MULTI-CONTEXT GRAPHICS PROCESSING

• US 20090225089A1
• Filed: 03/03/2009
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Swift, Michael James Elliott, SCHREYER, RICHARD
• Granted Patent: US 8,289,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/506
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures

Abstract

A method of managing multiple contexts for a single mode display includes receiving a plurality of tasks from one or more applications and determining respective contexts for each task, each context having a range of memory addresses. The method also includes selecting one context for output to the single mode display and loading the selected context into a graphics processor for the display.

Claims

1. A method of multi-stage pipeline graphics processing, comprising:

receiving a plurality of graphics processing tasks;

determining respective contexts for each task, each

performing, by a computer, a first graphics processing operation for each of said contexts using a shared portion of a graphics memory;

performing a second graphics processing operation on results of said performing a first graphics processing operation, wherein said performing a second graphics processing operation occurs using a different portion of said graphics memory for each context.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first graphics processing operation comprises a tiling operation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said second graphics processing operation comprises a rendering operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared portion is determined using a first segment of a page table associated with each context.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the different portions are determined using a second segment of a page table associated with each context.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each context is associated with a page table that has a first segment associated with the first graphics processing operation, and a second segment associated with the second graphics processing operation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing a first graphics operation is configured to be performed using less memory resources than said performing a second graphics operation.

8. A machine readable storage medium storing executable instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations for multi-stage pipeline graphics processing, the operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of graphics processing tasks;

determining respective contexts for each task, each

performing a first graphics processing operation for each of said contexts using a shared portion of a graphics memory;

performing a second graphics processing operation on results of said performing a first graphics processing operation, wherein said performing a second graphics processing operation occurs using a different portion of said graphics memory for each context.

9. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said first graphics processing operation comprises a tiling operation.

10. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said second graphics processing operation comprises a rendering operation.

11. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the shared portion is determined using a first segment of a page table associated with each context.

12. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the different portions are determined using a second segment of a page table associated with each context.

13. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein each context is associated with a page table that has a first segment associated with the first graphics processing operation, and a second segment associated with the second graphics processing operation.

14. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said performing a first graphics operation is configured to be performed using less memory resources than said performing a second graphics operation.

15. A data processing system comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of graphics processing tasks;

means for determining respective contexts for each task, each

means for performing a first graphics processing operation for each of said contexts using a shared portion of a graphics memory;

means for performing a second graphics processing operation on results of said performing a first graphics processing operation, wherein said performing a second graphics processing operation occurs using a different portion of said graphics memory for each context.

16. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein said first graphics processing operation comprises a tiling operation.

17. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein said second graphics processing operation comprises a rendering operation.

18. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the shared portion is determined using a first segment of a page table associated with each context.

19. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the different portions are determined using a second segment of a page table associated with each context.

20. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein each context is associated with a page table that has a first segment associated with the first graphics processing operation, and a second segment associated with the second graphics processing operation.

21. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein said performing a first graphics operation is configured to be performed using less memory resources than said performing a second graphics operation.