layer;

receiving, asynchronously to receiving the first set of graphics commands, a second set of graphics commands from a second application executing on the processing system, the second set of graphics commands stored in memory, the second set of graphics commands associated with the second application, the second set of graphics commands corresponding to a second image layer;

determining whether composite processing is required to combine the first and second image layers as a composite image;

generating one or more compositing graphics commands for the compositing processing to combine the first image layer and the second image layer, in response to the determining that the compositing processing is required to combine the first image layer and the second image layer, the composite image corresponding to graphics commands including the first set of graphics commands, the second set of graphics commands and the compositing graphics commands; and

processing the first set of graphics commands, the second set of graphics commands, and the compositing graphics commands in a graphics system of the data processing system to display the composite image, wherein the graphics system executes the first or the second set of graphics commands in parallel with processing of the compositing graphics commands.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the compositing graphics commands are generated via graphics API (Application Programming Interface) comprising at least one of OpenGL™

, OpenGL™

ES, or DirectX™

APIs.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein the composite image corresponds to one frame of image data.

13. The medium of claim 10, wherein the first set of graphics commands, the second set of graphics commands, and the compositing graphics commands are transmitted as a batch of graphics commands to a graphics queue in response to a notification indicating that the graphics system is ready to process additional graphics commands.

14. The medium of claim 10, wherein the first image layer is from an application and the second image layer is one of a popup message or a volume control or a user interface status bar.

15. The medium of claim 10, wherein the first and second applications directly write via a graphics API the first and second sets of graphics commands to the memory, respectively.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the first and second applications write the respective graphics commands to memory asynchronously.

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the first application writes new graphics commands into a first portion of the memory, while graphics commands previously written into a second portion of the memory are processed by the graphics system in parallel.

18. The medium of claim 10, wherein the first and second applications call one or more graphics routines of a graphics API to send the first and second sets of graphics commands to the graphics system, which in turn stores the received the first and second sets of graphics commands in memory.