Techniques for transferring graphics data from system memory to a discrete GPU

• US 8,780,122 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2011
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Diard, Franck
• Primary Examiner(s): Perromat, Carlos
• Application Number:
  US13/103,274
• Publication Number:
  US 20110210976A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,163 Days
• US Class Current: 345/502
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

A method for transferring graphics data includes receiving graphics data in the system memory. The graphics data may be loaded into system memory by and application from a mass storage device. One or more graphics commands associated with the graphics data may also be received. The graphics commands may also be received from the application. The graphics data in system memory is compressed in response to receipt of the one or more graphics commands before the graphics data is transferred to a discrete graphics processing unit. The one or more received graphics commands are transferred to the discrete graphics processing unit. The one or more graphics commands include an operation to copy the compressed graphics data to the discrete graphics processing unit. The compressed graphics data is copied from the system memory to memory of the graphics processing. The compressed graphics data is then decompressed by the graphics processing unit. Thereafter, the discrete graphics processing unit may perform one or more graphics operations on the transferred graphics data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

loading and initializing a device driver interface and a device specific kernel mode driver for a an integrated graphics processing unit on a primary adapter;

loading and initializing a device driver interface and a device specific kernel mode driver for the discrete graphics processing unit on an unattached adapter without the device driver interface talking back to a runtime application programming interface when a particular version of an operating system will not allow the device driver interface on the unattached adapter to be loaded;

receiving graphics data in a system memory;

receiving one or more graphics commands associated with the graphics data;

compressing the graphics data in system memory in response to the one or more received graphics commands;

transferring the one or more received graphics commands to the discrete graphics processing unit, wherein the one or more received graphics commands include an operation to copy the compressed graphics data to the discrete graphics processing unit;

copying the compressed graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit; and

decompressing the compressed graphics data by the discrete graphics processing unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein receiving graphics data in the system memory comprises loading, by an application, the graphics data from a mass storage device to the system memory.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more graphics commands comprise one or more operations to copy the graphics data in the system memory to the memory of the discrete graphics processing unit.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein compressing, the graphics data comprises Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer compressing the graphics data in the system memory.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein compressing the graphics data comprises compressing each of a plurality of slices of the graphics data in the system memory.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein transferring the one or more received graphics commands to the discrete graphics processing unit comprises loading one or more command buffers with one or more identifiers and one or more arguments specifying a direct memory access blitting of the compressed graphics data from the system memory to a frame buffer of the discrete graphics processing unit.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein copying the compressed graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit comprises a direct memory access blitting of the compressed graphics data from the system memory to a frame buffer of the discrete graphics processing unit.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the compressed graphics data is blitted from the system memory across a peripheral component interface express (PCIe) communication link to the frame buffer of the discrete graphics processing unit.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein decompressing the compressed graphics data is performed in-line with copying the compressed graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

injecting an application initialization routine, when an application starts, that includes an entry point that changes a search path for a display device interface to a search path of a shim layer library, and that includes an entry point that identities the application;

loading the shim layer library, at the changed search path, that initializes the display device interface for the integrated graphics processing unit on the primary adapter and the display device interface for the discrete graphics processing unit on the unattached adapter, and that determines if the application has an affinity for execution of the graphics commands on the discrete graphics processing unit;

splitting a display command, by the shim layer library, into a copy from a frame buffer of the discrete graphics processing unit to a buffer in the system memory, a copy from the buffer in the system memory to a frame buffer of the integrated graphics processing unit, and a present from the frame buffer of the integrated graphics processing unit on a display if there is an affinity.

11. One or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform a method comprising:

loading and initializing a device driver interface and a device specific kernel mode driver for a an integrated graphics processing unit on a primary adapter; and

loading and initializing a device driver interface and a device specific kernel mode driver for the discrete graphics processing unit on an unattached adapter without the device driver interface talking back to a runtime application programming interface when a particular version of an operating system will not allow the device driver interface on the unattached adapter to be loaded;

receiving graphics data in a system memory;

receiving one or more graphics commands associated with the graphics data;

determining an amount of one or more portions of the graphics data in the system memory that have changed;

compressing the one or more portions of the graphics data in system memory, if the one or more portions of the graphics data that have changed are more than a predetermined amount;

transferring the one or more received graphics commands to the discrete graphics processing unit, wherein the one or more received graphics commands include an operation to copy the compressed graphics data to the discrete graphics processing, unit;

copying the compressed one or more portions of the graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit, if the one or more portions of the graphics data that have changed are more than the predetermined amount; and

decompressing the compressed one or more portions of the graphics data, if the one or more portions of the graphics data that have changed are more than the predetermined amount.

12. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 11, further comprising performing, by the discrete graphics processing unit, one or more graphics operations on the graphics data.

13. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 11, further comprising copying the one or more portions of the graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit, if the one or more portions of the graphics data that have changed are not more than the predetermined amount.

14. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 11, wherein one or more graphics commands comprise one or more operations to copy the graphics data in the system memory to the memory of the discrete graphics processing unit.

15. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 11, wherein compressing the one or more portions of the graphics data comprises Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer compressing, the one or more portions of the graphics data in the system memory that have changed.

16. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 15, wherein decompressing the compressed one or more portions of the graphics data comprises Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer decompressing the one or more portions of the graphics data.

17. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 11, wherein compressing the one or more portions of the graphics data comprises compressing each of a plurality of slices of the one or more portions of the graphics data in the system memory.

18. The one or more non-transitory computing device readable media having computing device executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 11, wherein copying the compressed one or more portions of the graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit comprises a direct memory access blitting of the compressed one or more portions of the graphics data from the system memory to a frame buffer of the discrete graphics processing unit.

19. A method comprising:

loading a device specific kernel mode driver of a discrete graphics processing unit tagged as a non-graphics device;

loading, and initializing a device driver interface and a device specific kernel mode driver for an integrated graphics processing unit on a primary adapter;

loading and initializing a device driver interface for the discrete graphics processing unit on a non-graphics device tagged adapter without the device driver interface talking back to a runtime application programming interface when a particular version of an operating system will not allow the device specific kernel mode driver for the discrete graphics processing unit to be loaded;

receiving graphics data in a system memory;

receiving one or more graphics commands associated with the graphics data;

compressing the graphics data in system memory in response to the one or more received graphics commands;

transferring the one or more received graphics commands to the discrete graphics processing unit, wherein the one or more received graphics commands include an operation to copy the compressed graphics data to the discrete graphics processing unit;

copying the compressed graphics data from the system memory to memory of the discrete graphics processing unit; and

decompressing the compressed graphics data by the discrete graphics processing unit.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein transferring the one or more received graphics commands to the discrete graphics processing unit comprises loading, one or more command buffers with one or more identifiers and one or more arguments specifying a direct memory access blitting of the compressed graphics data from the system memory to a frame buffer of the discrete graphics processing unit.