Abstract:
The present invention is generally related to the field of image processing, and more specifically to vector units for supporting image processing. A dual vector unit implementation is described wherein two vector units are configured receive data from a common register file. The vector units may independently and simultaneously process instructions. Furthermore, the vector units may be adapted to perform scalar operations thereby integrating the vector and scalar processing. The vector units may also be configured to share resources to perform an operation, for example, a cross product operation.
Abstract:
A method and apparatus are provided for implementing a power of two estimation function in a general purpose floating-point processor. A floating point number is stored within a memory. The floating point number includes a sign bit, a plurality of exponent bits, and a mantissa having an implied bit and a plurality of fraction bits. In response to a floating-point instruction, the mantissa is partitioned into an integer part and a fraction part, based on the exponent bits. A floating-point result is provided by assigning the integer part of the floating point number as an unbiased exponent of the floating-point result, and by utilizing combinational logic hardware for converting the fraction part of the floating point number to a fraction part of the floating point result.
Abstract:
Methods for preprocessing pixel data using a Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine during a data transfer of the pixel data from a first memory (e.g., a DRAM) to a second memory (e.g., a local cache) are described. The pixel data may derive from an image capturing device (e.g., a color camera or a depth camera) in which individual pixel values are not a multiple of eight bits. In some embodiments, the DMA engine may perform a variety of image processing operations on the pixel data prior to the pixel data being written into the second memory. In one example, the DMA engine may be configured to identify and label one or more pixels as being within a particular range of pixel values and/or the DMA engine may be configured to label pixels as belonging to one or more pixel groups based on their pixel values.
Abstract:
A circuit arrangement and method couple a hardware-based pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) to an execution unit in such a manner that pseudorandom numbers generated by the PRNG may be selectively output to the execution unit for use as an operand during the execution of instructions by the execution unit. A PRNG may be coupled to an input of an operand multiplexer that outputs to an operand input of an execution unit so that operands provided by instructions supplied to the execution unit are selectively overridden with pseudorandom numbers generated by the PRNG. Furthermore, overridden operands provided by instructions supplied to the execution unit may be used as seed values for the PRNG.
Abstract:
A method, computer-readable medium, and an apparatus for implementing a floating point weighted average function. The method includes receiving an input containing 2N input values, 2N weights, and an opcode, where N is a positive integer number and each of the input values corresponds to one of the weights. Furthermore, the method also includes using existing dot product circuit function to generate 2N addends by multiplying each of the input values with the corresponding weight. In addition, the method includes generating a sum value by adding the 2N addends, where the sum value includes an exponent value, and generating the weighted average value based on the sum value by decreasing the exponent value by N. In this fashion, the same circuit area may be used to carry out both dot product and weighted average calculations, leading to greater circuit area savings and performance advantages.
Abstract:
An execution unit supports data dependent conditional write instructions that write data to a target only when a particular condition is met. In one implementation, a data dependent conditional write instruction identifies a condition as well as data to be tested against that condition. The data is tested against that condition, and the result of the test is used to selectively enable or disable a write to a target associated with the data dependent conditional write instruction. Then, a write is attempted while the write to the target is enabled or disabled such that the write will update the contents of the target only when the write is selectively enabled as a result of the test. By doing so, dependencies are typically avoided, as is use of an architected condition register that might otherwise introduce branch prediction mispredict penalties, enabling improved performance with z-buffer test and similar types of algorithms.
Abstract:
A method, program product and system for conducting a ray tracing operation where the rendering compute requirement is reduced or otherwise adjusted in response to a changing vantage point. Aspects may update or reuse an acceleration data structure between frames in response to the changing vantage point. Tree and image construction quality may be adjusted in response to rapid changes in the camera perspective. Alternatively or additionally, tree building cycles may be skipped. All or some of the tree structure may be built in intervals, e.g., after a preset number of frames. More geometric image data may be added per leaf node in the tree in response to an increase in the rate of change. The quality of the rendering algorithm may additionally be reduced. A ray tracing algorithm may decrease the depth of recursion, and generate fewer cast and secondary rays. The ray tracer may further reduce the quality of soft shadows, resolution and global illumination samples, among other quality parameters. Alternatively, tree rebuilding may be skipped entirely in response to a high camera rate of change. Associated processes may create blur between frames to simulate motion blur.
Abstract:
A circuit arrangement and method couple a hardware-based pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) to an execution unit in such a manner that pseudorandom numbers generated by the PRNG may be selectively output to the execution unit for use as an operand during the execution of instructions by the execution unit. A PRNG may be coupled to an input of an operand multiplexer that outputs to an operand input of an execution unit so that operands provided by instructions supplied to the execution unit are selectively overridden with pseudorandom numbers generated by the PRNG. Furthermore, overridden operands provided by instructions supplied to the execution unit may be used as seed values for the PRNG. In many instances, an instruction executed by an execution unit may be able to perform an arithmetic operation using both an operand specified by the instruction and a pseudorandom number generated by the PRNG during the execution of the instruction, so that the generation of the pseudorandom number and the performance of the arithmetic operation occur during a single pass of an execution unit.
Abstract:
A method, program product and system for conducting a ray tracing operation where the rendering compute requirement is reduced by varying the size of bounding volumes into which image data is divided and/or by varying a number of primitives included within nodes of an acceleration data structure that correspond to the bounding volumes.
Abstract:
A circuit arrangement and method support instruction target history based register address indexing, whereby register addresses to be used by an instruction are decoded using a target history table of previous target register addresses, and an index into the target history table supplied by an index value in the instruction. An instruction may include at least one index value that identifies a previously used register address. During execution of the instruction, the index is retrieved from the instruction, and then a register address is retrieved from the target history table using the index.