Memory management based on automatic full-screen detection

• US 8,368,707 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2009
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lao, Changan, Dyke, Kenneth C., Stauffer, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Welch, David T
• Application Number:
  US12/467,953
• Publication Number:
  US 20100289806A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: 345/536, 345/538, 345/539, 345/547
• US Class Current: 345/536
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers

Abstract

A window surface associated with a first application is automatically detected as an exclusive window surface for a display. In response, the system automatically transitions to a full-screen mode in which a graphics processor flushes content to the display. The full-screen mode includes flipping between a front surface buffer and a back surface buffer associated with the first application. It is subsequently detected that the window surface associated with the first application is not an exclusive window surface for the display. In response, the system automatically transitions to a windowed mode in which the graphics processor flushes content to the display. In windowed mode, the system frame buffer is flushed to the display. The transition to windowed mode includes a minimum number of buffer content copy operations between the front surface buffer, the back surface buffer and the system frame buffer.

Claims

1. A method for a computer system having a system frame buffer and multiple surface buffers allocated in video memory, the method comprising:

automatically detecting that a window surface associated with a first application is an exclusive window surface for a display;

automatically transitioning to a full-screen mode in which a graphics processor flushes content to the display including changing from flushing the system frame buffer to flipping between flushing a front surface buffer and a back surface buffer associated with the first application, the transitioning to the full-screen mode in response to detecting the exclusive window surface;

automatically detecting that the window surface associated with the first application is not an exclusive window surface for the display; and

automatically transitioning to a windowed mode in which the graphics processor flushes content to the display including changing from flipping between flushing the front and back surface buffers to flushing the system frame buffer, wherein transitioning to the windowed mode includes copying the system frame buffer to one of the front and back surface buffers depending on which of the front and back surface buffers is currently being flushed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein flushing the system frame buffer in windowed mode further comprises:

loading content to the system frame buffer from front surface buffers of multiple applications;

compositing the content, and flushing the system frame buffer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically detecting that a window surface associated with the first application is the exclusive window surface for the display comprises:

detecting that the window surface is composed of a single visible rectangle; and

detecting that the window surface size is equal to the size of the system frame buffer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically transitioning to the full-screen mode requires that a content bit-depth for the front surface buffer and the back surface buffer equal a bit-depth of content currently on display.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically transitioning to the full-screen mode further comprises:

moving a pointer of a display controller from pointing at the system frame buffer to point to the front surface buffer of the first application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically detecting that the window surface associated with the first application is not the exclusive window surface for the display further comprises:

detecting that the window surface is composed of more than one visible rectangle; and

detecting that the window surface size is less than the size of the system frame buffer.

7. A system, comprising:

a graphics processor;

a display;

a memory having a system frame buffer associated with a window server, a front surface buffer associated with a first application, and a back surface buffer associated with the first application;

a kernel driver to automatically detect that a window surface associated with a first application is an exclusive window surface for the display;

a display controller to transition from a windowed mode to a full-screen mode in which the graphics processor flushes content to the display including changing from flushing the system frame buffer to flipping between flushing the front surface buffer and the back surface buffer;

the kernel driver further to automatically detect that the window surface associated with the first application is not an exclusive window surface for the display;

the display controller further to transition from the full-screen mode to the windowed mode in which the graphics processor flushes content to the display including changing from flipping between flushing the front and back surface buffers to flushing the system frame buffer to the display, wherein the transitioning to the windowed mode includes copying the system frame buffer to one of the front and back surface buffers depending on which of the front and back surface buffers is currently being flushed.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

the window server to load content to the system frame buffer from front surface buffers of multiple applications, composite the content, and flush the system frame buffer to the display.

9. The system of claim 7, where the kernel driver further comprises:

a rectangle module to detect the number of visible rectangles in a window surface and determine whether the number of visible rectangles in a window surface is greater than one; and

window size module to detect the size of the window surface and determine whether the size of the window surface is less than the size of the system frame buffer.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the kernel driver further comprises:

a bit-depth module to compare a bit-depth of content in the front surface buffer with a bit-depth of content currently on the display.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a computer to:

automatically detect that a window surface associated with a first application is an exclusive window surface for a display;

automatically transition to a full-screen mode in which a graphics processor flushes content to the display including changing, from flushing a system buffer to flipping between flushing a front surface buffer and a back surface buffer associated with the first application, the transitioning to the full-screen mode in response to detecting the exclusive window surface;

automatically detect that the window surface associated with the first application is not an exclusive window surface for the display; and

automatically transition to a windowed mode in which the graphics processor flushes content to the display including changing from flipping between flushing the front and back surface buffers to flushing the system frame buffer, wherein transitioning to the windowed mode includes copying the system frame buffer to one of the front and back surface buffers depending on which of the front and back surface buffers is currently being flushed.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the flushing comprise further instructions that cause the computer to:

load content to the system frame buffer from front surface buffers of multiple applications;

composite the content; and

flush the system frame buffer.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the automatic detecting that a window surface associated with the first application is the exclusive window surface for the display comprise further instructions that cause the computer to:

detect that the window surface is composed of a single visible rectangle; and

detect that the window surface size is equal to the size of the system frame buffer.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein automatically transitioning to the full-screen mode requires that a content bit-depth for the front surface buffer and the back surface buffer equal a bit-depth of content currently on display.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the automatic transitioning to the full-screen mode comprise further instructions that cause the computer to:

move a pointer of a display controller from pointing at the system frame buffer to point to the front surface buffer of the first application.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the automatically detecting that the window surface associated with the first application is not the exclusive window surface for the display comprise further instructions that cause the computer to:

detect that the window surface is composed of more than one visible rectangle; and

detect that the window surface size is less than the size of the system frame buffer.