Using a Geometry Shader for Variable Input and Output Algorithms

• US 20170186224A1
• Filed: 01/03/2017
• Published: 06/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: DIARD, Franck
• Granted Patent: US 9,928,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/80 Shading
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/00 Three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/005 Tree description, e.g. octree, quadtree
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/28 involving image processing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/21 Collision detection, intersection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 Edge detection

Abstract

A system and method uses the capabilities of a geometry shader unit within the multi-threaded graphics processor to implement algorithms with variable input and output.

Claims

1. A method for using a geometry shader unit to process input data and produce a histogram, comprising:

receiving the image data for an input image;

executing a geometry shader program using the geometry shader unit to sort the image data into multiple bins that each represent a different image data value; and

storing the multiple bins in an output buffer to produce the histogram.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a first value in a first bin of the multiple bins;

summing a second value with the first value to produce a sum using a blend function;

and storing the sum in the first bin.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising dividing the input image into multiple regions and allocating a different execution thread to each one of the multiple regions in order to execute the geometry shader program in parallel.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing a luminance value for each pixel of the input image to produce the image data.