Pixel reordering for improved texture mapping

• US 5,852,451 A
• Filed: 01/09/1997
• Issued: 12/22/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: S3 Graphics Co., Ltd. (HTC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: S3 Inc. (SONICblue Incorporated)
• Inventors: Cox, Michael B., Lahewala, Dinyar B., Kuo, Dong-Ying
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matthew M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chauhan, U.
• Application Number:
  US08/780,787
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: 345/425, 345/428-430, 345/113, 345/507, 345/186, 345/510, 345/509, 345/516, 345/520, 345/521, 711/5, 711/104, 711/105, 711/168, 711/169, 711/207, 711/209, 711/113, 711/158-160, 711/133-136, 395/823, 395/824, 395/872-874
• US Class Current: 345/570
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/10 Geometric effects

Abstract

A system and method for reordering memory references for pixels to improved bandwidth and performance in texture mapping systems and other graphics systems by improving memory locality in conventional page-mode memory systems. Pixel memory references are received from a client graphics engine and placed in a pixel priority heap. The pixel priority heap reorders the pixel memory references so that references requiring a currently open page are, in general, processed before references that require page breaks. Reordered pixel memory references are transmitted to a memory controller for accessing memory.

Claims

1. A system for reordering memory references for pixels to improve memory locality in a page-mode memory architecture, comprising:

an available module for receiving pixel memory references from a client graphics engine; and

a pixel priority heap coupled to the available module for receiving pixel memory references from the available module, for reordering pixel memory references to improve memory locality, and for transmitting reordered pixel memory references to a memory controller;

wherein;

the pixel priority heap comprises a plurality of slots for storage of pixel memory references, each slot having a status selectable from an available status indicating that no reference is stored in the slot and an unavailable status indicating that a reference is stored in the slot; and

the available module further stores indices representing available slots in the pixel priority heap.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel memory references comprise addresses into a texture memory space.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel memory references comprise addresses into a frame buffer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel priority heap reorders pixel memory references responsive to searching for memory references on open pages and banks.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein, responsive to a mode selection signal, the pixel priority heap selectively transmits memory references in the order received.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a memory controller coupled to the pixel priority heap for receiving transmitted reordered pixel memory references and for accessing memory in response to the reordered pixel memory references of the pixel priority heap.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel priority heap further comprises:

a heap module containing the plurality of slots of the pixel priority heap the heap module for storing pixel memory references and tags describing storage locations of the pixel memory references;

a control module coupled to the heap module for tracking open memory pages; and

a modified priority encoder coupled to the heap module and to the control module, for selecting a pixel memory reference to be transmitted to the memory controller.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a pixels module coupled to the modified priority encoder and to the memory controller for pipelining pixel memory references to the memory controller.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the pixel priority heap selectively precharges a memory page on an alternate bank.

10. A system for reordering memory references for pixels to improve memory locality in a page-mode memory architecture, comprising:

a heap module comprising a plurality of slots, each slot for storing a pixel memory reference and tags describing a storage location of the pixel memory reference, each slot further having a status selectable from an available status indicating that no reference is stored in the slot and an unavailable status indicating that a reference is stored in the slot;

an available module coupled to the heap module for receiving pixel memory references from a client graphics engine, for storing indices representing available slots in the pixel priority heap and for transmitting pixel memory references to the heap module;

a control module coupled to the heap module for tracking open memory pages;

a modified priority encoder coupled to the heap module and to the control module, for selecting a pixel memory reference to be transmitted responsive to searching for memory references on open pages and banks to improve memory locality;

a pixels module coupled to the modified priority encoder for pipelining pixel memory references; and

a memory controller coupled to the pixels module for receiving pipelined reordered pixel memory references from the pixels module and for accessing memory in response to the pixel memory references.

11. A method of reordering memory references for pixels to improve memory locality in a page-mode memory architecture, comprising:

a) writing a pixel memory reference into an available slot of a pixel priority heap, the pixel priority heap comprising a plurality of slots for storage of pixel memory references, each slot having a status selectable from an available status indicating that no reference is stored in the slot and an unavailable status indicating that a reference is stored in the slot; and

b) concurrently with a);

b.1) selecting an unavailable slot of the pixel priority heap containing a pixel memory reference; and

b.2) transmitting the pixel memory reference contained in the selected unavailable slot to a memory controller.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein b) comprises:

b.1.1) determining whether any unavailable slots of the pixel priority heap contain pixel memory references matching an open page and bank of an immediately previously transmitted pixel memory reference;

b.1.2) responsive to b.1.1) indicating that a matching pixel memory reference exists, transmitting the pixel memory reference; and

b.1.3) responsive to b.1.1) indicating that a matching pixel memory reference does not exist;

b.1.4) determining whether any unavailable slots of the pixel priority heap contain pixel memory references matching any open page;

b.1.5) responsive to b.1.4) indicating that a matching pixel memory reference exists, transmitting the pixel memory reference; and

b.1.6) responsive to b.1.4) indicating that a matching pixel memory reference does not exist and responsive to the existence of any valid pixel memory reference;

b.1.7) issuing a page break; and

b.1.8) selecting and transmitting a valid pixel memory reference.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

c) selectively precharging a memory page on an alternate bank.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein c) comprises:

c.1) determining if any valid pixel memory references exist; and

c.2) responsive to c.1) indicating that at least one valid pixel memory reference exists;

c.3) selecting a valid pixel memory reference having an associated memory page;

c.4) responsive to the selected reference being associated with a currently-used bank of memory, returning to c.1);

c.5) responsive to the selected reference being associated with a bank having a usable open page, returning to c.1); and

c.6) responsive to the selected reference not being associated with a currently-used bank of memory and not being associated with a bank having a usable open page, precharging the memory page associated with the selected reference.