Multi-version shaders

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11243752-B2
Application number	US-201916509165-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 11, 2019
Priority date	Jul 11, 2019
Publication date	Feb 8, 2022
Grant date	Feb 8, 2022

Abstract

Described herein are techniques for generating a stitched shader program. The techniques include identifying a set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program, wherein the set includes at least one multiversion shader program that includes a first version of instructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the first version of instructions uses a first number of resources that is different than a second number of resources used by the second version of instructions. The techniques also include combining the set of shader programs to form the stitched shader program. The techniques further include determining a number of resources for the stitched shader program. The techniques also include based on the determined number of resources, modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program to, when executed, execute either the first version of instructions, or the second version of instructions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for generating a stitched shader program, the method comprising:
identifying a set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program, wherein the set of shader programs includes at least one multiversion shader program that includes a first version of instructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the first version of instructions uses a first number of resources that is different than a second number of resources used by the second version of instructions, and wherein the set of shader programs also includes a second shader program different from the multiversion shader program;
combining the set of shader programs to form the stitched shader program, wherein the stitched shader program includes instructions corresponding to the at least one multiversion shader program and instructions corresponding to the second shader program;
determining a number of resources for the stitched shader program based on resource usage of the second shader program; and
based on the determined number of resources, modifying the instructions within the stitched shader program, the instructions being from the at least one multiversion shader program, to execute either the first version of instructions or the second version of instructions, when the at least one multiversion shader is executed.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the number of resources for the stitched shader program comprises:
identifying, as the number of resources, a lowest number of resources that all shader programs of the set of shader programs are capable of executing with.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the number of resources for the stitched shader program comprises:
selecting the number of resources based on performance characteristics of the set of shader programs.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program comprises:
modifying version selection instruction placeholders.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program comprises:
modifying glue instruction placeholders.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
compiling a first shader program to generate the at least one multiversion shader program.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
analyzing resource utilization of initial compiled shaders for shader programs specified by an application to determine a threshold; and
in response to determining that an initial compiled shader corresponding to the at least one multiversion shader program utilizes a number of resources above the threshold, generating the at least one multiversion shader program.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program is performed at runtime based on assets specified to be included in a scene for an application.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first version of instructions and the second version of instructions perform the same operations on the same input to generate the same output but utilize a different number of resources.

10. A computing device configured to generate a stitched shader program, the computing device comprising:
a memory; and
a processor configured to execute a linker, the linker configured to:
identify a set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program, wherein the set of shader programs includes at least one multiversion shader program that includes a first version of instructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the first version of instructions uses a first number of resources that is different than a second number of resources used by the second version of instructions, and wherein the set of shader programs also includes a second shader program different from the multiversion shader program;
combine the set of shader programs to form the stitched shader program, wherein the stitched shader program includes instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program and instructions corresponding to the second shader program;
determine a number of resources for the stitched shader program based on resource usage of the second shader program; and
based on the determined number of resources, modify the instructions corresponding to the at least one multiversion shader program to execute either the first version of instructions, or the second version of instructions, when the at least one multiversion shader is executed.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein determining the number of resources for the stitched shader program comprises:
identifying, as the number of resources, a lowest number of resources that all shader programs of the set of shader programs are capable of executing with.

12. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein determining the number of resources for the stitched shader program comprises:
selecting the number of resources based on performance characteristics of the set of shader programs.

13. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program comprises:
modifying version selection instruction placeholders.

14. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program comprises:
modifying glue instruction placeholders.

15. The computing device of claim 10 , further comprising a compiler configured to:
compile a first shader program to generate the at least one multiversion shader program.

16. The computing device of claim 15 , wherein the compiler is further configured to:
analyze resource utilization of initial compiled shaders for shader programs specified by an application to determine a threshold; and
in response to determining that an initial compiled shader corresponding to the at least one multiversion shader program utilizes a number of resources above the threshold, generate the at least one multiversion shader program.

17. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the identifying the set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program is performed at runtime based on assets specified to be included in a scene for an application.

18. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein:
the first version of instructions and the second version of instructions perform the same operations on the same input to generate the same output but utilize a different number of resources.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to generate a stitched shader program, by:
identifying a set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program, wherein the set of shader programs includes at least one multiversion shader program that includes a first version of instructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the first version of instructions uses a first number of resources that is different than a second number of resources used by the second version of instructions, and wherein the set of shader programs also includes a second shader program different from the multiversion shader program;
combining the set of shader programs to form the stitched shader program, wherein the stitched shader program includes instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program and instructions corresponding to the second shader program;
determining a number of resources for the stitched shader program based on res

Assignees

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc

Inventors

• Udayakumaran Sumesh

Classifications

• G06F8/45

  Exploiting coarse grain parallelism in compilation, i.e. parallelism between groups of instructions · CPC title

• G06F8/71

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F8/441

  Register allocation; Assignment of physical memory space to logical memory space · CPC title

• G06F8/49 Primary

  Partial evaluation · CPC title

• G06T15/06

  Ray-tracing · CPC title